Church Of St. Stephen

The Church of St. Stephen is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the early 13th century, the late 13th century, the 14th century, the 15th century, and the 19th century. It is constructed of ashlar and coursed limestone rubble with lead roofs. The church comprises a western tower, a nave with a clerestory, aisles, a chancel, a south porch, and a vestry.

The two-stage early 13th-century tower has clasping angle buttresses, a figured corbel table, and a lead roof topped with a weather vane. A pair of lancet windows with mid wall shafts and round arches are within the belfry stage. The west wall features two lancets. The north aisle contains three 15th-century, three-light windows with panel traceried heads. The nave has pointed arches and three contemporary two-light clerestory windows. A 19th-century vestry, gabled with a two-light window, is located at the east end of the aisle.

The 12th-century chancel has a single round-headed light and a fragment of corbel table. A 19th-century three-light east window is present. The south side of the chancel exhibits a round-headed doorway and a two-light window. The east wall of the south aisle features a 14th-century three-light window with cusped heads, and the south wall of the aisle contains two and three-light 15th-century windows. The clerestory mirrors that on the north side.

A gabled, late 13th-century south porch has a pointed, double-chamfered outer arch with foliated capitals, octagonal reveals, a human head label stop, a contemporary openwork cross to the coped gable, and an ashlar roof with side benches. The inner door is double-chamfered with a moulded hood. Behind a 19th-century pierced wooden screen is the original 14th-century planked door, complete with a contemporary iron closing ring with a decorative plate depicting St. Stephen with lizards whispering in his ears.

Inside, the church features 15th-century, three-bay nave arcades with facetted shafts, bell moulded bases, engaged angle shafts with embattled octagonal capitals, and double-chamfered arches. The early 13th-century tower arch has facetted reveals, moulded imposts, a facet, a chamfer, and square orders. A remarkable, 19th-century tierceron vault with an ogee wooden roof, moulded ribs springing from wall shafts with 19th-century capitals is also noteworthy. The south aisle contains a 13th-century chamfered and painted piscina. The chancel arch and hood are moulded, 15th-century. A double-chamfered 14th-century archway with engaged shaft and foliate capitals is in the chancel’s north wall, alongside a triangular-headed aumbry. A 19th-century tiled reredos and Baroque altar rails are also present.

Most fittings are 19th-century, with the exception of the plain octagonal font, which was recut. Monuments include a 13th-century quatrefoil with dogtoothing in the vestry wall, a 14th-century effigy of a knight with chain mail and a surcoat in the sanctuary, and an unusual early 14th-century double effigy of a knight and lady under a coverlet in the south aisle. A marble wall plaque to Thomas Hatcher, d.1714, is in the form of a fluted Doric aedicule with a cartouche of arms, urns, and cherub corbels, also located in the vestry. A 15th-century cope, re-used as an altar frontal, depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and double-headed eagles, is on the north wall of the chancel.