Church Of St Matthew

Church of St. Matthew

Parish church of the 13th and 15th centuries, restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. The church is built of dressed coursed rubble and ashlar with lead roofs and slate to the chancel. It comprises a tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, and chancel, with coped gables and a single ridge cross to the east chancel. A single stack rises from the east end of the north clerestory.

The diagonally buttressed tower stands on a plinth with a heavy moulded band above and string courses at each juncture of its three stages. It has a 20th-century parapet, single gargoyles on each side, and an arched west window with three cusped lights. The belfry contains four 15th-century arched openings of two lights with panel tracery, two rectangular stair lights, and four round tie plates. A single clock face occupies the east face. A 20th-century ashlar and slate lean-to abuts the north wall.

The north aisle is diagonally buttressed at the west with a damaged plinth band and string course that drops under the windows. It features a single three-light 15th-century window with cusping under a flat arch with hood mould and decorative label stops, two similar two-light windows to the left, and a restored arched two-light window with tracery and cusping to the east. The 15th-century clerestory has three windows each with two cusped lights under flat arches, flanked by ashlar strips that are remnants of hood moulds. A moulded band runs at the junction of the aisle roof and clerestory.

The north chancel wall, showing evidence of extension, has a plinth and string course on its westernmost part and a single 15th-century window with two cusped lights under a flat arch with hood mould. The east end sits on a plinth and has a single arched three-light window with flowing tracery and a string course beneath.

The south chancel has a central chamfered arched doorway with hood mould, flanked by two 15th-century two-light windows with cusping, flat arches, hood moulds, and label stops (the right window set higher). A string course runs beneath, interrupted by the doorway.

The diagonally buttressed south aisle has a 15th-century three-light window with cusped reticulated tracery in its east wall, and a 15th-century arched two-light window with tracery, cusping, hood mould, and label stops in the south wall. A further two-light 15th-century window with cusping, flat arch, hood mould, and label stops stands to the left. The south porch, topped with a single ridge cross, has a moulded arched entrance supported on two slim engaged columns with moulded capitals, hood mould, and label stops. Both east and west walls have single small arched cusped lights. The inner porch doorway also has a hood mould and label stops.

The west south aisle wall displays a single 15th-century three-light window with tracery and cusping under a flat arch with hood mould.

The interior contains a four-bay 13th-century nave with arcades. The north arcade alternates between two octagonal columns and a single round column with semi-circular respond, all with moulded capitals supporting double chamfered arches with hood mould to the nave side. The south arcade has low octagonal piers and moulded capitals supporting double chamfered arches with hood mould to the nave side. Two engaged octagonal columns with moulded capitals support the double chamfered chancel arch. The inner arch of the double chamfered tower arch is supported on corbels. The east end of the south nave wall has an arched opening. Three corbels in the nave would have supported a former roof. A 15th-century arched and cusped piscina is set in the south chancel wall.

Monuments include a brass plaque to Roberti Curtys (1680) with inscription set into a broad ashlar frame decorated with stylised trees, flora, and a crest, and a monument to Philip Hall (1780) with an urn on the crown and a crest on the decorative apron. The north chancel contains a stained glass window by Mayer & Co., Munich and London, dating to 1855, depicting Hope and Faith. A late 19th-century mosaic reredos is positioned at the east end. The furniture is mostly 19th century, apart from a 16th-century oak chest with iron fittings and a 17th-century altar table with turned legs.