Church Of St Wilfrid

Church of St Wilfrid

This parish church dates from the early 15th century, with the south aisle and porch added in the early 16th century. It was substantially restored in 1864 and again in the 20th century.

The building is constructed of ashlar with slate roofs and features embattled parapets on all elevations except the porch. A single ridge cross crowns the roof. The church comprises a tower with octagonal spire, nave, south aisle and chapel, south porch, and chancel, all set on a plinth with a moulded string course running above.

The tower rises in two stages and is buttressed. A string course marks the junction between the stages. The west window has three cusped arched lights beneath a moulded surround with hoodmould and label stops. The belfry contains four arched two-light openings. The tower parapet has chamfered angles with single small diagonal buttresses rising to the height of the merlons, each supporting a crocketed pinnacle. The octagonal spire is topped with a weather vane. A 20th-century clock face is set into the south belfry opening, and metal crosses are fixed beneath the string courses to the north and south.

The north wall is supported by buttresses and contains three restored windows, each with three cusped arched lights under a flat head with hoodmould and label stops. A low ashlar 20th-century lean-to adjoins the tower and north wall, with a flue rising to the parapet.

The east wall is diagonally buttressed, and the parapet angles have bases for crocketed pinnacles, now fallen and lying in the churchyard. An arched four-light chancel window of 19th-century date displays panel tracery, cusping, hoodmould and label stops.

The south front is buttressed and features three windows, each with three arched lights under a flat head with hoodmould extending to a guttering band. An arched doorway with moulded surround and hoodmould is positioned between the two easternmost windows. The east window of the south aisle has three arched lights under a flat head with hoodmould.

The south porch has an embattled parapet and a double-chamfered arched entrance beneath a triangular hoodmould. The interior of the porch is barrel-vaulted, with the stone roof supported on two transverse arches that spring from corbels. The inner doorway is arched with worn moulding and a 20th-century wooden door. At the west end of the south aisle is a single window with three arched cusped lights under a flat head with hoodmould.

The interior contains a three-bay nave arcade with octagonal piers and responds, moulded capitals, and double-chamfered arches. The double-chamfered tower arch is supported on single capitals of 19th-century foliate decoration on either side. The inner arch of the double-chamfered chancel arch is supported on single half-columns with 19th-century foliate decorated capitals. The roof is supported by 19th-century corbels.

Furnishings include two 16th-century oak benches with carved ends and back in the aisle, and a similarly carved bench in the chapel. A 17th-century decoratively carved chair is also present. The pulpit, lectern and font are 19th-century additions. Above the south door hangs an ashlar memorial plaque dated 1760.

Scrooby was the site of a Separatist Puritan group from 1606 to 1608, which fled to Holland in 1608 and subsequently sailed to America in the Mayflower in 1620. William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers and a ruling elder, worshipped in Scrooby Church.