Church Of St Dubricius

Parish church built between the 13th and 15th centuries and restored in 1884–85 by W E Martin. Constructed of sandstone rubble with sandstone ashlar and dressings, featuring Welsh slate roofs with tiled ridge and a sandstone spire.

The building comprises a west tower, three-bay nave, two-bay chancel, and south porch. The tower dates to the 14th century and has a battered plinth with a fillet-moulded string above. It rises through three stages divided by strings, with a plain parapet and a recessed octagonal spire topped by a moulded finial and large weathercock. The lowest stages contain central loops; the bell-chamber has one trefoiled and chamfered opening on each side. Pig-like and mouse-like grotesque waterspouts project from the centre of the string beneath the parapet on the west and south sides respectively. A gabled ogee-headed opening opens onto the parapet from the south base of the spire. A memorial on the north wall commemorates six men of the parish killed in the 1914–18 War, inscribed "THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH".

The nave features a small lancet on the right-hand side of the north wall, and two pairs of 19th-century trefoiled lancets—one centrally placed and one to the left. The south wall contains another pair of 19th-century trefoiled lancets to the right, and to the centre, beside the porch, a restored 14th-century square-headed window of three lights each with an ogeed and trefoiled head and small spandrel lights.

The chancel has one cinquefoiled and trefoiled two-light 19th-century window under a square head with quatrefoil tracery on both north and south walls. The restored east window has a two-centred head with three ogeed and trefoiled lights. A blocked chamfered 14th-century priest's doorway with a two-centred head is positioned at the west end of the south wall.

The south porch is early 15th-century, with a parapet, moulded plinth, and strings. Two diagonal buttresses with off-sets and trefoiled panels flank the front. A deeply moulded two-centred arch within a square head features spandrels with shields set in quatrefoils and mouchettes. Above is the remains of a black-letter inscription noted by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. A central niche with a two-centred head interrupts the coping of the parapet. Each side wall contains a pair of trefoiled openings under a square head with a label above; slightly to the south is a plain tapered waterspout projecting from the string beneath the parapet. The interior has stone side benches and a square diagonal rib vault springing from part-circular moulded corbels to a restored rosette at the apex. The south doorway is 15th-century with moulded jambs and a two-centred head. A rustic cast iron shoe-scraper, probably mid-19th-century, stands to its east.

The interior features wagon roofs to the nave and chancel. The nave roof, perhaps 14th-century, incorporates scissor braces above collars; the chancel roof is 19th-century. The chancel is divided from the nave by a 19th-century screen above which is plank and muntin panelling probably dating to the 16th or 17th century, with two rows of muntins with straight-cut chamfer stops. A 19th-century recess in the north wall has two trefoiled openings separated by a column. A 19th-century octofoil drain sits in the cill of the south window. A late 19th-century marble reredos is present.

A floor slab in the south wall commemorates Sir John Scudamore Bart and Kt of the Honourable Order of the Bath, died 1684, with achievement set in a laurel wreath and palmettes to the corners. A brass plaque with intaglio enamelled lettering in red and black honours Helen Jane Essyllt Jenkins, wife of the Rector, died Constantinople 1903, and is marked as the work of Newby of Cardiff. A pair of altar baluster candlesticks in brass bear the inscription: "Presented to Ballingham Church by Mrs Fisher, December 1918".

The nave contains a low chamfered three-centred doorway into the tower. The font, perhaps 13th-century, has a chamfered circular base, cylindrical stem, and octagonal bowl curved on the undersides. An early 17th-century pulpit is part octagonal, with paired arch-motifs and guilloche ornament to each of three sides. The upper panels of the sides have arabesques; the lower panels are plain. The north panel features a crowned pilaster figure, probably 19th-century, attached to the end. A late 19th-century brass book rest with quatrefoil decoration and a pair of hinged sconces sits atop the pulpit.

Above the doorway to the tower stands a black and white marble pedimented wall monument to William Scudamore, died 1649, in an austere design with achievement at the top, conches at the bottom, and Ionic side columns presenting volute faces of their capitals oddly to subsidiary north and south sides. On the west wall is a memorial to the benefaction of £200 by James Lord Viscount Scudamore, made in 1716 through the impropriation of tithes. To the east of the south door, a sandstone plaque commemorates John Nourse, died 1735, with a blond painted head in the centre of a swagged top.

On the north wall, a bronze memorial to W R Jenkins, died 1909, reads "RECTOR OF THIS PARISH 1883–1902 / IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF / HIS GENEROUS GIFT OF £200 TOWARDS / THE RESTORATION OF THIS CHURCH IN 1885". Another memorial on the north wall honours Arthur Henry Tickle, died 1938. A red marble frame with gilt tesserae borders an inscription concluding "TO LIVE IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WE LOVE IS NOT TO DIE". A late 19th-century harmonium by W Bell & Co of Guelph, Canada, constructed in mahogany with an elaborate music stand, bears a cast iron plaque with raised lettering: "PAT'D FEB 24, 1887 / MOUSE PROOF PEDAL".