Church Of St Deinst

The Church of St Deinst is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with significant alterations in the 15th century and a north aisle added in 1841. It is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave, a chancel, and a 15th-century south porch, with a north aisle of 1841. The west tower has three stages, a moulded plinth and parapet above roll mouldings, stepped diagonal buttresses, and a recessed octagonal spire. A south stair turret rises as semi-octagonal above a string course. The west face features a traceried window with two cusped ogee lights and a hoodmould, and loop vents and two-light windows to the bell chamber. The stair turret is lit by loops.

The four-bay nave has a later gabled dormer window featuring a two trefoiled ogee-headed light and quatrefoil with a hoodmould, along with a two-light square-headed window to the west. A large, heavily restored late 14th-century curvilinear traceried window of two cusped lights is located to the east of the gabled stone porch. The porch doorway has two orders, chamfered jambs, and a quatrefoil panel in the gable. The two-bay chancel has a square-headed two-light window to the west and further square-headed windows with two trefoiled ogee-headed lights flanking a restored doorway. A buttress to the chancel arch incorporates earlier masonry with traces of a Norman interlace pattern.

Inside, the nave has a 19th-century roof, while the chancel retains a 14th-century scissor-braced roof. The chancel arcade is likely from the 16th century, consisting of a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders springing from moulded imposts, flanked by heavily restored smaller arches of one chamfered order. The north arcade and aisle date to 1841. The church contains a 14th-century octagonal font with quatrefoils enclosing rosettes on each facet, alternating with lower facets. A wooden pulpit from around 1680 has tall blank arches and a fluted frieze. 17th-century communion rails with turned balusters and moulded rails have been reused as a screen. Other notable features include a cusped sepulchral recess in the south-east wall of the nave, a memorial to the Chrisholm Child, a 18th-century marble wall tablet to Jane Gwillam, a Scudamore memorial, an early 18th-century monument by Fowler of Gloucester featuring scrolled drapery and cherubs, and a late 17th or early 18th-century Gwillym memorial with a decorative marble tablet and coats of arms.