Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church has origins in the 14th century or earlier, with significant rebuilding in the 18th century and restoration work undertaken between 1879 and 1896 by F R Kempson of Hereford. The building is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features machine-tiled roofs with stone ridge tiles to the nave, while the remaining sections have decorative ridge tiles and parapets at gable ends with cross and gabled finials.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with a north porch and north transept, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel and vestry. The west tower is probably 18th century and rises in three stages with strings. The lower stage contains a blocked 19th-century doorway on the north side and a large 19th-century lancet with a hoodmould and returns, where the archway interrupts the string above. The second stage has a small 18th-century lancet to the south and west sides, and a cusped 19th-century lancet on the north side. The belfry stage features pointed louvred bell-chamber openings, partly obscured by clockfaces to the north and west, with a rebuilt plain parapet above. A lean-to addition adjoins the lower stage of the south elevation.

The nave contains no medieval features other than a cusped lancet at the eastern end of the south wall which is partly 14th century. It has a chamfered plinth, eaves cornice, and a sill string beneath the windows. Two-light windows with pointed heads and hoodmoulds with foliated stops appear in the north elevation (two examples) and south elevation (four examples).

The north porch is 19th century with a steeply pitched gabled roof and clasping buttresses. It features a tall pointed archway of two orders with roll mouldings and a hoodmould which returns as a string course in the side elevations. Above the archway is a string course beneath a recessed circular panel with a moulded border containing a quatrefoil relief. The side elevations contain pairs of cusped lancets beneath square-headed openings, and within the porch the north doorway has a pointed archway of a single order with a hoodmould and foliated stops.

The north transept is gabled with ashlar bands at eaves level and within the gable forming impost bands to the window openings. Two large cusped lancets with hoodmoulds and foliated stops appear at the gable end, and within the gable is a rose window also with a hoodmould. The west side has a two-light window with a hoodmould and steps leading down to a basement door. The east side contains a lean-to porch with a chamfered pointed archway, and a trefoil-shaped opening within. A similar archway appears inside, and above in the east angle of the transept roof stands a tall stone chimney.

The chancel was rebuilt in 1896 and has an ashlar band at sill level. The east window is of three lights with a hoodmould and returns. The south elevation has a pair of cusped lancets beneath a square head in the eastern bay, while the western bay projects slightly and has a two-light window with hoodmould and returns. The north chapel has a flat roof behind a parapet to its western bay, and the eastern bay has a slightly projecting north gable. A pair of cusped lancets with a hoodmould appears at the east end and in the north side, with a round-headed window in the north gable end.

The interior features a 19th-century pointed chancel arch of two orders, with the inner order supported on colonettes above moulded corbels and a hoodmould with foliated stops. A two-bay arcade to the chapel is similarly detailed with a central circular column. The transept archway follows the same design. The tower arch is of two orders with the inner order on moulded corbels, a hoodmould with carved stops, and a string at impost level. The nave roof has an arch-braced collar and tie-beam truss with two tiers of cusped wind-braces. A 19th-century barrel roof occupies the chancel. The church contains a 19th-century cusped pointed arched piscina.

The stone font is probably late 13th century, with an octagonal bowl featuring cusped arcading, foliated spandrels, and relief carvings of Christ, St Peter, St Paul and others. The stem is panelled and moulded, and it has a late 17th-century cover. The pulpit is 19th century with traciered, arcaded, blind panelling. A parish chest has pairs of half-balusters at the angles and is probably 18th century.

Among the memorials, the north gable of the chapel contains an 18th-century memorial to the Coningsby family ascribed to Roubiliac. It features two large figures of the Earl, his wife and son (who died in 1708, though the monument was completed in 1760), seated before two pairs of Corinthian pilasters supporting an open segmental pediment with coat of arms and a baldacchino draped relief background. Also in the chapel is an incised tomb slab to Humfry Conyngsbye, died 1508, his wife, their three sons and four daughters with a marginal inscription. The nave contains an oval memorial to Joshua Meats, died 1816, and a mid-18th-century memorial to the Tayler family. The tower holds a memorial to Francis Evans, died 1732, a late 18th-century memorial to the Green family, and an ornate mid-19th-century memorial to Sophia Philips, died 1837.

A south window of the tower preserves a 13th or 14th-century foliated quarry in its glazing.