Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church, probably built on a medieval site and dating to 1856 in Early Decorated style. The building is constructed of squared sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings and tiled roofs.

The church comprises a three-and-half-bay nave, two-bay chancel, south vestry and south porch. The nave features an octagonal stone bell-turret with a pyramidical roof, small buttresses and gablets to each angle. The turret's overhanging western verge is supported on a foliated corbel on the west gable. The west window contains two trefoil-headed lights and tracery beneath a trefoiled label with head stops. The north wall has three windows: the western one has two trefoiled lights with sexfoil tracery, the eastern one has two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil tracery, and the central window is a single trefoil-headed light. The south wall contains a two-light trefoiled window under a two-centred head with quatrefoil tracery to the east of the south porch, and a single trefoiled light next to the porch.

The chancel has two trefoiled single-light windows in the north wall, each with a two-centred head, labels and headstops. The east window has three trefoiled lights with quatrefoil and cinquefoil tracery under a chamfered two-centred arch with label and head stops, beneath which is a moulded string course with foliated end stops. A single trefoiled light appears in the south wall.

The south vestry has a two-centred eastern doorway to the right of a single trefoiled light. Its south wall features a pair of trefoiled lights beneath a quatrefoiled gable opening. To the left of the gable is a stack with an octagonal shaft.

The south porch has weathered side buttresses and a chamfered two-centred outer arch with moulded label and head stops. Pyramidal stops ornament the bottom of the jambs. Two trefoiled openings in the east side have chamfered two-centred inner arches, with a softwood collar truss above. The south doorway has a two-centred double chamfered head dying into jambs with pyramidal stops at their bases.

The interior of the nave features a roof with an alternating system of roof trusses. The major divisions have corbelled arch braces supporting collars, while the minor divisions have simple collar trusses. Above all collars are two vertical posts to principals and one to ridge.

The chancel has a boarded roof. The east window contains stained glass depicting The Last Supper with tracery lights showing the Agnus Dei and two angels. An indented plaque commemorates Thomas Ross, who died in 1722. A mid-19th-century table with trefoiled open panels and no bottom rail stands in the chancel. The chancel arch is two-centred with two orders, the inner one dying into the jambs.

The nave contains a 19th-century stone part-octagonal pulpit with trefoiled panels, and a harmonium of around 1900 in pine by Dale, Forty & Co. A 19th-century font has angled corners to square plinths, with a central large moulded columnar stem surrounded by four detached marble columns supporting a square bowl with moulded top and two trefoils to each side. A 15th-century octagonal font bowl with chamfered edge is also present. A late 17th-century communion table near the harmonium has a moulded top and rails. A lancet squint-like opening connects the nave to the vestry, which is separated from the chancel by a two-centred arch with trefoil-headed openings and moulded columns.

The vestry contains a tapered coffin lid probably of 13th- or 14th-century date, decorated with an incised interlaced circular pattern. A fireplace has a chamfered two-centred opening and raised cast iron basket.