Church Of St Mary And St David

Church of Saint Mary and Saint David

Parish church, built c1134–40. Restored in 1848 by Lewis Cottingham, and again in 1864 when the apse was refaced, the bellcote rebuilt, and a former south porch removed. Further twentieth-century restorations followed.

Construction and Materials

Sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and stone slate roof. The building comprises a nave with bellcote, chancel, and apse, each in decreasing width and height.

Exterior Features

The nave has raised verges, pilaster buttresses, and a continuous corbel table decorated with flat rope ornament and carved grotesque human and animal heads. One corbel above the doorway bears a "Lamb of God" motif. A semi-circular headed light sits to the right of the south door.

The south doorway is the most richly decorated feature. It has a semi-circular head composed of two ornate, moulded orders. The outer order displays chevron ornament with grotesque beasts and fishes set in linked medallions. The inner order contains radially arranged animal heads, curious beasts, fishes, and beakheads. The tympanum shows a Tree of Life motif. The jambs are of two orders; the outer has attached shafts decorated with twisting serpents, while the inner shaft to the left displays two warrior-type figures entwined in vine. The shaft to the right carries twisting vine and palmette motifs.

The north side of the nave features three similar pilaster buttresses and a decorated corbel table. A central semi-circular headed light is accompanied by an ogee-headed light to the east. The west end has pilaster buttresses and the continuous decorated corbel table, with three protruding dragon heads at the junction where the corbel table meets the buttresses. A semi-circular headed window here has entwined interlacing ornament to both the attached shafts of the jambs and the head.

The chancel has a trefoil-headed window with label and head stops to the left of its doorway, which itself has a two-centred head with moulded jambs and label. A similar window exists to the north side. Pilaster buttresses, with partly defaced corbels, support a corbel label that continues around the chancel and apse, decorated with zig-zag and rope ornament, primitive heads and animals, and one corbel bearing a curious fertility symbol (sheila-na-gig). A "Lamb of God" marks the east end, and a string course interrupts the pilaster buttresses to the apse. Three semi-circular headed windows with moulded jambs light the east end of the apse.

Interior

The nave and chancel have nineteenth-century trussed rafter roofs.

The chancel arch is semi-circular headed and composed of two moulded orders. The outer order is enriched with chevron ornament; the inner carries lozenges and pellets. The label also displays chevron ornament. Two orders rise on the responds: the inner is plain, whilst the outer is carved with male figures representing the fathers of the church. These are carved and draped figures—three to each side—standing one above the other and holding attributes.

A semi-circular headed arch to the apse comprises two plain orders. A ribbed vault spans the apse with zig-zag ornament to the ribs and a central boss carved with a group of three grotesque heads. Windows have moulded reveals with grouped attached shafts to the walls, which carry cushion capitals from which ribs rise.

Fittings

The font dates from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. It is a large circular bowl with curved sides supported on four slender circular piers with moulded bases and scrolled or foliated capitals. This rests on a twentieth-century stem and plinth.

A late twelfth-century stoup in the chancel has a curious round bowl encircled by human arms and hands, with a hemi-spherical base encircled by serpents extending downwards.

A mid-seventeenth-century gallery at the west end of the nave has a moulded cross-beam supported on four columns with simple moulded capitals and bases. It is surmounted by a balustrade with turned balusters and moulded rail. Access to the rear is by an eighteenth-century staircase with turned balusters.