Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

Parish church with 12th-century origins, altered around 1200, in the late 13th century, early and late 14th century, and substantially rebuilt in the early 18th century. The building was restored in 1863 by E Christian. It is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and has a stone-tiled roof laid in diminishing courses with decorative ridge tiles. Some gable-end parapets feature cross finials.

The church comprises a north-west tower, an aisled nave with a south clerestory, a five-bay north arcade and four-bay south arcade, a south porch, and a two-bay chancel.

The north-west tower was rebuilt around 1708 after a fire. It has four stages with strings and a battered plinth. The lower stage contains a pointed north doorway and a rectangular west light that interrupts the plinth. The second stage has smaller rectangular lights in the north and west walls and a blocked south window. The third stage has a rectangular light on the south side and an east clockface. The belfry stage has rectangular louvred bell chamber openings above which are round arches filled with rubble. An embattled parapet crowns the tower, which is topped with a shallow pyramidal roof and weathervane. A lean-to addition adjoins the south side.

The nave dates from around 1200. At its west end is a buttress with offsets at the south side, a 14th-century blind pointed archway, and above it a 14th-century three-light window. The clerestory was added around 1330 and contains three square-headed three-light windows and, at the western end, a pair of cusped ogee-arched lights.

The north aisle was added in the early 13th century and was widened and extended to the east by two bays in the late 13th century. It has a gabled roof with a buttress at the north-east corner and a 19th-century buttress at the centre of the north elevation. The north elevation contains four early 14th-century windows including a pair of cusped lancets, three stepped cusped lancets, a two-light window, and a single cusped lancet. There is also a north doorway with a painted arch and chamfered jambs. At the east end is a tall three-light window and a small lancet in the gable apex.

The south aisle is earlier, probably dating from around 1200 and likely representing the extent of the whole church at that time, with its easternmost bay being a former chapel leading from the Norman chancel. It has a lean-to roof. The south wall contains two square-headed two-light 14th-century windows and a three-light window from around 1300. At the east end is a pair of cusped lancets, also around 1300.

The south porch is late 14th-century and gabled. It has a pointed archway of two moulded orders with moulded imposts and a cusped ogee-arched light in the east side. The late 14th-century south doorway has a four-centred head and moulded jambs.

The chancel was added around 1300. It contains a three-light east window with a hoodmould and in the south wall are three stepped lancets, a pair of cusped lancets, and a central pointed doorway with chamfered jambs.

Interior

There is no masonry chancel arch. The south arcade was cut through the former aisleless nave and has round arches with imposts and chamfered piers with carved stops. The third pier from the west end is considerably larger and formerly stood between the Norman nave and chancel; it has a round-arched recess with a 14th-century moulding on the north side and an ogee-arched recess on the west side. A 14th-century ogee-arched recess also exists in the west side of the south-east respond. The unmoulded easternmost arch is the original former opening to a chapel of the Norman chancel. At the very east end of the arcade are 14th-century upper and lower doorways to the rood loft, both with square heads.

The north arcade is also of two dates. The three westernmost arches are 13th-century with two-centred heads of two chamfered orders with octagonal columns and semi-circular responds. The two easternmost arches date from around 1330; the first is smaller and has crocketted hoodmoulds with head stops and finials on both sides, whilst the second is wider and has a hoodmould on the south side. At the eastern end of the arcade is a 14th-century ogee-arched squint. A round-arched doorway at the end of the north aisle leads into the tower.

The nave has an ashlared collar truss roof, and the chancel has a wagon roof. At the west end of the chancel roof is a moulded timber chancel arch on foliated corbels with human head bases.

An early 14th-century cusped piscina is located in the chancel, and at the east end of the south aisle is a 13th-century cusped piscina.

The font is mid-12th-century and ranks among the best examples of the Herefordshire School (comparable to Castle Frome). It has a circular bowl with cable-necking on a splayed base with an interwoven design. The upper and lower parts of the bowl have bands of interlacing, and the main part features figure reliefs representing the Harrowing of Hell, two men fighting, and a large lion.

A late 15th-century sallet and a late 16th-century combed helmet are displayed on the east wall of the nave.

Memorials and monuments include: in the south aisle, a memorial to Alice Harper (died 1680) with a segmental pediment and scrolled surround. The north aisle contains two mid-18th-century monuments to the Barnesley family. The chancel houses two mid-19th-century memorials to the Hodgson family and four additional mid-19th-century memorials, two at the east end with crocketted and finialed arched niches and flanking pinnacled buttresses to the Coke and Cockburn families.

The church also contains 17th-century brasses: in the north aisle to Sydney Conyingesbye (died 1627) and Sir Humphrey Baskerville (died 1617), and in the nave to George Coke (died 1646) and Henry Harper (died 1687). A 14th-century coffin lid is in the tower, alongside numerous ledger slabs, many of late 17th and early 18th-century date, and a broken one from around 1400 in the south aisle.