Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church with origins in the 13th century. The nave and chancel date from that period, while the tower was built in 1703–1704. The north transept was added in 1821 and the south transept in 1828, though it was shortened in 1892. The north aisle and a comprehensive restoration were undertaken by C. Hodgson Fowler of Durham in 1892. The building is constructed of uncoursed and roughly coursed gritstone and conglomerate rubble with ashlar dressings, and features late 19th-century machine tile roofs. The plan comprises a nave and chancel in one, a west tower, transepts, a north aisle, and a south porch.

The Tower

A datestone on the south side records 1704. The tower rises in three stages beneath an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. It sits on a plinth with multi-stepped diagonal buttresses. A 18th-century brass weathercock crowns the north-west corner. The belfry windows have two lights with shouldered round-headed arches that appear Anglo-Saxon in character and may be reused from an earlier tower; a similar window appears on the south face of the second stage. A 19th-century window lights the west side.

The Nave

The south side displays a square-headed window of three trefoil-headed lights, probably from the late 15th century, positioned east of a doorway. To its right is another three-light window with more rounded cusping, likely 16th-century in date; its right light is now cut by the transept. Beneath this lies an infilled narrow round-headed doorway of indeterminate but presumably earlier date, cut by the window's cill. A timber-framed porch on sandstone ashlar walls was erected in 1892 in memory of Rowland Jones Venables and his wife Harriet. The 13th-century south doorway features a single chamfer and a pointed arch.

The South Transept

A late 19th-century Perpendicular-style window lights the gable, and a pointed doorway of the same period opens from the east wall.

The Chancel

The south side retains a restored 17th-century square-headed window of three cusped lights. A 19th-century Perpendicular-style east window with a contemporary roundel above provides the main light.

The North Transept

This was shortened by the construction of the north aisle in 1892. It retains a gable window of three lights with intersecting tracery and cusped openings below, and a square-headed window with two cusped lights on the west wall. A late 19th-century doorway with a shouldered arch opens to the east.

The North Aisle

A three-light Perpendicular-style window lights the east wall. The north wall contains three plain square-headed windows: the left has three cusped lights, while the centre and right each have two cusped lights. A two-light Decorated-style window appears on the west wall. A stepped integral lateral stack with gabled top serves the aisle.

Interior

The principal feature is an early 15th-century arch-braced collar beam roof spanning eight bays across the nave and chancel. It displays two tiers of cusped windbraces and cusped struts rising from collars to similarly cusped principal rafters. The three bays over the chancel have a restored ceilure whose cornice is elaborately carved with quatrefoil decoration—largely 19th-century in execution but copied from an original section at the east end of the north side. Three bands of foliage decoration run across the ceiling, with the apex band also carved with dragons. The panels are decorated with a variety of tracery patterns and have subsidiary rails with billet moulding and rose-shaped bosses. Carved angels at the junction between ceilure and nave roof date from the 19th century. The north aisle is covered by an arch-braced roof of 1892.

A late 19th-century low segmental pointed tower arch separates the nave from the north arcade, which comprises five four-centred arches springing from four clustered columns. A similar arcade of two bays separates the nave from the south transept. The chancel features raised and fielded wainscot panelling dated 1747 and a reredos with Corinthian capitals. Panelling around the walls of the nave, north aisle, and south transept is fitted with fluted pilasters and incorporates panels reused from 18th-century box pews.

Remains of a 15th-century rood loft with carved decoration similar to that of the ceilure survive above the door to the north transept (vestry) and in the south transept. An 18th-century pulpit and altar rails with turned balusters are in place. The communion table is partly Jacobean, as are two flanking chairs. A chest at the east end of the north aisle incorporates some 17th- and 18th-century work; an oak chest in the nave is dated 1760. The font is probably 13th-century, circular in form, with a moulded plinth on a later moulded base and incised floral decoration to the rim. The east window contains stained glass depicting the crucifixion by Kempe, dating to around 1876. A stone above the door to the north transept, probably not in its original position, is carved with three nails and a heart bearing the date "1679" in raised lettering; it probably commemorates some alteration to the fabric.

Monuments

Plain 19th-century wall tablets and memorials line the walls, the most notable being that to Reverend Thomas Edwards (died 1800), Rector of Llanfechain in Powys, which features a draped urn.

The roof at Selattyn is very similar in detail to that of St Martin's Church, though it is probably slightly earlier in date.