Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Hordley

This is a parish church of mid-to-late 12th-century date, substantially altered and restored in 1880. It is built of roughly coursed and dressed red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and a chamfered plinth. The roof, added in the late 19th century, is of slate with lozenge patterns to the south side and coped verges; a foliated stone cross stands on the east gable. A timber-framed bellcote with rendered brick infill sits above the nave and chancel, which are unified in plan. A 18th-century west bellcote is present, while the south porch and north-east vestry date from 1880.

The south side of the nave contains a 15th-century two-light cinquefoil-headed window with a cusped quatrefoil and a hoodmould with carved head-stops. A possible straight joint lies below this window. To its left, a slightly projecting section holds a 19th-century three-light square-headed window in the Perpendicular style, with a straight joint in line with the east wall of the porch. The porch itself is constructed of tooled ashlar with coped verges and a stone cross on its gable. Its pointed outer arch features circular shafts with moulded capitals and bases; the hoodmould bears foliated foliage stops. Stone benches flank the opening, and the pointed inner doorway also dates from the 19th century.

The west end displays a 19th-century two-light Perpendicular-style window. Above it sits a bellcote with louvred round-headed windows to the belfry and an overhanging pyramidal slate cap crowned with a brass weathercock. The north side of the nave preserves an infilled 12th-century round-headed doorway with a single stepped design: the outer order is rounded with a square-edged inner order, both featuring moulded imposts. A moulded dripstone terminates in grotesque heads. Two 19th-century buttresses flank a contemporary three-light Perpendicular-style window.

The chancel's partly rendered north side is adjoined at right-angles by a gabled yellow brick vestry with an integral end stack and a three-light window to its east side. The chancel's east end, with stepped diagonal buttresses, features a late 19th-century four-light window with reticulated tracery and a blind segmental-pointed archway below.

Interior

The interior contains a late 19th-century collar-beam roof in seven unequal bays, with scissor bracing for the belfry in the west bay. Late 18th-century box pews have been remodelled in the 19th century; those on the north side are enclosed whilst those on the south are open. Some pews retain painted armorial shields and brass name-plates of local families, with H-hinges to their doors. 17th-century square and rectangular oak panelling has been reused in both the pews and as wainscoting in the nave, continuing along the south side of the chancel. An 18th-century oak pulpit on the south side features raised and fielded panels. A Jacobean communion table and two Jacobean chairs occupy the raised sanctuary, which is laid with encaustic tiles. A late 19th-century painted octagonal font with painted symbols to each side stands on a moulded circular plinth.

The east window of 1887 is possibly by Powell's and commemorates Frances Marianne Moore, wife of Reverend John Walter Moore. Additional stained glass of late 19th and early 20th-century date is present in the nave.

Monuments include a plain 18th-century marble wall memorial on the chancel's south side with an armorial device to a broken segmental pediment; its inscription was illegible at the time of resurvey in January 1987. Two late 18th-century wooden wall memorials, painted to resemble stone and commemorating members of the Cureton family, are located on the nave's north and south sides. A cast-iron grate to a fireplace in the vestry also survives.