Church Of St Edward The Confessor

The Church of St Edward the Confessor is a parish church dating back to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with significant additions and alterations carried out in 1863-4 by George Gilbert Scott Junior. It is constructed primarily of red sandstone ashlar, with red tiled roofs covering all but the tower and south aisle, which have flat, lead-covered roofs concealed behind parapets.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave, north and south aisles (with a projecting porch), and a chancel. The tower is approximately three stages high, featuring diagonal buttresses on the west side, a cavetto string above and below the bell chamber, and a crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. The bell chamber has two-light, almost-round arch openings, small lancets in the upper stage, and a 19th-century two-light west window with panel tracery above a Tudor-arched west door.

The south aisle and gabled porch date to the 15th century. The aisle is three bays long, buttressed at the ends, and parapetted. It contains 2- and 3-light pointed windows, while the porch has a solid stone roof, possibly inspiring the design of a nearby lychgate, and a round-arch doorway with a heavily carved 19th-century door. The north aisle, added by Scott, consists of three bays divided by two-stage buttresses and windows of 2 lights, with a lower parallel range of one bay to the west.

The chancel, dating from the 14th century, has a low moulded plinth and is taller than the nave. It features three bays divided by two-stage buttresses, labelled 2-light pointed windows, and a four-light curvilinear-tracery east window by Scott. An ogee-headed priest door is located to the south, adjacent to the central window.

Inside, the nave has three bays and a 13th-century arcade to the north with circular columns, octagonal abaci, and double-chamfered pointed arches. A 15th-century south arcade rests on octagonal columns. The chancel arch has been replaced by a 19th-century oak screen with a pointed arch and panel tracery. The nave roof is a 19th-century design with tie and collar trusses, double purlins, and exposed rafters. A painted boarded vault covers the chancel. The north aisle features arch brace collared trusses. The tower contains a painted boarded canopy under the organ. A 14th-century piscina and sedilia consist of ogee-headed bays, with ball-flower decoration to the intrados band and poppyhead finials. The reredos is a Flemish relief of the deposition, incorporated into a triptych by additions from Morris & Co, depicting the Annunciation. The pulpit is a 19th-century octagonal oak structure on a stone base. The font is a 19th-century alabaster octagonal design with blind tracery to the sides and a short, open-work ogee-shaped oak spire cover. A brass Flemish eagle serves as a lectern. Several monuments have been resited on the south wall of the tower at a high level. These include a Gothic monument to the Fynney family, featuring a crocketed gabled niche flanked by clustered columns on corbelled bases with carved faces, and two monuments by Powys, dedicated to a friend and his son, consisting of late 18th-century slate and marble plaques with urns. A significant amount of glass is by William Morris and his group, created between 1864-69, and including works by Madox Brown and Burne-Jones. The incumbent during the mid-19th century, Edward Wardle, was a friend of William Morris, which informed the sensitive and high-quality nature of the restoration work.