Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church dates mainly from the 12th century, with additions from the early 14th century and around 1700, and underwent restoration around 1833. It is built of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, plain tiled and slate roofs, and features a weatherboarded timber bell turret with copper roofing. The building comprises a three-bay nave with a west porch and west bell turret, a south chapel, and a two-bay chancel which is built at an angle to the nave and inclines to the north.

The nave is 12th-century work. At its west end is a 14th-century chamfered doorway with a 19th-century cusped lancet above. The timber-framed gabled porch was built in 1894 and contains arch-braced tie-beam roof trusses, both inner and outer, and arch-braced wall-plates; the date is carved on the apex of the outer truss. The north elevation has a central original round-headed light flanked by two-light windows with square heads and hoodmoulds; the easternmost window is probably early 14th-century while the westernmost is 19th-century. The bell turret, probably dating from around 1700, is square in plan with pairs of pointed louvred bell chamber openings. It carries a copper-clad, splay-footed spire with a finial and weathervane.

The south chapel is early 14th-century work with unusually thick walls for its date. It has angled corner buttresses with offsets and a buttress with offsets at the centre of the south elevation. The east end window is large and of three lights with reticulated tracery. The south elevation contains two two-light windows with hoodmoulds, and at the west end is a chamfered doorway with an ashlar clockface bearing a moulded rim above it.

The chancel is 12th-century. There are 14th-century diagonal buttresses at the east end and a three-light east window with reticulated tracery. The north elevation has a cusped lancet at its western end, and the south elevation contains an early 14th-century two-light window at its eastern end. Evidence suggests there was once a south-west window, probably blocked in the 18th century.

Interior features include a pointed chamfered chancel arch rebuilt in the 19th century. The wide, acutely pointed early 14th-century arch from the nave into the chapel has two chamfered orders and has been blocked with a small doorway inserted. The roofs throughout are of the ashlared collar rafter type and date from the 14th century. At the west end of the nave is a tie-beam truss with a moulded tie-beam supported on carved brackets. In the north-east end of the chancel are some small deep rectangular holes pierced in the wall of unknown purpose. The chancel also contains a square aumbry and a plain piscina with a three-sided head.

The 17th-century altar table has turned legs, and the altar rails with turned balusters date from around 1750. The plain circular font is 12th-century, set on a modern base, and there is a 19th-century stone pulpit. Both the nave and chancel are fitted with dados made up of 17th and 18th-century panelling, and the chapel also has 18th-century panelling attached to its south wall. The thick oak pews are of 16th-century origin with 18th-century panelled ends. In the chapel is an oak bier dated 1682 bearing the initials "I S", a 15th-century helmet, and a parish chest of possible 14th-century date carved from a single log. Remains of 14th-century wall paintings appear on the plastered jambs of the south-west window.

The chancel contains two marble monuments flanked by columns with broken segmental pediments and coats of arms above. The easternmost has spiral columns and commemorates Catherine Pytts, died 1702, while the westernmost commemorates Edward Pytts, died 1672. There are other memorials to members of the Pytts family, including a sarcophagus relief to Jonathan Pytts, died 1807. The south wall of the chapel bears a tablet to Hugh Thomas, died 1693, and a floor slab to Elizabeth Brockwale, died 1618, is located at the east end of the chapel.