Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church with origins in the late 12th century, with later additions and a restoration by Charles Hodgson Fowler, FRIBA, around 1885. It is largely constructed of coursed sandstone rubble, with parts in sandstone ashlar, and has tiled roofs. A timber-framed, weatherboarded bell turret is also present. The church comprises a two-bay chancel, a four-bay nave with a south chapel, a south porch, and a west extension enclosing the bell turret, built in a predominantly Decorated style.

The chancel stonework has been repaired and refaced, featuring a late 19th-century four-light east window. The north elevation has two lancet windows; the south elevation has a lancet and a late 19th-century flat-headed two-light window. The north elevation of the nave includes two buttresses with offsets, a 16th-century flat-headed two-light window, two lancets flanking a round-headed doorway, and an additional lancet at the west end. The south elevation of the nave has a lancet and a 15th-century flat-headed two-light window at the west end.

The south chapel was founded in 1344 and has a separate roof with parapets and kneelers at the gable ends. It is constructed of ashlar and features central and corner buttresses with gabled weatherings. The east wall contains two cusped lancets and a wheel window with mouchette tracery in the gable. The south wall has two two-light windows, all windows being topped with hoodmoulds which form a string course. The south porch, an 1881 replacement of a former 14th-century porch, stands immediately west of the chapel. It has a timber frame on a sandstone base, a gabled, tiled roof, and Perpendicular style glazed panels. The pointed arch south doorway is deeply splayed and moulded, with nook-shafts and capitals carved with the remains of heads facing each other. A hood-mould with foliated label stops completes the doorway.

The bell turret is built of masonry around a likely 13th-century core, with buttresses at the gable ends. The west elevation has three lancet windows, and the gable features close-set vertical studding with six glazed central panels. The bell chamber has four traceried openings below a pyramidal roof and weathercock.

Inside, the chancel arch was removed, likely in the 16th century. The south chapel arcade has two bays, with a compound pier of four engaged shafts, moulded caps and bases. The nave roof dates to the 19th century, with braced collars reinforced into a tie beam; wagon roofs are present in the chancel and chapel. The bell turret framework, largely late 19th century, is separated from the nave by a timber screen enclosing a vestry. A gallery space with Jacobean balcony railing is above. The chancel floor is laid with 16th-century tiles. There is a piscina within a cusped arch in the chancel and chapel. The south chapel’s windows have grotesque heads on the label stops. The octagonal font sits on a circular stem with a scalloped top, while the richly-carved octagonal pulpit is dated 1632 and includes a tester. 17th-century pews are located at the northwest end of the nave, and the chancel holds three 18th-century wall memorials and two early 17th-century tomb slabs. A chair in the chancel is dated 1647, and a panel of medieval glass is in the east lancet on the north side of the chancel.