Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating to the early 12th century, with significant alterations and additions from the 14th to 16th centuries, and a restoration in 1858-1859. The church is constructed of sandstone ashlar, with a tile roof. It comprises a 12th-century nave, a 16th-century south porch with an attached tower, a 14th-century chancel, and a north chapel (St Anne's), built around 1474 and rebuilt in 1561 for the Pakington family.

The tower and porch form a four-stage structure with crenellated parapets and diagonal buttresses. The belfry stage has two-light windows with quatrefoil tracery above; the lower stages have square-headed windows. The porch doorway features an outer doorway with a double-chamfered two-centred head, and an inner doorway with two orders of mouldings.

The nave has two bays; the south wall incorporates the porch and tower and includes a late 14th-century window. The west wall was rebuilt in 1858-1859, reusing jambs of a previous window, the tracery of which was restored in the 14th style with three lights. The north wall features a late 14th-century two-light window to the west and a blocked 12th-century doorway with a semicircular head and shafts with cushion capitals, the jambs of which extend upwards to form pilaster buttresses. The north chapel occupies the east bay and largely dates to 1561, with a north vestry added in 1858-1859. This chapel has two reset 15th-century windows with two and three cinquefoil-headed lights under square heads, and an east window of 1561 with five Tudor arched lights under a square head. The chancel has angle buttresses; the south wall is partially 12th century and contains two early 15th-century two-light windows with square heads, and a blocked priest’s door between them. The east window is late 14th century, with three trefoil-headed lights.

Inside, the chancel arch is early 14th century, two-centred with continuous orders down the jambs. An arch of 1858-1859 connects the nave to the north chapel, and an early 15th-century arch separates the chancel from the north chapel. A piscina is located in the south wall of the chancel, featuring a trefoil head. The nave roof is restored 16th-century, with four bays containing moulded, cambered tie beams, queen struts, and moulded purlins. An earlier crenellated beam is visible above the chancel arch. The chancel has a four-bay wooden barrel vault (1858-1859). The north chapel’s roof is a five-bay arch-braced collar roof, also dating to 1858-1859.

Notable fittings include a restored chest tomb of Sir John Pakington (died 1551) in the north wall of the chapel; a wall memorial to Henry Hammond (died 1660) in the nave, framed by Corinthian columns and bearing armorial bearings; and a memorial to Sir John Pakington featuring a reclining effigy on a chest tomb with a wall tablet behind. Fragments of armorial glass from 1561 are found in the north nave window, while the chancel east window is by John Hardman. A 19th-century octagonal font stands on a 14th-century moulded octagonal base.