Church of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

Parish church with 12th-century origins, substantially altered in the mid-13th, late 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, and restored in 1893. The building is constructed mainly of lias limestone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings, and some dressed coursed sandstone rubble. It features an oak-shingled timber-framed bell-turret, plain tiled roofs with parapets at the gable ends, and comprises a continuous nave and chancel of three and two bays respectively. The nave has a bell-turret, south transept, porch, north aisle and vestry.

The nave retains some original stonework in its south wall. The west and south-west walls were rebuilt in the 15th century with a stepped plinth and moulded eaves string. Diagonal buttresses with off-sets mark the west end. A three-light square-headed west window and two-light square-headed south window, probably 16th-century with 19th-century repairs, are typical of the windows elsewhere on the church.

The bell-turret dates from the 15th century. Its lower part is shingled, while the belfry features rectangular panels with lower corner braces and roughcast infill. The belfry has two-light louvred bell-chamber openings, above which sits a hipped roof and tall weathervane.

The south transept, built around 1370 to house the Shell Chapel, has a chamfered plinth and diagonal gable-end buttresses with off-sets. The south-west buttress displays a sundial carved upon it. Two-light pointed-arched windows occupy the south end and west side, while a three-light square-headed window is on the east side.

The south porch also dates from around 1370 and is gabled and timber-framed with a chamfered arch-braced gable end, inner roof truss, and quatrefoil-panelled bargeboards. The side walls feature cusped arcading and a brattished wall plate. The south doorway retains 12th-century jambs of two square orders with colonnettes in the angles (the western colonnette is 19th-century restoration), while the door itself is late 14th-century, divided by rails and muntins into quatrefoil panels.

The north aisle dates from the 16th century and has a separate gabled roof with an octagonal ridge stack at the west gable end. It contains three-light and two two-light north windows, a three-light east-end window and a two-light west-end window, all with square heads. A gabled passageway links the aisle with a separate vestry.

The vestry is late 19th-century, featuring a cusped lancet in the west gable end, a central lancet in the north wall, a two-light west-end window and a south doorway.

The chancel was rebuilt around 1240 with a chamfered plinth on the south side. A 13th-century east window of three closely-spaced, stepped lancets is original, as are two north windows and a south-east window, all of two lights. A south-west pointed window is 19th-century, with a doorway to its right.

Interior

The interior features a three-bay north arcade of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns. Beyond the east respond is a blocked doorway to the former rood stair. A 14th-century transept archway has two continuous chamfered orders. A square-headed door occupies the south chancel wall, and a 16th-century north nave doorway has a four-centred arch of a single chamfered order. The 15th-century waggon roofs retain brattished wall plates and tie beams at the base of the turret, as does a 19th-century rood beam. Nave wall plates are largely 19th-century and feature a rosette frieze.

Walls are plastered, with traces of a wall painting depicting the royal arms of Queen Elizabeth I visible on the east-end wall. A 17th-century oak altar table is present. The font is partly 12th-century, square in plan with a Paschal Lamb carved on its east face. The Shell Chapel contains an 18th-century small marble font on a baluster stem. Nineteenth-century additions include altar rails, pews, pulpit and lectern.

Memorials

The Shell Chapel holds a mid-18th-century wall memorial to the Fincher family, an early 19th-century wall memorial to the Payton family, and ledger slabs of mid-17th and early-18th-century date belonging to members of the Fincher family. The north aisle contains a late-18th and early-19th-century wall memorial and a late-17th-century ledger slab to the Wythes family.

Glass

The east window contains a 13th-century fragment, with the remainder being a good 19th-century imitation of around 1300 style. Medieval fragments survive in the north-west chancel window, north-east aisle window and east transept window. The east window of the aisle was created by Kempe around 1900.

The church retains several interesting early architectural features, notably the bell-turret, roofs, south porch and door, and some good medieval glass.