Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin is mostly a late 19th-century rebuilding from 1897 to 1901, designed by George Highton, the Diocesan Surveyor, for Samuel Whitbread. Some original features are retained, particularly in the chancel. The original chancel is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, while the 19th-century work is of grit stone from Tansley Moor, Derbyshire, with Ketton stone dressings. The church includes a chancel, a north transept, a four-bay nave with north and south aisles and chapels, a south porch, and a west tower.

Features from around 1500 include the chancel clerestory, a two-bay arcade, and the east end with a five-light window. Five Norman gargoyles have been re-set below the parapets of the north and south chapels. South doorways of the nave and south chapel, and north windows of the north chapel, date to the 15th century, although the north windows have been heavily restored. The south nave arcade reuses two 13th-century capitals, and the tower arch incorporates some re-tooled 12th-century voussoir stones. Otherwise, the building largely dates from 1897 to 1901 and is in a 15th-century style, with embattled parapets.

Inside, the east bay of both chancel arcades contains canopied 16th-century tombs with elaborate carving and archways to the chapels. The north tomb has a brass memorial to Sir William Gascoigne, controller of Wolsey’s household, who died in 1540, and his two wives. The south tomb, originally a Gascoigne tomb, holds a 1638 brass memorial to Sir Jarrate Hervey and his wife Dorothy. The north transept contains a monument to the Whitbread family. The west transept has a monument by Peter Scheemakers, dating after 1766, with an inscription, two busts, and an obelisk. The east transept has a monument by John Bacon R.A. showing Samuel Whitbread, who died in 1796, lying on a couch, supported by Faith, who points to heaven, while a mourning woman kneels at his feet. A further monument (dated 1849) by H. Weekes commemorates Samuel Whitbread who died in 1815, and depicts him and his wife kneeling. The north chapel holds a plain wall monument to Henrietta Howard, who died in 1765, with a brief inscription relating to her husband, John Howard, a philanthropist and prison reformer, who died in 1790. A black basalt Wedgwood font, on a tapering square fluted pillar, was given in 1783 by Harriet Whitbread.