Church Of Saint Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with 15th and some 16th-century additions and alterations. The church is built of coursed ironstone rubble with ashlar dressings, although most parts are covered with cement render. The roofs are covered in clay tiles. The church comprises a chancel, a north vestry, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel has a pointed-arched three-light east window with flowing tracery. Its south elevation features two pointed-arched two-light windows to the east bay, a small square-headed low-side window, and a pointed-arched doorway to the west bay. The north elevation has two two-light pointed-arched windows flanking a doorway to the vestry. The north vestry’s original square-headed east window has been blocked, and a 19th-century two-light window has been inserted into the north elevation.

The nave dates to the 14th century, and its roof was lowered when the aisle walls were raised in the 15th century; the original roofline is visible on the tower’s east wall. It contains tall, slender pointed-arched arcades of four bays on both sides, as well as a similar chancel arch.

The north aisle is from the 14th century and was heightened in the 15th. It retains a 14th-century pointed-arched east window. The north windows, one of four lights and two of three lights, all date to the 16th century and have uncusped, four-centred heads. The south aisle, also 14th-century and heightened in the 15th, has 16th-century windows similar to those in the north aisle, but lacks an east elevation window and includes an additional three-light window on the west elevation. A 14th-century doorway is present on the south side. Embattled parapets run along the aisles and nave.

The south porch is from the 15th century, with a pointed archway and a square-headed two-light window on each side, topped with a plain parapet.

The west tower is from the 15th century, with three stages and angle buttresses to the west, featuring an embattled parapet. The buttresses of the nave are visible in the tower's stonework. An octagonal staircase turret is located on the southwest angle. The bell stage has a pointed-arched two-light window on each side. The ground stage of the west elevation has a pointed-arched doorway surmounted by a two-light pointed-arched window.

Inside, the chancel’s east window is flanked by gabled and pinnacled niches, the north one more ornate. The south chancel wall has a piscina with a traceried head. The chancel has a 16th-century three-bay crown post roof. The nave and aisles have 15th-century roofs with moulded timbers and bosses, and retain a few carved corbels. An early 14th-century font stands in the nave, featuring eight shafts supporting an octagonal bowl with shields and an embattled frieze. A marble table commemorates Katherine Arnold, who died in 1681, and a marble monument marks the passing of James Astry in 1716.