Church Of Saint Mary The Virgin

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a parish church largely dating to the 13th century, with later details and alterations from 1867 by William White. It is constructed of coursed rubble, a mixture of limestone and ironstone, with ashlar dressings, and has clay tile roofs with stone coped gables. The church includes a chancel, a north vestry, a nave, and a south aisle, accessed via a north porch.

The chancel’s east wall was reworked in the 19th century, retaining a 14th-century three-light pointed-arched window. The south elevation has a small early 13th-century pointed doorway and a two-light window similar to the east window. The north elevation features a low side window of a similar date. The pointed chancel arch is late 13th century. The north vestry is a 19th-century gabled block with a three-light pointed-arched window. The nave's north side contains windows, and the four-bay south arcade has capitals curiously cut to be narrower than the supporting piers. The north elevation has two pointed-arched windows; the east window has two cusped lights, and the other has three uncusped lancets. A pointed-arched north doorway gives access. The west gable is punctuated by a pointed-arched window comprising three lancets topped by three circles, all uncusped, and is surmounted by a 19th-century bellcote of heavy curved timbers topped with a spirelet, replacing an earlier tower.

The south aisle, also dating to the late 13th century, has a small single light on its south elevation, a blocked pointed doorway containing a 19th-century rose window, and a three-light window with uncusped lancets. Its east elevation features a three-light pointed-arched window with cusped intersecting tracery. The north porch is an open gabled structure of heavy timbers erected on low rubble walls, dated 1633 but likely incorporating considerably earlier timbers, including one with 13th-century dog-tooth moulding and rose, star, and leaf ornaments.

The interior features a 19th-century chancel roof, and the nave roof is probably 17th century, although it and the aisle roof may contain earlier timbering. The pews contain some 15th-century work. A simple font has a beaker-shaped bowl on a cylindrical stem. The south aisle contains a 14th-century canopied tomb with a cross-legged effigy in mail and surcoat. The nave has a 14th-century coffin-lid set into the sill of the northeast window, bearing a cross and inscription reading “Vous ke passes par ici prie par la alme-Jon Polein ke Deus eit merci”. A tomb top is set into the west wall with a carved cross and shield. A 15th-century tomb top is set into the north wall of the chancel, with a cross, sword, and shield on top, and shields and flowers to the sides. The south aisle floor has brasses to John Peddar (1505), his wife, and children.