Church Of St Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church largely dating from the mid-14th century, with alterations in 1875 and 1923. It comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south porch, and a rebuilt vestry (1875). The exterior is constructed of flint rubble, mostly plastered except for the tower, with freestone dressings. The nave has embattled red brick parapets with terracotta coping, while elsewhere the parapets are of flint rubble and ashlar, with flint rubble and ashlar gables. The nave roof is covered in riven Lakeland slates, and the chancel roof in Welsh slates. The chancel is the earliest part, dating from around 1330, and features tall two-light side windows. The east window is a five-light window with mouchette tracery, and above the east buttresses are square pinnacles with blank tracery and crocketed gables, each corner adorned with a grotesque carving at the base. A well-moulded north chancel doorway mirrors the vestry's entrance. A double piscina features fine crocketed gables, pinnacles, and blind tracery, connected to a wide sedilia with squinch arches and remnants of a segmental-pointed, traceried arch above. A repositioned 14th-century tomb slab with a cross-shaft sits on the floor. A pointed chancel arch leads to the nave. The large nave, constructed around 1360, has tall two-light windows, an ogee-headed piscina, and moulded north and south doorways. An ogee-headed stoup stands outside the south door. The late 14th-century south porch is shafted and hood-moulded, with a niche for the Virgin Mary above, featuring ogee-headed pinnacles and buttresses. The large, late 14th-century west tower features a three-light west window and grotesque gargoyles; the plinth and buttresses display chequered flushwork patterning. The ringing chamber floor is original, supported by massive arch braces and corbels carved with grotesques. A rood loft stairway with two doorways is found in the north wall. The chancel roof was rebuilt in 1656, bearing the carved initials J.H., F.G., and T.C., and comprises five bays with arch-braced tiebeams and pierced drop-finials at the centre of each. The nave roof was rebuilt in 1923, with six bays incorporating plain, alternating hammerbeam and queenpost trusses; one beam bears the date 1652. Good-quality stained glass exists in the chancel windows, believed to be from around 1410, with further glass in the south nave windows. The octagonal, mid-14th-century font has a gabled and pinnacled bowl, with a buttress rising from a human head at each corner, and an embattled rim. Two 19th-century chancel benches incorporate reused poppyhead ends and C14 blind tracery on their fronts. Late 17th-century altar rails are present. The chancel floor holds three marble slabs, one dated 1692, another 1584. Painted arms of George I are visible within the chancel.