Church of St. Matthew

The Church of St. Matthew is a church dating from 1869, designed by John Johnson in a Neo-Gothic style. It is constructed of flint with Bath stone dressings, featuring diagonal buttresses, parapetted gables with footstones, kneelers, and copings, tiled roofs, and a stone spire. The building is characterised by rich Decorated detailing, including hood moulds throughout. The church comprises a south-west tower and spire, a nave, a south aisle, a south porch, a north chapel, a north vestry, and a chancel.

The tower has two stages with clasping buttresses to the first stage and a newel turret to the north-west corner. It features two-light ogee-headed bell chamber openings on all faces, a battlemented corbelled parapet, and a broach spire with lucarnes on the cardinal faces and carved figures above the broaches. The gabled south porch has a moulded and shafted doorway, two cusped lights to each side, and two wooden gates with quatrefoil panels.

The south aisle includes a moulded south doorway, three two-light windows to the right, and a doorway to the east with a Caernarvon arched head. The east end has a rose window, ballflower ornament on the verge, and a moulded chimney at the gable end. The chancel features a cusped lancet to the south and a three-light east window with curvilinear tracery.

The vestry’s east end has a rose window of three trefoiled lights, ballflower ornament on the verge, and a moulded chimney on the gable end. The north side of the vestry has a two-light Caernarvon arched window and an ogee-arched doorway with a carved finial. The north chapel consists of two bays with two-light windows, while the west end features a door, a rose window, and a small quatrefoil opening in the gable above.

The nave’s north side has three bays with two-light windows, and the west end features a large four-light window with geometrical tracery, and a small quatrefoil in the gable above.

Inside, the church has a five-bay south aisle arcade with polished granite piers featuring moulded capitals and bases; a large pier to the west supports the tower. The nave roof is arch braced and rests on short wall shafts with foliated capitals on corbelled heads. A two-bay north arcade leads to an arch in the chapel to the east. The chancel arch is of two orders with ballflower ornament, resting on short hexagonal wall shafts on corbelled heads. The chancel wall is three bays, arcaded, and rests on short granite shafts with angel corbels. There is a two-light opening to the north with a central granite shaft, cusped arches, and a quatrefoil panel in the tympanum above. A corresponding blank arch is located to the south. The east window is shafted. All fittings are from the 19th century, including the font, a stone pulpit, and a wooden lectern.