Church Of St Denys

The Church of St Denys is a parish church built in 1812 and completed by 1820, located on a site that may have housed a church dating back to the 12th century. The building is constructed of brick, with a stucco finish on a stone plinth and a slate roof. Its layout features a short chancel with small transepts and a later north vestry, leading to an aisleless nave that includes a squat west tower with an incorporated porch.

The chancel is highlighted by a five-light slender Perpendicular window on the east side. It has tall diagonal buttresses at the corners and ends of the transepts, which have panelled sides and tops raised to form four gables. The transepts feature coupled pointed lancets. The nave consists of four bays with pointed lancets and short stepped buttresses at the west end. The walls display deep weathering mouldings at the eaves and cill level, along with a plain stone plinth.

The tower is topped with a crenellated parapet and has narrow openings at the bell stage, string courses, and short corner buttresses. The west face includes a plain doorway with a four-centred chamfered arch, above which is a band with arcaded panels and cusping, and a pointed coupled lancet window on the bell stage, complete with a hoodmould. The parapet is taller in the center.

Inside, the main feature is the plaster lierne vaulting. In the chancel, it rests on slender attached octagonal shafts with closely spaced ribs that rise to a foliated boss. Original text boards are located on either side of the east window, and there is a delicate wrought iron communion rail. The nave's vaulting has shafts that are shortened on carved corbels, again featuring closely spaced ribs and foliated bosses, with traceried panels at both the east and west ends carried over by the vaulting. Originally, there was a west gallery and a two-decker pulpit. The church contains open contemporary pews with Gothic panels on the ends, and family pews that used to be in the transepts, which included fireplaces.

A 12th-century font with a square-panelled bowl has been cut down. The church also features monuments on the walls dated 1819, 1825, 1826, and one from 1883 dedicated to sculptor R C Lucas, which he carved in 1840. There are two bells from the old church, possibly from the 12th century, which are small, uninscribed, with domed crowns, straight sides, and a sound bow of angular section on the inner face, making them very rare if genuine.