Church Of St Stephen

The Church of St Stephen is a parish church largely dating from the 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th centuries. It is cruciform in shape. The church is constructed of flint and stone rubble, with a tiled roof, although the south chapel is mainly brick. The building comprises a four-bay nave with a lower three-bay chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and north and south transepts.

The three-stage west tower is Norman, but features a cinquefoil bell stage with wooden louvres and a hexagonal weatherboarded base to a shingled spire topped with a metal finial. Wide buttresses are present. The first floor of the tower has round-headed windows, while the second floor features lancets. An arched doorcase to the west has zigzag moulding and rows of colonnettes. The nave has one round-headed window and two pointed lancets to the south, and three pointed lancets to the north. The south porch is built of flint and ironstone, incorporating reused stone fragments including zigzag detailing. It has a 13th-century arched doorcase and double perpendicular windows. The south transept has a flint base and brick above, largely covered in render, with four round-headed brick mullioned windows. The east side features double trefoiled windows. The north transept displays a 14th-century window with three trefoils, with further trefoils within circles above. A triple round-headed window is located to the east, and double pointed-headed windows to the west. The chancel is of flint, brick and stone rubble, with restored double cinquefoil lights and buttresses, and a large five-light traceried cinquefoil-headed east window flanked by trefoil windows.

Inside the church, a fine west door dated 1630 bears the motto "let all things be done decently and in order". A stone font from 1591 has a buttressed stem and an octagonal, panelled bowl. There is also a coat of arms of William III. A section of a 1519 rood screen, attributed to Michael Bonversall, and a copy of the screen at Holy Cross Westgate, is resited in the south transept. A tower screen dated 1630 is also present. A window in the north transept was designed by Kempe in 1889. Armorial fragments are incorporated into the windows of the porch and the south transept. A monument commemorates Sir Roger Manwood, who died in 1592, featuring a waist-length portrait of him in the robes of Chief Baron of the Exchequer, portraits of his two wives and children, framed by columns and an entablature, with a skeleton displayed on a half-rolled-up pallet below. A wall tablet commemorates Richard Ibbotson (died 1731) with a scrolled open pediment.