Church Of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

Parish church dating from the late 11th or 12th century, with significant additions in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The building was substantially restored in 1891 by J.L. Pearson. It is constructed of ragstone with a plain tile roof, and the spire is covered with wood shingles.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch with parvis chamber above, chancel with south chapel, north vestry and north aisle.

The west tower dates to the 13th century, possibly with earlier origins. It is built of roughly coursed ragstone rubble with a battered plinth. The tower has no distinct stages. A north-east pilaster buttress with tufa quoins is present, and traces of a south-east buttress remain. The tower is topped with a splay-footed octagonal form featuring 19th-century lucarnes. Each face of the belfry except the east has a lancet window, with a small rectangular light positioned towards the centre of the tower below each lancet. The west doorway has a moulded pointed arch with a renewed scroll-moulded hoodmould.

The south aisle was rebuilt or refaced in 1891. It features small blocks of evenly-coursed dressed stone on a chamfered stone plinth, a moulded and gargoyled string-course, and a plain parapet with moulded stone coping. Diagonal south-west and south-east buttresses and two further south buttresses support the walls. A 19th-century west window and three 19th-century south windows are designed in a late 13th-century style.

The south porch is styled similarly to the south aisle, with its parapet raised to a point over the doorway. It has a chamfered plinth, diagonal south-west and south-east buttresses, and a south window to the parvis chamber comprising two trefoil-headed lights with squared hoodmould. A small rectangular west light lights the porch, and a blocked trefoil-headed light occupies the east. The south doorway, possibly 15th century, has a cavetto-moulded pointed arch with doubly plain-chamfered jambs featuring broach stops and a renewed moulded hoodmould. A 19th-century inner doorway is present, alongside a ribbed medieval inner door.

The south chapel dates to the 14th century. Its walls are of roughly-coursed ragstone with a chamfered plinth, moulded string-course and parapet matching the south aisle. The string-course and parapet rise to a point over the east window. A 15th-century two-light south window has a hoodmould and tracery of vertical bars. A late 14th or early 15th-century two-light east window features trefoil-headed lights, encircled quatrefoils and a moulded hoodmould.

The chancel has a 14th-century or earlier core, constructed of roughly coursed ragstone. It extends eastward beyond the chapels and has a chamfered plinth. A two-light south window with renewed tracery of vertical bars and hoodmould is present. A broad three-light east window has moulded medieval jambs with similar tracery. A two-light 19th-century north window with trefoil heads is also present.

The vestry is a 19th-century addition positioned at right-angles to the chancel, with a lower extension to the north.

The north aisle dates to 1891 and follows the same style as the south aisle. It has four north windows alternating with buttresses, one of which is three-light towards the east, with the remainder being two-light.

Interior Structure

The interior features a four-bay nave arcade to north and south, both dating to 1891, with chamfered pointed arches springing from clustered shafts. A pointed cavetto-moulded 15th-century chancel arch springs from attached semi-circular shafts with moulded semi-octagonal capitals and bases, with the outer moulding continuous. A pointed doubly plain-chamfered 14th-century arch separates the chancel from the south chapel, springing from scroll-moulded imposts. Another doubly plain-chamfered 14th-century pointed arch, with renewed base, connects the south chapel to the south aisle.

A late 11th or 12th-century west doorway to the nave, possibly reset or reworked, is visible from the base of the tower. It has chamfered imposts, a raised hoodmould and a chevron band. Part of a chamfered jamb of a blocked opening immediately above the west end of the sedilia remains visible.

A 19th-century hagioscope opens to the south chancel chapel.

Roof Structure

The nave roof comprises restored collared common rafters with scissor-braces and ashlar pieces. The chancel is covered with a moulded octagonal crown-post on a 19th-century tie-beam, featuring sous-laces and ashlar-pieces. The south chapel has a shallow-pitched roof with a broad ridge-beam butted by rafters and supported on chamfered tie-beams. Lean-to roofs of 19th-century date cover the aisles.

Fittings and Monuments

A trefoil-headed piscina, probably 19th century, features continuous roll-and-fillet moulding. Triple sedilia have partly renewed hollow-chamfered pointed-arched heads and scroll-moulded 19th-century hoodmould. An octagonal font is present.

The south wall of the south chapel contains a large 14th-century tomb recess with a moulded multi-cusped ogee arch and crocket finial. A shallow tomb recess on the north wall of the chancel features a depressed moulded multi-cusped arch with daggered and quatrefoiled spandrels, and a panelled chest.

A tablet on the north wall of the chancel commemorates Agnes Wilberforce, died 1834, executed by Samuel Joseph. The rectangular tablet is mounted on plain consoles with fluted side panels, surmounted by a white marble relief depicting a mourning family beside a draped urn on a pedestal, with a tapering grey marble back plate.

Decoration and Furnishings

The east window contains 19th-century stained glass depicting scenes from the Passion. The south chapel features a 19th-century mottled grey and green-tiled dado, with tiled figures of Old Testament women above the dado rail, and a chequered black-and-white marble floor.