Church Of Holy Cross

The Church of Holy Cross is a medieval church that has undergone significant alteration and rebuilding. It was largely reconstructed in the 1831 by William Turner, an Oxford watercolourist, and subject to minor restoration in 1869 by J. Buckeridge. The church is built of squared and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings, and has a stone-coped gabled stone slate roof. It consists of a nave, chancel and a west tower. It is designed in the Gothic Revival style.

The two-bay south side of the nave features a blocked doorway with a hood mould, and two-light, ogee-headed, cinquefoiled windows. To the north side are similar windows, and a reset early 14th-century Decorated porch. The porch has a hood mould with rosettes and unusual primitive head corbels, and a pointed arch doorway with rosettes, with a 19th-century pointed arch inner doorway. The three-stage west tower has cinquefoiled windows beneath a battlemented parapet with corner gargoyles.

Inside, the church has an arch-braced roof with moulded beams, wind braces and king posts, supported by plain corbels displaying the arms of past vicars and lords of the manor. The chancel has a mid-19th-century Minton tile floor and a reset early 14th-century cinquefoiled tomb recess. A double-chamfered chancel arch is flanked by traceried Decorated-style panels and a brattished Perpendicular-style wooden screen created in 1896. The nave contains a wooden traceried pulpit on a stone base, an 18th-century parish chest, a 11th-century tub font reset on late 19th-century piers, and a 19th-century west door. Late 19th-century stained glass is present throughout. Memorials include wall tablets to John Rathbone (died 1613) and Stephen Pomfrett (died 1713), a Gothic-style memorial to William Turner, and a medieval child's coffin in the chancel. A ledger stone commemorates Edward Egleton (died 1722). Older pictures of the church indicate a former north chapel (from which the tomb recess was relocated) and a different position for the present 14th-century porch. William Turner’s uncle funded the restoration.