Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary

This is a cruciform church with a central tower. The earliest structure is the nave, which dates to the early 12th century. The transepts, tower and chancel were rebuilt around 1240 in Early English style, though the church was substantially reconstructed at this period. Late eighteenth-century windows were inserted into the Early English framework.

The exterior is built in coursed limestone rubble with limestone ashlar walling. Stone slate roofs cover most of the building, except for lead roofing to the nave and chancel. A limestone ashlar stack rises from the structure.

The chancel features a 4-light east window with triple chamfered architrave and chamfered mullions running straight to the top, flanked by corner buttresses. The south wall of the chancel contains three similar 3-light windows, as does the north wall, which is adjoined by a single-storey vestry of around 1880 and a 2-storey organ turret. The organ turret is topped with an octagonal chimney and contains a 3-light window similar to the east window, set over a moulded string course.

The south transept has similar 3-light windows to each of its walls. The north transept contains 3-light windows of the same type, an east doorway with chamfered architrave, a sundial dated 1707, and a datestone dated 1787 in the gable wall.

The tower over the crossing displays two Early English lancets to each wall. The nave's north wall carries a lean-to dating to around 1880, which features two plain doorways with pointed arches and a 2-light window with pointed arches. The original early twelfth-century north doorway of the nave has a hood mould with saltire crosses and two orders of shafts with scalloped capitals. Two early twelfth-century lancets are also present. The taller south doorway, dating to the same period, retains its original studded door with broad crescent hinges. The thirteenth-century south porch was rebuilt in 1890 and contains a statue of the Virgin Mary.

A stair turret at the junction of the nave with the south transept features one Early English doorway with chamfered architrave and three small lancets. The south wall of the nave contains an early fifteenth-century 3-light window with carved heads to hood mould terminals, an early twelfth-century lancet, and a sundial dated 1741. Both the nave and tower have crenellated parapets. Gabled roofs cover the building generally, except for lean-to roofs over the late nineteenth-century vestry and an addition to the nave.

Interior

The east window contains stained glass by Henry Holiday dated 1919. Other stained glass in the chancel dates to the late nineteenth century. Five early fourteenth-century heraldic shields are reset in wood frames beneath the south windows. The high altar and reredos were created by H.S. Rogers in 1924.

A piscina in the south wall is decorated with alabaster carving depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, part of a seventeenth-century Italian reredos. The piscina is adjoined by three stepped sedilia. An unusual triangular niche in the north wall was made for William Hollcot, a lay preacher who died in 1570 and requested in his will that his heart be buried in a casket placed here. Also in the north wall is an early fourteenth-century tomb recess in Decorated style with ballflower ornament. Opposite this is a fine late thirteenth-century tomb recess.

The nave contains a fine early fifteenth-century 4-bay king-post roof with arch braces springing from corbels to the tie beam. Large foliate roof bosses and heraldic shields sit on the cornice. Late nineteenth-century benches are present. All four triple chamfered arches in the crossing, which have foliate capitals, were inserted in 1890.

The walls of the south transept are decorated with brilliantly coloured mosaics created by Powell's and dedicated by William West of Barcote Manor to his wife, who died in 1888. This decorative scheme also included stained glass, fine carved benches, a mosaic floor, and a roof with star-spangled decoration on a blue background.

The north transept contains a piscina and the jambs of early thirteenth-century lancets with original coloured decoration in the west wall and in the north-west and north-east corners. Three seventeenth-century funeral helmets hang on the east wall.

An elaborate black and white marble tomb of Sir Edward Yate and his daughter, dated 1648, features a black marble inscription panel with strapwork and garlanded border. The white marble inscription is detailed, and the entire composition is framed by a Corinthian aedicule with a segmental pediment broken by a heraldic crest. A memorial to Sir John Yate, dated 1658, has a black inscription tablet framed by black marble Ionic columns, with white marble consoles and a garlanded predella between them. The memorial is topped by a scrolled broken pediment with a heraldic crest. A brass to John Yate, dated 1578, and his wife depicts heraldic shields in the four corners with their sons and daughters shown below. A fourteenth-century marble slab set in the floor contains the matrix of an elaborate cross with a border inscription.

A thirteenth or fourteenth-century iron-bound chest is preserved in the church. A seventeenth-century 2-bay roof with three collar trusses and butt purlins covers one section.

The nave contains mid eighteenth-century box pews, an early fourteenth-century octagonal font decorated with quatrefoils and blind window tracery in alternate panels, and a Jacobean hexagonal pulpit with Ionic pilasters at the angles and unusual rusticated arches carved in perspective. A Jacobean balustrade to the tower gallery features keyed arches and turned balusters. A memorial to Elizabeth Perfect, dated 1802, by Coade and Seely, depicts a weeping putto beside an urn.

The church is graded for its medieval wall paintings and other fittings.