Church Of St Stephen

Church of St Stephen

This parish church probably originated in the 12th century but was largely rebuilt around 1200, with an early 14th-century west tower added later. The nave and north wall of the aisle were rebuilt and a south porch added by J. Luker in 1869, while the chancel was restored and enlarged in 1870.

The surviving medieval parts are constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble, while the nave, north wall of the aisle and porch are built of regularly coursed and dressed rubble. The chancel is of uncoursed limestone rubble made from small stones, which has been scraped and cleaned. Stone slate roofs feature stepped coped verges and 19th-century stone crosses to the gables, except for the north chancel chapel which retains earlier plain crosses to its gables.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, north chancel chapel, north aisle, west tower and south porch.

The Tower is divided into two stages with stepped diagonal buttresses, a moulded plinth and string course. It features an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles, moulded cornices and grotesques. All windows are of the early 14th century. The south side has a small trefoil-headed window immediately above the string course and a cusped Y-tracery window with hood mould above, to the left of a splayed stair turret with narrow rectangular openings. This turret has an enriched canopy to its south-east corner over a large statue of St Stephen—a squat rustic figure holding a book and stones, his emblems as preacher and martyr. The east side displays a cusped Y-tracery window with hood mould. The first stage of the west side has a 3-light window with intersecting tracery and hood mould. A small trefoil-headed window sits directly above the string course, with a cusped Y-tracery window and hood mould above it. The north side has a window with cusped Y-tracery and hood mould.

The Nave contains two 2-light Decorated-style windows with floriated label-stops to the right of the gabled porch. This porch has a pointed double-chamfered outer arch with hood mould and small trefoil-headed windows to its side walls.

The North Aisle's north wall has three paired cusped lancets of 1869-70. A late 13th or early 14th-century 2-light window with Geometrical tracery and carved beasts as label-stops is set in the west wall.

The Chancel's south side features a broad 13th-century cusped lancet with hood mould to the left of a 13th-century stepped pointed double-chamfered doorway restored in 1870, with a narrow 13th-century lancet to the right. The easternmost window is 14th-century, a single ogee light under a square label with head-stops and trefoils and quatrefoils to the spandrels. The early 14th-century 3-light east window has cusped intersecting tracery and hood mould with head-stops. A late 19th-century copy of the same appears on the east wall of the north chancel chapel, which has two early 13th-century lancets to the north with a pointed doorway of around 1870 to the right.

In the Interior, a single-chamfered round-headed 12th-century south doorway has a plain tympanum and moulded imposts, with a hood mould bearing incised triangular decoration beneath. A 3-bay north arcade of around 1200 has pointed double-chamfered arches with circular piers and scalloped capitals; late 19th-century plinths and square bases are modern additions. The twin-stepped pointed chancel arch, heavily restored in 1870, retains semi-circular responds with scalloped capitals and moulded plinths of around 1200, with tall narrow shafts to the outer order on the west. A high early 14th-century tower arch of four chamfered orders (the outer three continuous, the inner supported by semi-circular shafts with chamfered capitals) opens to the nave. A chamfered round-headed doorway in the south wall of the tower leads to the staircase turret.

A pointed double-chamfered arch connects the chancel to the north chapel, with a semi-circular respond to the east and a corbelled respond to the west, largely rebuilt in 1870 but appearing to incorporate earlier work. A pointed arch from the north aisle to the chapel also dates to 1869-70 but incorporates earlier work and cuts through a medieval wall. All roofs are of late 19th-century date, with a crown-post roof in three-and-a-half bays to the nave and a trussed rafter roof to the chancel.

A cusped rere-arch frames the tower's west window, and a wide squint with cambered head opens from the north chapel to the chancel. Moulded pointed image niches to either side of the chancel arch appear to date from around 1200; one stands to the left, while a similar but lower recess with a double-chamfered trefoiled head is to the right. An infilled south chancel doorway has an elliptical arch internally with a carved head below its apex. Three stepped sedilia sit below the south-east window, with a trefoil-headed credence shelf with piscina to the left, and a square aumbry on the north.

Fittings and furnishings are mostly of late 19th-century date or later, including nave benches, choir stalls and a stone pulpit. A 15th-century octagonal panelled font bears floral motifs in quatrefoils to its sides. Two late 18th or early 19th-century brass chandeliers hang in the sanctuary, and stained glass of around 1907 appears in the east window. A collection of 17th and early 18th-century brass plates commemorating members of local families lines the north and south walls of the chancel.

Deserted village earthworks lie in a field to the south-west.