Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church comprising a nave, chancel, south aisle, south-west tower porch, north transept and north-east vestry. The building originates from the late 12th century and was extended in the early 14th century, with a tower added in 1689. The church was restored and its chancel rebuilt by C.E. Powell between 1878 and 1880.

The exterior walls are constructed of regularly coursed and dressed marlstone with limestone ashlar dressings. The roofs are of stone slate and lead with stepped coped verges and moulded parapets.

The tower, built in 1689, comprises two stages with a chamfered plinth, moulded string courses and an embattled parapet. The south side features a square-headed moulded doorway with plank double doors, with an inscription to the lintel reading "Thomas Harris and Thomas ? Church/Wardenes Anno Domi 1689". Below the lower string course is a chamfered rectangular opening, and above it an ovolo-moulded two-light mullion window with a narrow rectangular opening lighting an internal stair turret. The north and east faces have chamfered two-light mullion windows to the second stage, while the west side has a chamfered rectangular opening below the lower string course and a chamfered two-light mullion window above.

The south aisle contains varied window openings. To the left of the tower is a small rectangular chamfered opening. To the right is a late 14th-century square-headed two-light window with ogee cinquefoil heads and mouchettes, and a 15th-century square-headed window with three cinquefoil-headed lights. The east wall has an early 14th-century window with cusped intersecting tracery and an elongated quatrefoil to the apex, with a richly moulded ogee hoodmould featuring a restored foliated finial and weathered head-stops. The west wall shows an earlier steeper roof pitch visible beneath later work.

The nave clerestory has a small rectangular chamfered opening to the left of the tower and a three-light mullion window to the right. The west wall of the nave displays an early 14th-century three-light window with reticulated tracery and a continuing hoodmould to either side.

The north side of the nave features a late 12th-century round-headed doorway with semi-circular lintel, tympanum and hoodmould, with a 17th-century plank door with strap hinges. To the right is a 16th-century mullion window with three segmental-headed lights and a dripstone, and to the left a late 15th-century three-light cinquefoil-headed window with a dripstone.

The east gable end has a probably late 15th-century bellcote with a round-headed arch, pyramidal finials and a cross to the apex.

The lean-to north transept has a similar 15th-century window to that in the north wall of the nave, without a dripstone, to its north wall, and a three-light chamfered mullion window with a dripstone.

The 19th-century lean-to vestry in the angle with the chancel has a window with three trefoil-headed lights and a dripstone to the east on its north side, and a pointed doorway with a hoodmould immediately to the right. An apparently reset narrow rectangular window with a projecting triangular head is positioned to the east wall.

The chancel has windows dating from the 1878-80 restoration: two two-light windows on the south with Decorated tracery, one on the west with Decorated tracery, one on the east with plate tracery, a two-light plate tracery window to the north, and an east window comprising three stepped moulded lancets with foliated label-stops. Traces of an earlier infilled opening are visible beneath the east window.

Interior

The interior retains a late 17th-century chamfered rectangular south doorway with contemporary six-panel double doors.

The nave arcade shows two western bays dating from around 1180, featuring plain pointed arches with continuous hoodmould, circular piers and semi-circular responds, all with abaci and moulded plinths. The pier has a scalloped capital, with palmette leaves to the east respond and a plain west respond. The arcade was extended eastward by two bays in the early 14th century: the central octagonal pier has a moulded plinth and capital and half-octagonal responds, with the east respond featuring raised circular decoration to the abacus. The two eastern bays have double-chamfered pointed arches with continuous hoodmould.

An early 14th-century double-chamfered pointed chancel arch has half-octagonal responds with moulded plinths and deeply undercut moulding to capitals similar to that of the pier in the arcade extension. A crudely pointed double-chamfered arch to the transept is also 14th century.

The nave has a tie beam roof in five bays with short wall posts on plain stone corbels. Square-headed windows in the north wall and aisle have moulded wood lintels with straight-cut stops.

A 14th-century cinquefoil-headed piscina with hoodmould and label-stops exists in the south wall of the south aisle, with a semi-circular seat recess beneath the south-east window. A plain pointed piscina is located in the south wall of the north transept.

Fourteenth-century floor tiles are present in the south aisle, including a fine set apparently in situ at the east end.

Fragmentary wall-paintings and texts, mainly of post-medieval date, appear on the north wall of the nave.

A late 12th-century tub-shaped font has a moulded plinth and circular base.

A wooden polygonal pulpit with the scratched date "1623" features carved pelicans to the top dividing panels, which have pilastered round-headed arches with floral and geometrical motifs.

Nineteenth-century roofs cover the aisle and transept, and a 19th-century scissor-braced roof covers the chancel. The chancel has 19th-century encaustic floor tiles, including those in the raised sanctuary, and a 19th-century piscina and credence shelf in the south wall. A plain pointed door leads to the vestry, which contains fragments of reassembled medieval stained glass in the east window, including a mid-15th-century quarry depicting the Virgin Annunciate. Reassembled medieval glass also appears in the west window of the transept and in the north clerestory window. Late 19th and early 20th-century stained glass is present in several other windows, including glass in the east window dated 1913.

Nineteenth-century benches with linenfold panelling in the nave are probably copied from a late 15th-century bench end with linenfold panelling near the font. Three open benches in the south aisle to the east of the tower are probably late 16th or 17th century.

Monuments

Eighteenth-century wall tablets and memorials to members of local families are distributed throughout the nave, chancel and south aisle. The most notable are those on the east face of the tower to Sarah Jones (died 1687) and others, and on the south wall of the aisle to Anne Jones (died 1708). The former features two mourning putti with festooned garlands flanking a segmental-pedimented inscription surmounted by an armorial device; the latter has an inscription with a scroll pediment broken by an armorial device and mourning cherubs to the sides framed by palm fronds and volutes.

Figurative brasses in the south aisle floor commemorate Katherine Throckmorton (died 1592) and her children, and in the nave floor Edmund Ansley (died 1613), his wife and children. A brass plate in the floor by the north doorway commemorates William Bankes (died 1676). Several late 17th and 18th-century incised tomb slabs are present in the nave floor.

A wooden funeral bier is located in the porch.