Parish Church Of St Mary Magdelene

The parish church of St Mary Magdalene stands prominently on Main Street in Loders. The building incorporates elements from the 12th century, with significant rebuilding in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, and further development into the early 20th century. Constructed of rubble-stone and dressed stone, the church is roofed with slate, featuring stone gable copings and a cross atop the east gable.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, south chapel, and west tower, with a south porch. The chancel’s north wall retains 12th-century remains, including a respond and scalloped capital. The chancel itself was largely rebuilt in the 13th century, exhibiting 13th, 14th, and 15th-century windows, with a 20th-century east window. A 15th-century priest’s doorway features hollow-chamfered jambs and a four-centred head. The nave, originally without aisles, was refenestrated in the 14th and 15th centuries and includes an early 15th-century two-bay arcade leading to the south chapel. Rebuilt steps for a rood loft are located at the east end of the north wall.

The three-stage west tower is topped with an embattled parapet and gargoyles, with set-back buttresses. The west doorway has moulded jambs and a two-centred head. Above the doorway is a window featuring three trefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head, with a moulded label and run-out stops. A second-stage window has two transomed and trefoiled lights with tracery, a label, and head-stops. The bell chamber has a similar window on each side, this time without transomes or labels. A newel stair is located in the south-east corner.

The late 14th-century south porch has an upper story added in the early 15th century, with the parapet extending to the south chapel. The outer archway has moulded jambs and a segmental-pointed head with a label. The early 15th-century south chapel is of two bays, with an embattled parapet and a half-octagonal turret providing access to a room above the porch. Its windows are of four lights with Y-super-mullion and panelled tracery heads.

Inside, the tower arch is of two orders – the outer chamfered and continuous, the inner moulded and springing from attached shafts. The late 14th-century chancel arch has moulded responds and capitals. The south arcade features a central pier with four attached shafts and pointed arches. The nave and chancel have segmental barrel-vaults, plastered, while the south chapel has five cambered tie-beams.

Notable fittings and features include a font with a square Purbeck marble bowl, a 15th-century carved stone crucifixion scene in the south chapel, and another 15th-century crucifixion on the west wall of the tower, depicting the Virgin, St John, and two small donor figures within a trefoiled ogee head. A chest in the south chapel incorporates traceried and linenfold panels, a dolphin, and the arms of France. Scratch dials are located on the east side of the entrance to the south porch. Stained glass within the nave's northwest window is 15th century, and the south-east window of the south chapel depicts saints, an abbot, and a pilgrim. A wall tablet in the south chapel commemorates Sir E Nepean, dating from 1822, with a bust in low relief.