Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church with chancel dating from the 14th century, main body of the church constructed 1838–1839, west tower built 1908–1909, and south chapel and vestries added in 1921. The main body was designed by Walker, the tower by C.E. Ponting, and the south chapel and vestries by Caröe. The building is constructed in ashlar and coursed, squared rubble with ashlar dressings, beneath slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles and chapels, south vestry, and north and south porches. The architectural style is largely 'Decorated', characterised by windows with curvilinear tracery throughout.

The 14th-century chancel extends for five bays and is lit by 19th-century two-light pointed windows. It features square-set three-stage buttresses with weathered details, a 19th-century pointed four-light east window, a moulded string course with ball-flower decoration, and gargoyles. The nave contains a six-bay clerestory with lancet windows. The north chapel and both north and south aisles have windows uniform with those of the chancel. The east window of the north chapel, west window of the north aisle, and east and west windows of the south aisle are three-light windows beneath pointed heads with vertical tracery.

Two-storeyed porches with coped gables and chamfered, pointed heads flank the building, with clerestory-style windows in their east and west walls and above the doors. The three-stage west tower has square-set buttresses to its lower two stages, string courses, and an embattled parapet with crocketted corner finials. The north face of the tower has no division into stages and includes a rectangular vice turret. The tower features a pointed, moulded west door and a pointed three-light west window. The second stage contains a two-light square-headed window and a round window above, with blind recesses to north and south. Belfry windows are two-light openings with pointed heads and panel tracery. The south chapel has two-light square-headed windows with stopped labels and brattishing above.

Internally, the chancel arch is four-centred and chamfered, supported on foliage-carved corbels. The tower arch is two-centred and chamfered. The nave has three-bay two-centred arcades on octagonal piers with capitals and bases. The north chapel arcade comprises two bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders. Two segmental-pointed arches open into the south chapel.

The nave roof is a tie-beam truss with cusped scissor-braces supported on head corbels. The chancel has a tie-beam truss roof with king-posts on corbels. The south chapel features a highly decorated tie-beam roof with king-posts and contains substantial high-quality 20th-century work, including two four-centred-head doors to the vestry.

The chancel contains a quatrefoiled piscina and restored 14th-century sedilia. 16th-century benches and bench ends are incorporated in modern seating. A carved reredos of 1925–1926 was created by H.P. Burke Downing and Nathaniel Hitch. The font is 15th-century with an octagonal bowl decorated with paterae, now much worn.

The church contains a significant collection of monuments spanning the 17th to 19th centuries. These include a 17th-century monument to Rev. John Jesop (1625) and Dr Thomas Jesop, featuring two recumbent effigies beneath arches with strapwork decoration; a large 1724 wall monument to Frances Dirdoe with a relief of three Graces; a wall monument to Sir Henry Dirdoe (1724) and others of his family by John Bastard and Co.; and a 1779 wall monument to Edward Read by F. Lancashire and Co.