Church Of Saint Mary And Saint Ethelbert

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert is an Anglican parish church dating from around 1200, with subsequent additions and alterations extending into the 15th century. It was extensively restored and the chancel rebuilt in 1892 by A.W. Blomfield. The church is constructed of rubble stone with stone slate roofs and coped gables. It comprises a nave, south aisle, north and south porches, a north tower, a chancel with a north vestry, and a south-east chapel.

The nave and aisle have 15th-century windows. The west end of the nave features a tall, pointed three-light window. The north side has flat-headed three-light and two-light windows, each with hoodmoulds, located either side of a moulded pointed 14th-century north door, set within a plain 18th-century gabled porch. The south aisle includes a four-centred three-light west window, and two- and three-light flat-headed windows with hoodmoulds, flanking an ashlar gabled porch with a moulded pointed arch. The pointed inner doorway has a 19th-century door. The south-east chapel is a reconstruction from 1872 of a 13th-century original, featuring pairs of lancet windows to the south, buttresses, a rectangular window to the right with hoodmoulds, and a three-light stepped lancet east window. The chancel of 1872 is built of ashlar and contains a south lancet window, an east three-light window, a north lancet, and an added, flat-roofed vestry from 1917.

The four-stage north tower is of 13th-century origin, with paired lancet windows on the bottom stage and small lancet loops to the north and east on the second stage. The third stage has blocked two-light bell openings with plate-traceried quatrefoil heads, raised angle piers, and a corbel table. The top bell stage is 15th-century in style, with two-light Perpendicular openings and hoodmoulds linked by a dripcourse. It is finished with battlements and truncated angle pinnacles.

Internally, a much-restored three-bay arcade from around 1200 features circular piers with spurs, trumpet-scallop caps, and circular abaci. The arches are two-chamfered. There are arch-braced collar rafter roofs in the nave and aisle. Painted texts from 1663 are on the north and south walls. The nave contains two low niches in the north-east angle, potentially a former reredos, and a 17th- or 18th-century panelled stone pulpit. A corbel head is in the north-east angle, and a rood stair in the south-east angle. Half-column piers support the two-chamfer chancel arch. The chancel (dated 1872) has marble shafted lancet windows, two to the north, one to the south, and a restored 13th-century two-bay arcade to the south-east chapel, with Purbeck marble shafted piers, quatrefoil bases, and caps. A pointed arch on column piers leads to the tower from the north side. The sanctuary includes 1872 decorative elements, such as brass rails, encaustic tiles, and a mosaic reredos. The south-east chapel, seemingly entirely restored, has fine Purbeck marble shafted windows with stiff-leaf caps to the east window shafts, and a roof dated 1872. A two-chamfer west arch on column piers mirrors the tower and chancel arches. Stained glass is present in the chancel, and a window in the south-east chapel contains glass from around 1910 by W.E. Tower. The church holds three coloured marble plaques from the late 18th century, belonging to the Fitzherbert family, one dated 1779 and signed T. Paty and Sons. A framed plaque commemorates H. Fitzherbert, who died in 1720. A plank door is in the north side of the nave, and a large stone font stands in the west wall, alongside a coloured marble monument dedicated to J. Harford, who died in 1769.