Church Of St George

The Church of St George is an Anglican parish church largely dating to the 13th and 14th centuries, with significant late 15th-century alterations and a Victorian restoration in 1863 by T.H. Wyatt. It is constructed of dressed limestone with a tiled roof, incorporating fishscale tiled bands.

The church plan comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a southwest porch, and a chancel with a south chapel. The gabled, 19th-century south porch features a Tudor-arched, double chamfered doorway with a quatrefoil above, a diagonal buttress, and a lancet window. The south aisle has two late 15th-century windows with three lights, set within a Tudor arch and a hood mould, alongside a square-headed three-light window, also with a hood mould, and a buttress. The south chapel contains a reset 12th-century doorway with coupled columns, leading to a planked 19th-century door. Both the chancel and chapel east ends have diagonal buttresses, each with a 14th-century window of three lights with reticulated tracery and hoodmoulds. The north chancel side features a 19th-century cusped lancet and a pair of ogee-headed lancets. The lean-to north aisle has a 16th-century window of three lights to the east, and on its north side are a 19th-century three-light, two two-light cusped square-headed windows, and a chamfered pointed doorway. The west end of the north aisle features a two-light cusped square-headed window.

The prominent, good-quality late 15th-century tower has a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses, and string courses. A polygonal stair turret with an open parapet is set against the northeast corner. The west side has a moulded pointed doorway with angel terminals to the hoodmould, a four-light Perpendicular window on the second stage, and two-light Perpendicular windows with pierced stone louvres to the bellstage. The parapet features a quatrefoil frieze with gargoyles, decorative cusped triangles with open quatrefoils on the merlons. The south side has crocketed image niches and a blocked ogee-headed window on the second stage.

Inside, the porch has a 19th-century inner door with painted biblical inscriptions, and a pointed doorway leading to the aisle. The nave features a pointed, barrel-vaulted, panelled ceiling. A tall, double-chamfered tower arch has a 19th-century screen integrating reset 15th-century cusped open arcading. The baptistry in the tower has a polychrome tiled floor, and a Tudor-arched doorway leads to the stairs. The four-bay north arcade has double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers, accompanied by a lean-to four-bay rafter roof. The south aisle contains a three-bay pointed arcade resting on octagonal piers, and a moulded Tudor-arched doorway at the east end of the arcade. It also features an arch-braced collar roof. The south chapel is now used as an organ chamber. A 19th-century moulded chancel arch has foliated corbels with ballflower ornament, and a pointed, barrel-vaulted, panelled ceiling is present. An unusual double arcade separates the vestry and chancel. Fittings include a 19th-century limestone octagonal font on a marble column, a stone and marble pulpit with relief-carved heads of Apostles, and cast-iron and brass railings leading to a low stone wall across the chancel. The church also has 19th-century pews and choir stalls, and an 1833 charity board in the nave. A brass plaque in the chancel bears a Latin inscription recording the rebuilding of the tower by George Rede, the rector, in 1495. The church possesses significant group value.