Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Anglican parish church spanning the 13th to 15th centuries, restored in 1878 by G.G. Scott. The building is constructed of rubble stone and limestone ashlar with a stone slate roof featuring coped verges and cross finials.

The church comprises a nave, north aisle and south chapel, chancel, west tower and south porch. The south porch is attached to the west end of the 14th-century south chapel and features a pointed moulded doorway with cusped crocketed image niche and bolection-moulded tablet over. Diagonal buttresses flank the entrance. The aisle to the right has a cusped lancet window with pedimented tablet over, a 3-light Perpendicular window, angle buttresses, and a 3-light square-headed window to its east end.

The chancel contains a cusped square-headed light, a trefoil-headed doorway, and a cusped square-headed 2-light window. A projection to the left accommodates rood loft stairs. The east end features a 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular-style window, while the north side has a 2-light Perpendicular-style window. The north aisle was extended to the east in the 1870s and contains large and small 3-light Perpendicular windows, a blocked moulded pointed north doorway, and a 3-light recessed chamfered mullioned casement. A lean-to vestry stands at the west end. Cast-iron rainwater goods with moulded decoration are notable throughout.

The three-stage 15th-century west tower has diagonal buttresses and string courses. The west door is Tudor-arched with a hoodmould, topped by a 3-light Perpendicular window. A chamfered arrowloop appears on the middle stage. A square stair turret on the north side features arrowloops and a battlemented parapet. The south side of the tower contains an arrowloop to the middle stage, with sundials on an adjacent buttress. The bell stage displays 2-light Perpendicular pointed windows with pierced decorative louvres. A string course with gargoyles runs to the battlemented parapet, which is topped by a pyramidal tiled roof with stone finial.

Interior

The porch contains a 2-bay original roof with arch-braced collar truss and curved windbraces. A Tudor-arched doorway leads to winding stone stairs serving a former upper floor. The inner doorway is also Tudor-arched, with a 19th-century ribbed door. Fixed stone benches line the interior.

The nave has a 19th-century braced collar-rafter roof and a polygonal tiled floor. A double-chamfered tower arch is topped by an early 20th-century carved screen by David Burry.

The early 14th-century south aisle features a 2-bay double-chamfered pointed arcade on octagonal piers. The roof is of high quality, with arch-braced collar rafters and runners featuring moulded soffits and bosses. A cusped ogee piscina adorns the south side, with winding stone newel stairs at the east end leading to the former rood.

The 13th-century north arcade has double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers, with a roof similar in quality to the south aisle. Squints appear at the east end of both aisles.

The chancel has a 19th-century pointed barrel-vaulted ceiling with ribbed panels and a tie-beam with brattishing. The floor is laid with polychrome tiles. A moulded trefoiled piscina adorns the south wall, and a 17th-century communion table is accompanied by brass and iron communion rails.

Fittings and Monuments

The church contains 19th-century pews throughout. A 13th-century cylindrical font bowl is positioned in the tower, and a 19th-century stone polygonal pulpit with richly carved arcading and compound base stands in the nave. Medieval stained glass fragments survive in the north-east aisle window.

The Lady Chapel contains several monuments: a scrolled pedimented tablet to Henry Harding (died 1774), and classical marble tablets to Isaac Dark (died 1818), Stephen Dark (died 1815), and William Curtis (died 1806).