Church Of St Mary

An Anglican parish church of Early English character with a tower dating to around 1600. The building was restored in 1871 by W.J. Hopkins.

Structure and Materials

The church comprises a nave with a small lean-to on the north side, a south transept, a chancel, and a west tower. The nave is built from coursed squared and dressed limestone, while the chancel and south transept are constructed from limestone rubble. The overall exterior shows a mixture of orange and cream-coloured limestone, with the nave's north wall built predominantly from orange-coloured stone and the tower from finely dressed cream-coloured coursed squared limestone. The roof is covered in stone slate.

Exterior Features

The Early English nave features a south wall (probably restored in the 19th century) with a 2-light stone-mullioned casement window and a stopped hood. A porch projects forward to the right. The north wall has a flat-chamfered plinth, two buttresses, a narrow flat-chamfered round-headed doorway with a stopped hood, and two 2-light stone-mullioned casement windows.

The 15th-century south transept displays a 2-light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil heads to each light, tracery and stopped hood in the gable end. Below this is a small squint with carved spandrels cut from a single stone block. A lancet window with stopped hood appears on the left-hand return. The right-hand return has a two-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights, quatrefoils at the top, a moulded casement surround, and a hood with square-ended stops. An eroded monument, probably dating to the 17th century, is set into the wall to the right of this window.

The Early English chancel features angle buttresses and a single central buttress at the west end. Three lancet windows with stopped hoods pierce the north and south walls. A 19th-century plank priest's door sits within a flat-chamfered pointed surround with a stopped hood on the south wall. At the east end stands a triple, graded lancet with a continuous hood, topped by a dogtooth gable eaves cornice.

The three-stage west tower has a gabled roof. The ground floor features a 2-light stone-mullioned casement with stopped hood at the west end and a single window with flat-chamfered surround above. Similar belfry windows occupy the north and south sides, with a two-light window to the west-facing gable. A lean-to stairs projection rises to the height of the second stage on the south side. A string divides the second and third stages. The parapet features moulded coping and a string on the north and south sides, with coping continuing up the gables.

The restored Early English buttressed porch has a pointed double-chamfered entrance with engaged columns bearing moulded capitals. An unglazed 2-light window in the west wall features pointed flat-chamfered openings divided by two freestanding limestone columns. Stone bench seats line the interior walls of the porch, and a coloured tile floor covers the floor. The entrance to the nave comprises a 19th-century double plank doorway within an Early English surround with keel-moulding and freestanding jamb shafts with floriated capitals. The roof displays stepped coping with upright cross finials on roll-cross saddles at the gable ends.

Interior

The interior is plastered throughout. The plan consists of a nave with a passage to the south transept or chapel, a tower at the west end of the nave, and a chancel. A pointed 19th-century panelled roof covers the nave, with a similar panelled roof over the south transept. The chancel features a four-bay arrangement with arch-braced collar-beam trusses and raking struts. A low pointed archway with roll and casement mouldings leads to the tower base. A restored 19th-century chancel arch features two flat-chamfered orders. A blocked entrance to the roof loft appears at the upper right.

An elaborate 13th-century arch with roll mouldings and clustered shafts opens to the south transept, with a flat-chamfered Tudor arch to the right leading to a similar archway in the west wall of the south transept. Coloured tile flooring incorporating encaustic tiling covers the south transept and chancel. A 13th-century cinquefoil-headed piscina occupies the east wall, with a blocked flat-chamfered pointed image niche to its left.

The nave displays a moulded string below its windows and rere-arches to the window openings. A 13th-century piscina with two trefoil-headed openings sits in the south wall—one with a bowl, the other functioning as the Credence shelf.

Fixtures and Fittings

A Perpendicular octagonal font with quatrefoils on each face stands inside the south door. The church contains 19th-century pews and choir stalls. A pulpit dated to 1810 is also present.

Monuments

The south end of the south transept holds a monument to John Blaket, who died in 1431. It features a stone moulded and cusped arch resting on a chest tomb with seven canopied and buttressed niches containing sculptures of the Trinity and various other figures. To the right stands a grey marble monument to William Cope and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Fane of Westmorland. Elizabeth died in 1669 and William died in 1691. The monument displays a broken segmental-headed pediment with a heraldic shield at the top and heraldic devices in the marginal panels. A small Coade stone monument to John Cambray, who died in 1829, sits to the right, featuring an urn at the top and unusually finely executed foliate marginal panels flanked by stylized brackets.

Stained Glass

The east window is by Powell, dating to around 1900. The east window in the south chapel is by Geoffrey Webb, dated 1948.