Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church with a foundation dating back to the 12th century, and featuring alterations and restorations in every subsequent century, most notably a substantial restoration between 1843 and 1847. The church is constructed primarily of coursed rubble stone with a stone slate roof, featuring coped verges and cross finials.

The west tower has two stages, the lower stage likely dating from the 15th century and featuring a three-light Perpendicular window to the west, along with stepped diagonal buttresses. The upper stage, from the 16th century, has a small light to the west and small twin belfry openings on each face. Stone gutters project from the corners of the string course, surmounted by coped cross gables with finials and a weathervane. The south wall of the nave incorporates a single lancet and two twin lancets from the 1843 restoration by James Park Harrison, along with a 2-light 13th-century window from Daglingworth. A south transept was added in 1876 to serve as an organ chamber, including a small Norman single light within a splayed reveal on the east wall. A corbel table from the original Norman church extends from inside the south transept to eaves level on the outside of the chancel, and also on the north side. The east end of the church has three-light stepped lancets from the 1843 restoration. The north aisle, dating from the late 15th century, has two rounded trefoil-head paired lights with square hoodmolds, stepped buttresses, and a coped parapet. A door in the west end features a moulded square surround with a square hoodmould and an inner moulded pointed arch with quatrefoil and mouchettes in the spandrels.

Inside, the church features a 19th-century hammer beam nave roof and a late 15th-century north aisle with a central octagonal pier. The two-step chancel arch from the 13th century rests on sloping Norman piers with shafts carved with differently patterned capitals and large pellet mouldings. The chancel has a 14th-century trussed rafter roof, a restored Early English piscina in the south-east wall, and a wood-lined aumbry in the north-east wall. The south transept organ chamber is divided from the chancel by pointed arches with dog-tooth moulding on the south side, supported by a pier of clustered columns, some marble-faced and banded with carved floral capitals. Numerous wall and floor monuments commemorate the Bourchier family, builders of Barnsley House, dating from the late 17th century.