Church Of St Ethelbert

The Church of St. Ethelbert is a parish church dating to the 12th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The tower and porch are constructed of thin-coursed red sandstone with ashlar dressings, while the nave is of larger, roughly coursed stone, also with ashlar dressings. The chancel is built of squared, coursed stone, all with Welsh slate roofs, with stone slate to the porch. The church includes a four-bay nave, a west tower, a north aisle of the same height as the nave, a chancel, a two-bay north chapel, and a south porch.

The south face of the tower is undivided externally, featuring diagonally-set corner buttresses at the west end. It has ogee-headed single-light windows to the upper two stages, with stone louvres. A plain oversailing parapet with a plain gargoyle tops the tower, where the stump of an octagonal spire originally stood. The nave has a diagonally-set west buttress and a square-set east end with two three-light windows containing rectilinear tracery, lacking hoodmoulds. A blocked doorway is located high up at the east end. The gable copings have an apex cross. The porch is slightly off-centre with a plain, moulded door surround. It has been built up, and features projecting kneelers, a cross-gablet apex, and a cross on the gable. Two mass-dials are present on the south face. A projection incorporates a rood stair with a stone cap in the angle between the nave and chancel. The chancel has two two-light windows with 'Y' tracery and hoodmoulds, with a blocked priest’s door between. Diagonally-set buttresses support the east end, with an intersecting tracery window. The north aisle has square-set buttresses supporting square-headed two-light windows, each light featuring an ogee head.

The interior features a chancel floor level with the nave; the walls are plastered. The chancel arch is semi-circular Norman with different responding capitals, and a later pointed arch above. A small, square-headed door is located above, near the head of the rood loft stair. Octagonal pillars support a four-bay arcade, which has plain, chamfered bases and moulded capitals. A low square-headed opening in the return wall by the tower provides access to the north aisle, possibly for a former west gallery. The ceiling of the nave is a panelled, plastered barrel vault with carved wooden bosses. The chancel ceiling is a panelled, plastered waggon roof with carved bosses and a crenellated wall-plate. The north aisle has Medieval glass in the head of two lights, also in the north chapel. The north aisle's ceiling is panelled and plastered; one half features a waggon roof with a crenellated wall plate, while the other half is plain plaster. The north chapel features heavily-moulded cambered tie beams with wall posts and curved braces between cambered, plastered ceilings. A large monument by T. Ricketts of Gloucester (1752) is located in the chancel, along with three late 18th or early 19th century wall monuments. The octagonal stone font is probably medieval, with a later stem, and trefoil-headed blind arches to the sides of the bowl. A benefactions board is situated within the porch. The spire was lost in 1894, and the south porch was converted into a vestry during the mid-20th century. The churchyard contains a rich collection of headstones, which are not separately listed.