Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Church dating from the 12th and 13th centuries with 17th-century additions and later alterations including restoration in 1818. Built of coursed squared stone with Welsh slate roofs. The building comprises a three-bay nave with a west tower, south porch, north aisle, north vestry, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel.

The tower, dating from 1667 and restored in 1818, is in Perpendicular style with quoins and a chamfered plinth. The west end features offset diagonal buttresses and an elliptical-arched Y-tracery window (probably 19th century) below a cusped light. Each side of the belfry stage has a cusped two-light window. A moulded string with a gutter above it on the south side runs below the embattled parapet, which is finished with crocketed corner finials.

The nave and chancel have pointed-arched openings, chamfered eaves, and kneelers with ashlar coping and cross finials to the gables. The roof ridges are crested. Against the nave wall to the left of the porch stands a mid-18th-century headstone commemorating eight children of Christopher and Elizabeth Sturdy, topped with a segmental pediment featuring dentil and egg-and-dart moulding.

The 19th-century porch has a doorway set below a blind opening containing a defaced crucifixion, with a C18 sundial in the gable. Each return of the porch has a cusped two-light window. Inside the porch is an early 12th-century narrow round-arched doorway with three orders of chevrons on columns with decorated cushion capitals and billeted hoodmould, partly restored. To the right of the porch are two 19th-century Decorated-style two-light windows.

The north aisle has an offset diagonal buttress at its west end, two two-light double-chamfered mullion windows (the western one 20th century), and a lancet in the west side of the vestry. The chancel has a chamfered plinth, a restored priests' door with a small chamfered two-light window to the left and a restored lancet to the right. The 19th-century east window comprises three stepped lancets under a hoodmould and relieving arches. The north chapel has two restored lancets under a sexfoiled circular window at its east end and a tall two-light double-chamfered mullion window on its north side.

The interior contains a recessed round tower arch with imposts. A restored late 12th-century three-bay pointed-arch north arcade rests on circular columns with simply-moulded bases and water-leaf capitals. The 12th-century chancel arch is elliptical with three orders of plain and chevron moulding under a restored billeted hoodmould, springing from columns with decorative bases and cushion capitals (much restored). Flanking the arched opening into the north chapel are two 13th-century grave slabs: the northern one features a cross with stepped base and foliated head, together with a hammer and shield; the southern one displays a pastoral staff with flabella. The roof trusses, dating from the 19th century, are scissor-braced. Benefaction boards are located in the tower. The north aisle contains probably 17th-century bench pews with knob finials and added baluster-type candlestick holders, as well as a bell dated 1684 with decorative mouldings to the top.

The church was originally a chapel under the Priories of Coxwold, then Newburgh, and finally Thirkleby, before becoming a separate parish church in 1868.