Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church dating to 1874-5, designed by Falkenbridge and built on a medieval site. The chancel was extended in 1911 by Temple Moore. The church is constructed of coursed, tooled squared sandstone, with the older section featuring a rock-faced plinth and sloped top, while the east end sits above an undercroft. The nave roof is covered in purple slate with a tile ridge, stone copings, a bellcote and finial; the chancel roof uses clay tiles above four courses of flagstones. The church comprises a nave, chancel, a south porch and a north vestry. The architecture is of the lancet style.

The nave is three bays long, and the chancel is two bays long. The gabled porch has sloped angle buttresses and a moulded two-centred arch leading to a boarded door with long hinges; trefoils decorate the side walls. Buttresses divide the nave and the two periods of the chancel, as well as the east end. Single lancet windows are present throughout, except for three staffed lancets in the west and east ends, the latter being cusped. The west end also features a single lancet window within the gable peak, beneath a corbelled-out bellcote. The undercroft has a small, studded east door, featuring a good iron handle and hinges, beneath a shouldered lintel, plus small flanking windows and vent slits, all of which are chamfered. Vents are also positioned below the main windows, to the sides under the eaves, and in the gable peak beneath a wheel cross finial. A two-light, square-headed, Perpendicular window with cusped lights is positioned within the north chancel wall. The vestry has lancets at varying levels, and a basement door that resembles that of the undercroft; it also includes a battlemented gabled chimney.

Inside, the doorway from the porch is recent, but leads to a nearly-complete reset 12th-century arch with roll, hollow and chevron mouldings set within the frame of St Andrew’s crosses. The walls are of bare stone. The nave features a straight-braced collar-beam roof with cusping to the spandrels, while the chancel has a ribbed barrelled roof across both sections. A two-bay, transitional-style arcade leads to the vestry. Some medieval masonry is visible within the south wall, with a small amount re-used in the north wall. The chancel arch is wide and pointed, with a few 12th-century chevron-moulded voussoirs inserted. The font has been fashioned from a medieval column with a spurred base. Stained glass by Kempe is found in the chancel and south nave. There is good woodwork throughout, including pews, choir benches, clergy seats, a choir screen and pulpit.