Old Church Of Holy Rood

The Old Church of Holy Rood is a Grade I listed building located on Whorlton Lane. It is now a controlled ruin, except for the chancel, which is still occasionally used as a mortuary chapel. The church dates from the mid and late 12th century, 13th century, and 14th century, with restorations from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The remaining structures include the nave arcades, the south tower porch, fragments of the west wall, and the chancel. The older parts of the church are made from small, roughly-coursed sandstone, while the later sections are constructed from coursed squared, tooled sandstone. The tower roof is covered with stone slates, and the chancel roof is made of Welsh slate.

The north arcade, which was buttressed in the 19th century but has lost its west bay, features scalloped capitals and single-chamfered arches. The chancel arch has similar capitals on its roll-moulded piers. The taller south arcade is distinguished by stepped arches on moulded capitals. The inserted 14th-century tower has a pointed-arched inner door, ogee-headed bell openings, and a plain blocking course beneath a pyramidal roof topped with a ball-on-spike finial. There is a remnant of a quatrefoil-panelled parapet over the south arcade, likely added when the tower was constructed.

The chancel has gabled buttresses and pointed geometrical windows with heavy headstopped hoodmoulds, except for one three-light window with carved shields above and a restored 14th-century east window. A projection on the north wall houses a large relocated late Perpendicular tomb recess with an earlier oak effigy. The church features a replaced timber roof, a trefoiled piscina, and a tub font on a chamfered plinth, along with a small, blocked pointed-arched priest's door.