Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building located in Over Silton, North Yorkshire. It has origins dating back to the 12th century, with additions and alterations from the 14th, 15th, and 19th centuries. The church is constructed from coursed squared stone and ashlar, topped with graduated stone slate and Welsh slate roofs.

The structure features a nave with a south porch and a chancel that includes a north vestry. The nave consists of two bays and is supported by set-back buttresses at each end, with diagonal buttresses at the west end. The gabled porch on the left has a chamfered pointed-arch doorway, which contains an original 12th-century board door hung on the wall. Inside the porch is another 12th-century doorway, adorned with shafts featuring scalloped capitals and zigzag and roll moulding. To the right of the porch is a two-light cusped flat-arched window, and the building is topped with an embattled parapet. The west gable includes a wide gabled bellcote, likely from the 15th century, and a pointed-arched cusped two-light west window.

The chancel features a diagonal buttress on the east end, a small pointed-arched board door in a chamfered surround, and a one-light pointed-arched window to its left. To the right is a 15th-century double-chamfered two-light cusped flat-arched window. The eaves cornice has stone coping, and the east end showcases a 14th to 15th-century three-light cusped pointed-arched window. The north vestry, added in the 19th century, has a gabled roof with diagonal buttresses and a three-light Perpendicular-style window.

Inside, the church features a heavily restored 12th-century chancel arch and a nave with a shallow king-post roof supported by three trusses, each having a carved crest at the center. The font is a substantial 17th-century piece with a chamfered square base and a tapering banded shaft that supports a chamfered square bowl. Above the chancel arch, there are royal arms from the 18th century.