Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a church dating back to the 14th century. The west tower was rebuilt in 1823 and restored in 1841 and 1876 by E.F. Law. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with lead roofs to most areas, slate to the chancel, and plain tile to the porches.

The church comprises a chancel, a north chancel vestry and organ chamber, a nave with north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a west tower. The chancel has a four-light east window with intersecting tracery, a two-light north window with an ogee-arched head and reticulated tracery, a piscina with a cusped head, and a two-light south-east window and a one-light south-west low side window with an ogee head and trefoil. The nave clerestory features four two-light windows to the north and three to the south, all with four-centred heads. The north aisle has a 19th-century extension overlapping the chancel, and two-light Decorated windows throughout. The north porch has a hollow-chamfered doorway with a four-centred head, cut spandrels, and rectangular windows with chamfered surrounds and ironstone infill, featuring cross ventilation slits. The south aisle has two-light Decorated windows and a two-light arch mullion window to the west. The south porch mirrors the north porch, bearing an inscription reading JHP/JH/CHWDS/AD/1841. The three-stage west tower has a four-centred head door, a two-light arch-mullion window above, and a datestone inscribed "REBUILT/1823". It also features two-light bell openings with cusped Y-tracery, diagonal buttresses, battlemented parapets, and corner pinnacles.

External features include a chamfered plinth, a string course stepped to the chancel, plain stone-coped parapets, and stone-coped gables. All windows and doors, except for small side windows in the porches, have hood moulds, some with carved label stops.

Inside, the chancel features a stepped string course, a 19th-century stone reredos with painted angels, and a fine three-bay sedilia and piscina with ogee cusped heads, crocketed hood moulds, and pinnacles. There is also a chamfered priest’s door to the north with an ogee head and hood mould. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with a polygonal respond. The nave has three-bay arcades with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The roofs are largely 19th-century, but the nave roof retains moulded ties and purlins, possibly dating back to the 15th century. Fragments of medieval stained glass are present in the heads of the aisle windows and canopy heads in the south-east chancel windows, including a figure of a mason in the north-east aisle window. A tomb recess contains a Purbeck marble tomb slab with a foliated cross. A 17th-century communion table is located in the south aisle, and the church is furnished with a complete set of 19th-century pitch pine fittings.