Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a medieval church of the 13th and 14th centuries, repaired and altered around 1720 at the expense of the Earl of Halifax. The body of the church was restored and partly rebuilt by E.F. Law in 1862–3. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble and coursed squared limestone and ironstone, with slate roofs.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, south aisle, porch and west tower. The 2-bay chancel features an inverted round-arched relieving arch in ironstone below a 3-light east window with 19th-century Decorated-style tracery. The south side has 2-light windows with 19th-century Geometrical tracery, all with hood moulds. The nave has a central 1-light window to the north side flanked by 2-light windows, all with 19th-century Decorated tracery and hood moulds. The south aisle contains similar 2-light windows and a 1-light window to the west end.

The south doorway is double-chamfered and set within a 19th-century porch with a similar doorway and 1-light window to either side, both with cut spandrels. The small 3-stage tower has a 2-light window to the first stage west with a chamfered horizontal oval head (renewed). A circular window to the north has a moulded stone surround. The middle stage has large clock faces to the west and south with similar surrounds and 1-light chamfered bell-openings. The tower has diagonal off-set buttresses and a plain stone-coped parapet with plain pilaster slips to the angles. The body of the church has hollow-chamfered stone eaves and ornamental ridge tiles to the nave. The south aisle displays alternating bands of ironstone and limestone, with offset buttresses to the angles of the aisle and chancel. A tall elaborate 18th-century wrought-iron weather-vane once stood on the tower but has since been dismantled.

Internally, the chancel contains an alabaster and marble reredos and dado to the sanctuary with marble inlay trellis patterns to the reredos and a limestone quatrefoil sill band. A sedile with a chamfered pointed arched head features painted and marble inlay decoration and a triangular hood mould. The chancel roof comprises elaborate 19th-century carved corbels supporting an arch-braced collar truss. The nave has 3-bay arcades with octagonal piers, moulded bases and capitals, and double-chamfered arches. A slightly chamfered pointed tower arch separates the nave from the tower.

The church contains a funeral hatchment in oil on canvas, a 19th-century stained-glass east window, an east window to the south aisle dated 1908, and south aisle windows of around 1920.

Notable monuments include a brass to Roger Salisbury (died 1491) and two wives. A free-standing tomb chest of alabaster occupies the middle of the chancel with praying effigies of Lord Parr (died 1546, uncle of Catherine Parr) and his wife Mary (died 1555, daughter and cousin of John Salisbury). The inscription on the top edge reads: "Sir William Par Knight Lat Lorde Par of Horton and Lord Chamberlaine to the Queens Highness" and commemorates Mary, his late wife. The chest has five flat niches to the long sides separated by balusters, containing mourners including bedesmen. The plinth features leaf trails with hunters and hunting dogs, and pairs of shields to each end.

A wall monument to Sir William Lane and family dates to around 1580 and is executed in alabaster with strapwork and inscription to the apron. It shows small effigies of Sir William and his wife facing each other at a prayer desk with children behind them, flanked by obelisks and panelled pilasters, and topped by a cartouche of arms flanked by winged skulls.

A wall monument to Edward and Henrietta Montagu, dated 1756 and designed by James Lovell, features a pair of white marble urns in niches with pineapple finials set against a veined grey marble ground. Tuscan pilasters flank the niches and support a pediment with a cartouche of arms, with swags and flower trails completing the composition. Additional 19th-century marble wall tablets commemorate members of the Gunning family.