Church Of St Stephen

The Church of St Stephen is a Church of England building, likely originally dedicated to more than one saint. The church was largely rebuilt around 1230 and has undergone subsequent additions and alterations. It is constructed of coursed, squared rubble, with some ashlar, and features a plinth that is partly moulded and partly chamfered, along with various types of buttressing. The nave has a copper-sheathed roof with parapets, while the early 16th century three-story west tower has a west doorway with continuous chamfered jambs and a pointed head within a square frame, incorporating coats of arms. Above the doorway is a three-light window. Each face of the tower has paired bell openings of two lights, set under ogee gables, and an embattled parapet with pinnacles. The north aisle's west wall forms part of an earlier, 12th-century building, and the north wall was rebuilt in 1871. The 13th-century north transept arm contains two partly original lancet windows and a 14th-century three-light window. Chapels to the north and south, the chancel, and the south transept arm were all rebuilt in 1847, with the east end featuring a steeply pitched, graduated slate roof, low parapet, stone copings, and an apex cross. The south aisle has four 15th-century windows with 19th-century tracery. The south porch was rebuilt in 1871, but the south door dates to the early 15th century and has two continuous chamfered orders to the jambs and a pointed head, with a consecration cross on the right-hand jamb.

Internally, much of the original stonework has been reworked or replaced during the 19th century. A very tall tower arch is a prominent feature. Both 13th-century nave arcades survive, with drum piers on plinths, moulded capitals, and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. Some painted decoration remains on the south aisle face of the arches. A 19th-century clerestory of five windows is not aligned with the bays. A very wide, low, pointed arch leads to the east end of the south aisle. The chancel includes a 13th-century trefoil-headed piscina, with restored foliate decoration to the bracket, and three-seat 13th-century sedilia with gabled trefoiled heads. The north chapel has a late 16th-century altar tomb with effigies of the 1st Lord Wharton and his two wives, along with children and coats of arms, and an inscribed panel. The south chapel holds an early 15th-century altar tomb with the effigy of a Knight (Sir Richard Musgrave, who died in 1409), and a 15th-century altar tomb belonging to Sir Richard Musgrave (who died in 1464), set within a recess with a foliate gable to the south wall. An ornate pulpit constructed from various colored marbles, dating from around 1871, is likely a gift from the local Masonic Lodge. Loose fragments of earlier buildings on the site, displayed at the west end of the nave, include a late 12th-century foliate and historiated capital, fragments of Anglo-Danish crosses, and remains of a hogback gravestone. An 18th-century sundial, with a dated inscription, is fitted externally on the south side.