Church of St Mark

The Church of St Mark is a parish church built between 1909 and 1910, designed by Paley and Austin. It is constructed of roughly coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a graduated greenslate roof and a stone ridge. The architectural style is Late Decorated/early Perpendicular.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with aisles, a chancel, a vestry to the north, and a porch to the south. The three-stage tower features a plinth, diagonal buttresses, a string course to each stage, and a battlemented parapet. A battlemented stair turret rises above the roof of the tower at the north east corner. The battlemented porch has a two-centred opening with a hood mould and labels with plain shields. The windows are three-light, traceried, and set in pointed surrounds.

Inside, the church has a four-bay nave and a three-bay chancel. The tower and crossing incorporate massive circular columns. The piers to the aisle arcades are alternately round with leaf-decorated capitals and octagonal with rosette-decorated capitals.

The east window, designed by Gerald E.R. Smith and executed by A.K. Nicholson, is a stained glass design inscribed with “To the GLORY OF GOD in proud and grateful memory of all those who flew up in our defence between 1939 and 1945 and especially of Sub-Lieutenant (A) ERNEST MARK CECIL MAPLES RVVR May 25th 1944 aged 19 years.” The design is based on the Benedictus, with words from the first and second verses inscribed across the base. The outer lights depict Isaiah, St Alban, St Peter to the left, and St John the Baptist, St Augustine, St Mark to the right. The inner lights portray the Annunciation to the left and the Nativity to the right. The central light shows the Lord reigning from the tree of life with David and Abraham below. The base of the window features groups of figures led by St George with the rising sun, representing service personnel and civilians such as farmers and nurses; this element serves as an important social record.

Within the church tower wall behind the war memorial are tablets commemorating those who died in the Great War (1914-1919) and the World War (1939-1945), with inscribed names.