Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building located on Main Street in Great Ouseburn. It features a Norman tower with a 13th-century belfry, 14th-century arcades, and a vestry and aisles that were rebuilt in 1820. The chancel and south chapel were added in the 15th century and 1883, respectively. The church is constructed of ashlar stone, with a sandstone and red brick vestry, and has stone slate roofs.

The structure includes a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave, a chancel, a north vestry, and a south chapel. The tower is three stages high, set on a chamfered plinth, and has an inserted lancet window on the first stage's west face, along with slit lights on the south side of the first and second stages. The second-stage light features a reset corbel head above it. A clock face is located on the west side of the second stage. The bell openings on all sides consist of paired round-headed chamfered lights with squared center shafts, which are closed by pierced shutters. The tower has a chamfered belfry string course and an embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles above waterspouts on the east, west, and south sides, topped with a pyramidal roof.

At the west end of the south aisle, there is a pointed double-chamfered doorway with board double doors beneath a hoodmould. Both the north and south aisle walls feature three pointed two-light windows with Y-tracery, also beneath hoodmoulds. The south chapel has a chamfered plinth and an offset west buttress, along with a moulded pointed priest's doorway and a reset square-headed window with three cusped lancets on the east side. A 19th-century Perpendicular window is located at the east end of the chapel. The chancel has square-headed two-light windows on the south and north walls, the latter partly obscured by the lean-to vestry, and a Perpendicular east window in a double-chamfered pointed opening.

Inside, there is a round, double-chamfered tower arch on rectangular responds with plain imposts, coved on the lower side. The arcades consist of tall, pointed, double-chamfered arches supported by slender cylindrical columns with moulded octagonal caps. The chancel arch is slightly stilted and features a two-centred double-chamfered design on half-octagonal responds. Notable monuments include two wall monuments by Fisher of York on the north wall of the chancel: one is a draped urn on a pedestal dedicated to Elizabeth Young, who died in 1779, and the other is a panel in a carved surround topped by a slender urn, dedicated to Sarah Horsfield, who died in 1780.