Church Of Saint Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church dating from the 1820s, originally designed by Watson and Pritchett. Later additions, the chancel and the upper stage of the tower, were completed in 1879-81 by Hodgson Fowler, commissioned for the Willoughby family, who held the title of Lords Middleton. The church is constructed of limestone ashlar and comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a boiler house to the north, and a two-bay chancel with an organ chamber to its north side. It is built in the Gothic Revival style.

The west tower has three stages and features diagonal, stepped buttresses. The first stage has a two-light, double-transomed pointed window with blind panels containing shields displaying the Middleton arms. A semi-octagonal stair turret is on the north side. The south side has a pointed doorway with a crocketed hood-mould and a lead bas-relief depicting two figures flanking the Middleton arms. The second stage contains a lancet window on each face, separated by two moulded string courses. The third stage has three-light, double-transomed belfry openings on each face, topped by an openwork parapet with finials and octagonal angle turrets. The nave has three-light windows in the Decorated style, with stepped buttresses between bays, each surmounted by finials. A priest’s door is located in the eastern bay on the south side, and a boiler house with a pointed doorway is in the eastern bay on the north side. The chancel has three-light, Perpendicular windows to the south, with an empty tomb recess in the eastern bay. A vestry to the north has steps to a pointed doorway and a square-headed two-light window to the right. The east end features a five-light, Perpendicular window with a doorway leading to a crypt below, flanked by empty tomb recesses.

Inside the church, there are two black marble monuments on the west wall, dedicated to Henry Southeby, who died in 1662, and Anne Southeby, who died in 1688. A monument to Thomas Southeby, who died in 1729, is on the north wall, along with a memorial plaque flanked by termini and surmounted by a pedestal and urn, signed by Rysbrack. A monument on the south wall, by Sir Richard Westmacott, depicts a kneeling woman carved from white marble. In the chancel is a 14th-century recumbent figure of a lady, accompanied by kneeling figures on either side, and a depiction of the soul as a bird ascending to heaven above her head.