Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a building of group value, dating from the 12th century, around 1200, the 13th, 15th, and 18th centuries, with additions in 1822 and 1900. It is constructed of sandstone in deep courses, with Welsh slate roofs and a brick tower.

The church consists of a 12th-century three-bay nave and a 12th- and 13th-century two-bay chancel, with an 1822 tower to the west, an 18th-century south porch, and a circa-1900 vestry on the north side.

The low tower features segmental-arched, louvred belfry openings and a shallow pyramidal cap. A segmental-arched window is set into the south side of the tower's ground floor, and a two-light segmental-arched window is at gallery level on the west side. The south porch doorway is Tudor-arched, with slit vents to the sides. Inside, the porch contains stone seats, a brick floor, and a straight-headed door. The south side of the nave has a two-light mullioned window to the right of the porch, with coped gables. On the north side of the nave are the remains of a blocked arcade, featuring a circular column with a moulded capital and square abacus, a chamfered round western arch, and a chamfered pointed eastern arch. The former has a chamfered doorway and the latter has a small lancet window with old lead cames and old glass. The south side of the chancel has a blocked pointed-arched priest’s doorway flanked by renewed mullioned windows: a round-arched single light to the left and a mullioned window of three uneven lights to the right. Both nave and chancel have ashlar coping on their east ends. The east window has two cinque-cusped lights with a quatrefoil above. The rough-cast lean-to vestry has a three-light mullion window.

Inside, the chancel roof, dating from the 17th century, has curved ribs rising from Jacobean inverted finials. The nave features old tie beams. The tower arch is segmental, and the circa-1900 pointed chancel arch is continuously moulded. The lower parts of the walls are panelled, and the arches of the blocked nave arcade are visible on the north wall. A stoup is set into the inner jamb of the south door.

Among the fixtures and fittings is a medieval grave cover with a floreated cross on a stepped base and a sword, located within the blocked western arch of the former north arcade. A 14th-century font has an octagonal bowl moulded around the top, standing on a narrower octagonal stem. The east window contains glass from 1900 by Kempe, and the south-eastern chancel window contains medieval glass given by Francis Plummer in 1952. A 17th-century tester with Gothic cresting sits above the pulpit. The altar rail has twisted balusters and two spiked finials. Within the vestry is an old reading desk made up of early panelling and altar rails. A royal coat of arms of James I is on the north wall of the chancel; the name is erased from the inscription below, potentially indicating anti-monarchist sentiment from the 17th century.