Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a substantial building dating back to around 1200, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th, 14th, and 16th centuries, and a restoration in the 19th century. Constructed primarily of red sandstone rubble with 19th-century brown sandstone rubble, it features ashlar windows and plain tile roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with a north aisle and a south porch, and a chancel with a 19th-century north vestry. The tower is low and small, likely built in the 13th century, and lacks a plinth or buttresses. It has a 16th-century round-arched, chamfered belfry opening with stone slate louvres on its south, west, and north sides. A small, chamfered lancet window is on the west side, along with a water-spout above the belfry opening. The tower is topped with a 16th-century battlemented parapet.

The nave has quoins and projecting footings. A 19th-century porch features quoins and a slightly chamfered round-arched entrance with slab capitals above plain jambs, shaped kneelers, and ashlar coping to the gable. The inner doorway has a 13th-century roll-and-hollow moulded round arch on plain abaci and 19th-century chamfered jambs. Inside the west wall are set a monolithic head of a window with two triple-cusped pointed lights, a corbel, two small medieval grave covers and other stones. Similarly, inside the east wall is a monolithic red sandstone head of a window with two triple-cusped round-arched lights, a recessed panel featuring an Anglo-Scandinavian figure, five fragments of medieval grave covers (one with a sword and four with elaborately carved crosses), all of varying dates. A window of two triple-cusped round-arched lights is to the west of the porch, while three 19th-century copies of windows, each with two triple-cusped pointed-arched lights and a quatrefoil above, are to the right. The north side is windowless, with a board door in a chamfered, voussoired pointed-arched opening. The east aisle window has two triple-cusped pointed lights. A heating chamber is located in the angle between the tower and aisle. The chancel has quoins, a window matching that to the west of the porch, and an east window with a double-chamfered pointed arch of three cinquefoiled lights.

Inside, the north arcade dates to around 1200 and has circular columns, double-chamfered round arches with hoodmoulds, and early stiff-leaf crockets to one capital, bell capitals to other columns. A double-chamfered pointed chancel arch stands on half-octagonal reponds with undercut capitals, and there is a 19th-century round-arched tower arch with a continuous chamfer. Late 19th-century scissor trusses support the nave and chancel roofs. A late 12th to early 13th century font has a plain circular basin on a short circular stem. A black marble slab in the chancel floor commemorates John Calverley of Littleburn, Co Durham, who died in 1660, his wife Margaret Jenison who died in 1671, and their son John Calverley who died in 1674, bearing a coat of arms and a Latin inscription. Early 20th-century stained glass by Douglas Strahan is in both east windows.