Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a former Anglican parish church, now vested in the Redundant Churches Fund, with origins dating back to the 13th century, largely rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century, and restored in 1880/82. Constructed primarily from roughly cut and squared ham stone with ashlar dressings, it features Welsh slate roofs with stone slate base courses, the east gable of the nave set very high, likely indicating a previous thatched roof. The church follows a two-cell plan, comprising a two-bay chancel and a four-bay nave, accompanied by a south porch and a west tower.

The chancel presents a high chamfered plinth and eaves course. Its east window is a 3-light 4-centre-arched window dating from around 1500, set within hollowed recesses with shaped label. The south side has two pairs of plain lancet windows, while the north side is blank and rendered. The nave is partly rendered on the north side, showcasing a C19 buttress and two 2-light windows in hollowed pointed-arched recesses with labels. The south side features similar 3-light windows flanking the porch, and a C13 late plate-traceried 2-light window without a label to the east. The south porch has chamfered pointed arches at both outer and inner doorways; the inner doorway includes a crude label and a statue bracket above, with bench seating along the sides.

The tower, likely of early and late 16th-century construction, has a deep plinth, an angled corner buttress to the lowest stage, string courses, gargoyles at the corners of the upper stage, and a low battlemented parapet. A hexagonal-plan stair turret rises in the north-east corner. The west doorway is a simple, semi-circular arched opening without a label, and above it is a 3-light late 15th-century window with a headstop label. Single rectangular bellchamber windows are positioned on the west and south sides of the second stage, while the third stage features 2-light windows with 4-centre-arched lights set in hollowed rectangular recesses on three sides, with a matching single-light window on the north face, all incorporating pierced stone baffles.

The church’s interior plaster was removed in March 1986 in preparation for structural repairs and restoration. The chancel incorporates a C19 rib and board ceiling, an aumbry recess with a trefoil head in the north wall, and a C17 segmental-arched recess with fluted side pilasters in the east wall. A small C14 chancel arch, double-chamfered without capitals, connects the chancel and nave, with a squint to the south and a pointed-arched recess on the north nave side; the walls here exhibit a distinct batter with the arches to the north windows framed in brickwork. The tower arch is almost triangular, featuring a single shaft and hollows. The nave’s ceiling originally featured a 3-centre arched barrel vault, though remnants of the former moulded ribs for a panelled ceiling remain, along with timber cornices. A simple circular tub font, potentially dating back to the 12th century, is present, as are early 19th-century commandment boards located in the under-tower space. The church was formerly galleried by 1816, but no traces of these galleries remain.