Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a building of group value, dating from the 16th century, with significant alterations and additions in the 19th century. It is constructed of coursed rubble with gritstone dressings, and has a slate roof with red roll ridge tiles and raised gables. The church comprises a single-celled nave and chancel, a wide south porch, and a rendered south transept vestry/chapel. A tall gabled bellcote at the southwest end houses a bell dated 1583. The windows have been renewed in the 19th century, featuring one and two lights with square heads and coarse cusping. The east window is a three-light 19th-century design with a quatrefoil head and a hoodmould ending in leaf terminals. An outset plinth is visible on the west wall, and a pilaster adorns the bellcote. The south porch has a 19th-century roof with an open collar and strut design, exposed rafters, and stone side benches.

Internally, the roof is of seven bays, with a ceiled eighth bay at the east end. Notable features include two heavy cambered tie beams towards the east, one rebated for a former screen. The second truss has large curved struts and a collar, while the western trusses feature arch-braced cambered collars supporting two tiers of purlins, the lower tier of which is supported by wide curved windbraces. There is no ridge piece. The eastern bay has a shallow barrel vault divided into square panels by moulded battens; these panels are painted with red and white roses and grisaille masks, likely dating from the early 16th century. The walls are plastered. A moulded medieval rood beam, cut away over most of its span, remains against the east wall. The chancel and sanctuary have a 18th-century quarry tile floor. A late 18th-century panelled screen separates the vestry chapel, which contains two open collar and tie beam trusses and cusped windbraces.

Fittings include a 18th-century communion rail with closely spaced balusters, a 19th-century oak pulpit with fretwork panels and a moulded octagonal cornice, and a 20th-century oak lectern. Pews and chapel benches are made of stained pine and date from the 19th-century restoration. The font consists of a square gritstone bowl with undersplayed corners, reset on a pedestal from 1876, along with a crude square basin of vesiculated stone, possibly a medieval stoup. The east window depicts "The Good Samaritan", dating from around 1870. Monuments on the south wall, towards the east, commemorate William Wynn Kirkby who died in 1864 in New South Wales, with a white marble scroll and painted crests on a black slate backing. North wall monuments include a memorial to Sarah Kirkby by Bovey & Co, Plymouth; a Carrara tablet to Mary Jones; a brass stepped cross to John Jones who died on the Hindenberg Line; a slate tablet to Owen Owen who died on the barque 'Bathurst'; a slate tablet to Ann Owen; and a framed slate tablet to Humphrey Owen.