Church of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

This Grade I listed church is a substantial medieval building of mixed period development, principally composed of a nave with two aisles, a chancel, a west tower, and a south porch with an adjoining organ chamber. The structure is built predominantly of random local rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.

The west tower originates from the 13th century in its lower section, though the upper stage was substantially rebuilt in the 18th century, a distinction visible in the masonry change from medieval rubble to 18th-century work with red sandstone dressings. The tower is divided into three stages without intermediate divisions. A 19th-century two-light chamfered window sits in the west wall, with a plain round-arched doorway to the north. The second stage contains 19th-century foiled windows and a clock positioned below two-light foiled bell-chamber openings. An embattled parapet surmounts a moulded cornice, and an ornately wrought 18th-century weather cock crowns the composition.

The north aisle has a hipped roof and features three windows of three lights each with reticulated tracery, inserted during G.E. Street's restoration. A west doorway, possibly from an earlier 19th-century restoration, provides access. The steeply gabled organ chamber incorporates in its north wall a 13th-century three-lancet window with round spandrel openings, relocated from the chancel.

The south porch, originally of two storeys, has a hipped slate roof over a moulded cornice and a wide red sandstone doorway with polychrome voussoirs and roll-moulded and chamfered archway; this archway is a copy made in 1856 of the original. Cast-iron railed gates protect the porch entrance, and a 19th-century two-light traceried window sits above. The south aisle, set back only slightly from the porch, contains three windows of three lights with reticulated tracery and polychrome voussoirs, replaced during the 1869–71 restoration. The aisle's hipped roof features moulded eaves cornice. Both the east window of the aisle and the larger east nave window date from 1869–71.

The chancel, articulated by buttresses, retains earlier reticulated traceried windows to north and south, and a five-light reticulated traceried window of 1856, a replica of its predecessor, in the buttressed east end. The enriched cornice was added when the chancel was re-roofed in 1856.

Interior

A 13th-century triple-chamfered tower arch opens to the nave. The Perpendicular nave arcades comprise five bays of red sandstone double-chamfered four-centred arches carried on shafts with flat mouldings and embattled capitals. The nave roof, dating from 1869–71, features king and queen post trusses with embattled tie beams and cusped bracing. The boarded ceiling displays a heavy moulded cornice with quatrefoil frieze. The aisle roofs retain 18th-century flat plaster ceilings with moulded cornices.

The chancel arch, installed in 1856–57, is offset to the north of the nave and features foliate capitals and corbels to wall shafts. The chancel floor is raised by steps with encaustic tiled risers; a low stone screen wall with foliate panelled decoration fronts the chancel. The sanctuary is elevated by a further flight of tiled steps. A wrought brass communion rail, similar in style to the hand-rail of the pulpit added in 1913, sits before the altar. A wide chamfered and roll-moulded arch opens to the organ chamber to the north. Heavy moulded sedilia and piscina to the south feature trefoiled arches supported on polished granite shafts.

The chancel roof is substantially of 16th-century date, with moulded principal beams and joists forming panels enriched with painted bosses at their intersections. Local tradition attributes this roof to Strata Marcella Abbey, though this attribution remains unsubstantiated.

Fittings

A stone pulpit of 1877, positioned south of the chancel arch, features a ribbed base supporting canted traceried panelling with foliate decoration. A brass rail to the pulpit steps was added in 1913. The font, dated 1861, comprises a traceried octagonal basin on clustered shafts. The reredos, designed by Earp around 1870, is executed in alabaster, Caen stone and marble, with foiled panels, the wider central panel enriched with fleurons, and incorporates a high relief cross. Encaustic tiles in traceried panels flank either side. Brass chandeliers, originally installed in the nave in 1776, were removed in the 19th century and restored and returned in 1975. Painted benefaction boards on the west wall of the south aisle are dated between approximately 1715 and 1946. A relief panel depicting the Royal Arms sits on the west wall, dated 1802.

Monuments

In the sanctuary stands a painted stone wall-monument to Sir Edward Herbert, died 1594, comprising paired round-arched panels containing painted shields in low relief with text in the lower panel, set within an aedicule frame. A second monument to Edward Herbert, Second Earl of Powis, died 1848, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, features a recumbent alabaster effigy by Edward Richardson set in a richly worked embrasure with a carved chest and brasses by Waller; the arched recess was carved by J.B. Philip. The north aisle contains a monument to Edward Herbert, Third Earl of Powis, died 1891, comprising an alabaster effigy on a chest within a moulded arched embrasure. Various marble wall tablets and a number of brasses, including two of 17th-century date, are distributed throughout the south aisle.

Stained Glass

The chancel's northeast window contains shields of arms, and its southeast window displays an emblematic design; both date from approximately 1856. The east window, also of this period, displays similar heraldic and symbolic content. The southwest window is from 1900. Two windows in the north aisle, from 1875, are by Wailes of Newcastle and employ medieval narrative idiom; a northwest window dates from 1888. The east window of the nave features neo-medieval narrative composition in roundels and is of unknown date.