Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

This is a Grade II listed parish church constructed principally of local coursed limestone rubble. The south elevation of the nave and chancel is built in narrow coursed limestone, whilst the north elevation comprises larger coursed random rubble. The chancel and nave are covered with Westmoreland slated pitched roofs carried on corbelled eaves.

The chancel is lit by a large three-light east window with hoodmould. On the south side, the chancel has a single-light lancet with cusped head and hoodmould, and a two-light window with cusped heads and pierced trefoil above, beneath a hoodmould matching the style of the east window. The nave's south elevation is lit by a pair of two-light trefoil-headed windows with plate tracery and a single trefoiled lancet with a trefoil in the apex, all surmounted by hoodmoulds and carved heads as label stops. The north side of the nave has a two-light trefoil-headed window with quatrefoil above, surmounted by a hoodmould with label stops.

The south porch at the west end has a steeply pitched slated roof and coped gable with Celtic cross finial. The inner doorway is a pointed arch trefoil-headed with pierced cusps springing from the sides and an outer moulded arch. The entrance is flanked by slender shafts with vertical fillet, terminating in small round bases on square plinths. The capitals feature stiff leaf foliage. The side windows are trefoil-headed with internal benches on either side.

The west tower is of square plan and squat construction in limestone rubble, with an embattled parapet rising from a corbelled table. The west door has a pointed arch, above which is a two-light cinquefoil-headed window beneath ogee arches under a square head. The belfry is lit on four sides by two-light windows of 16th-century form with pointed heads under a square head. It is understood that the mullions of these windows are worked from headstones by virtue of the inscriptions upon them.

At the junction of the nave and chancel is a gabled extension lit by a 19th-century rose window, with a slender pepperpot chimney stack in ashlar rising on the east side from the coping. An aisled chapel on the north side of the chancel features a trefoil-headed priest's doorway beneath a hoodmould and a single trefoil-headed lancet to the east side.

The church sits on an elevated site defined by a two-metre-high coursed limestone rubble revetment wall with horizontal stone copings. A plain chamfered two-centred arched gateway stands at the west end. Inset at the centre of the wall is a tablet memorial to the 1914-18 war.

Internally, the principal pre-19th-century feature is the 15th-century chancel arch, which consists of continuous moulding springing from three moulded abbreviated capitals. The chancel has a 19th-century arch-braced roof with diagonal bracing, the arch supported by plain stone corbels with decorated wall plate. The nave similarly has a 19th-century arch-braced roof carried on plain stone corbels with decorated wall plate. On the southwest wall of the nave is an early carved stone plaque of uncertain date depicting a male figure within a rounded arch, flanked by vine leaves with a voluted scroll at the base.

The tower arch is a plain pointed arch infilled by an oak screen of three bays with a doorway at the centre flanked by trefoil-headed lights, each with panelling beneath. The small circular font is 13th-century in style with six panels of leaf decoration. The choir stalls, altar rails, pulpit and lectern were designed by Messrs J Wippell of Exeter and installed in 1908.