Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Built of coursed and squared red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and natural slate roofs with ridge tiles. The church comprises a nave with a south porch and bellcote on the west gable, together with a lower chancel and north vestry.

The nave walls have a strong batter at the base. The external masonry on the south side is largely post-medieval above cill level, arranged in three bays. The first bay contains an added porch with a moulded arch and pitched roof. Two Victorian 3-light windows with cusped heads and dripmoulds follow, with a small 2-light south window of around 1875, which lights the pulpit within (dated 1875). The roof is steeply pitched with stone coped gables bearing crucifix finials and a twin west bellcote with weathervane and cusped oculi.

The north nave walls and walling are largely late medieval, containing a 3-light window and two 2-light Perpendicular windows with traceried heads and dripmoulds, though the westerly example is Victorian. The west gable front and bellcote were largely rebuilt by Sedding in red sandstone ashlar with paler banding. South-west quoins are dated 1634 and 1664. A plain pointed west door with chamfered frame leads to a pointed 2-light Decorated style window above, featuring cusped heads and a dripmould.

The chancel has a small priest's door with moulded jambs on the south side, adjacent to a large 4-light Perpendicular window with a recessed moulded frame, set within largely rebuilt walling. The east gable, mainly rebuilt by Sedding, contains a Decorated style 3-light window with quatrefoils in the head and a dripmould. A medieval 2-light plate tracery north window survives in the chancel. The gabled north vestry, built in Sedding style, features an ashlar chimney and a 3-light cusped headed window with a dripmould.

Interior

The interior retains a probably late medieval pointed timber wagon roof with a net of ribs and bosses in the chancel. The nave roof is Victorian with four bays of arched braces, wall plates, two tiers of purlins and secondary rafters with ashlar blocks. The chancel arch is low.

Furnishings include medieval stained-glass fragments in the north chancel window and fine mural tablets incorporated into sgraffito panels. The timber pulpit dates from 1875. The chancel screen contains some medieval woodwork and an early 20th-century crucifix on the rood beam. Victorian chancel tiles, reredos and stained-glass are present throughout. A late medieval hexagonal font with cover survives, together with a second font possibly of Norman date. Other furnishings and tiled pavements are in the Sedding style.

The most remarkable feature is a complete scheme of coloured sgraffito panels of exceptionally rare technique and bold quality. These were commissioned by Reverend Williams J C Lindsay in memory of his wife (died 1885). The cycle of subjects illustrates the Benedicite with mountain and pastoral imagery, ploughed fields, green things, fowls of the air, beasts and cattle, children of men, winged winds, winter and summer, and the heavens. The west wall displays figures representing the child authors of the Benedicite with Gloria Patri figures over the west door. Above the chancel arch is a figure of Christ in Glory within a Mandorla. The chancel combines Evangelist figures and angels with representations of the Adoration and Annunciation in stained-glass.