Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A small country church built of sandstone rubble, partly roughly coursed and partly random, with stone slate roofs. The building consists of an unbayed nave with a south porch, a small chancel, and an added west tower.

The tower is square on plan with three undifferentiated stages. It has battered but unbuttressed walls and a pyramidal roof. There is no doorway and no other external opening for entry. The first stage has one very small arched lancet to each side with little hood moulds. The second stage has an even smaller chamfered lancet in the north and south sides. The belfry windows are small with square heads, each containing two cusped ogee-headed louvred lights and hood moulds.

The nave is only slightly wider than the tower. On its south side, offset slightly west, is a relatively large open-fronted gabled porch with chunky stone side walls featuring inner side benches. The porch carries an arch-braced timber-framed roof, open to the front and with wavy bargeboards. The inner doorway is chamfered and two-centred, turning at the apex to form a diminutive ogee. To the left of the porch is a restored square-headed window of two cusped ogee-headed lights. Towards the east end of the south side is a large square-headed chamfered mullion window of three tall lights under a hood mould with sunk-square stops.

In the centre of the north side is a low buttress. To its right is a part-restored 14th-century two-light window arched like the south doorway, with a moulded surround, two-centred arched lights, and a quatrefoil in the head. The east end of this wall breaks out slightly (housing a rood stair) and has a small square-headed window of two trefoil lights with hollow spandrels. Just round the corner of the gable wall on a higher level is a tiny candle-shaped window lighting the head of the rood stair.

The south side of the chancel has a narrow two-centred arched priest door and a small rectangular window to the left with diamond-lattice glazing. To the right is a restored window of two arched lights. The east gable has a Victorian two-light Decorated window. The north side has two small chamfered rectangular windows.

Internally, the nave has a 15th or 16th-century barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling divided into square panels by narrow ribs with small lozenge bosses. Both side walls have moulded and brattished wall plates. At the north-east corner is a recess with a quarter-spiral of steps leading to a Tudor-arched doorway to the former rood loft. The chancel arch is two-centred and chamfered, set immediately behind a highly unusual tall cinquefoil superarch, perhaps designed to frame the rood. At the west end, the tower arch is partly formed from the converted 14th-century west window, which is deeply splayed and has slender keeled shafts. The inside of the 14th-century window in the north wall matches it in style.

The chancel has a 15th or 16th-century arch-braced single-rafter roof. On its north wall is a wall monument to John Evans (died 1704), richly carved with a broken segmental pediment and a foliated apron with a cherub. In the centre of the west end of the nave is a 15th-century octagonal font with a splayed-foot pedestal, heavily ribbed and carved including shields. The bowl is a 19th-century copy in white stone, surrounded by large interlaced hearts.