Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This church, built of red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressing and a stone tile roof, is a substantial medieval structure with later alterations.

The southwest-facing two-storey ashlar-faced porch has diagonal buttresses with offsets and crocketed pinnacles. It features a shallow gabled roof with a blind trefoil-headed arcade parapet above, a moulded plinth with an angled string course, and a renewed Perpendicular window with hoodmould and decorative stops. The pointed arched doorway has two diminutive engaged shafts and renewed decorative cusping, with "Josc." engraved at the apex. The east wall of the porch is of roughly coursed small-scale rubble with a high blocked window, while the west wall contains a single trefoil-headed light window under a rectangular hood mould and an incorporated stair turret with a small light.

The north nave aisle displays two three-light Perpendicular windows and buttresses angled at the corner with moulded offsets. Moulded string and plinth courses and a blind arcade parapet continue along this side, with winged beast gargoyles over each buttress. A small chamfered segmental pointed arched northeast doorway provides access. To the east is a similar four-light window with Perpendicular tracery and hood mould with face stops, while to the west is a three-light version.

The chancel, constructed of very roughly coursed rubble, has a steep pitched roof and an apex stone with a missing cross. It has no windows to the north. On the east is a three-light window with geometric tracery and hood mould with face stops, with plinth courses visible. To the south is a nineteenth-century two-light window with simple quatrefoil geometric tracery under a relieving arch, a small chamfered pointed arched doorway, and a stone with chevron moulding incorporated into the east wall.

The nave's south aisle contains four three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery, moulded eaves course, and an embattled parapet above, featuring beast gargoyles. Similar four-light windows appear to the east and west, with an added chimney present.

The west wall displays a broader Perpendicular window and a west pointed arched doorway of two shallow moulded orders. Inserted into the rubble masonry on either side are two fragments from an arch with bishop faces and a further fragment of foliage decoration at the apex. Angle buttresses mark the junction with the north and south aisles, whose parapets return, and an apex cross crowns the west gable.

The central tower features shallow machicolation moulding and a higher attached stair turret with small lights to the northwest. Two-light trefoil-headed louvre openings in rectangular frames serve the ringing chamber to the north and west, while those to the east and south are plain. Clock faces dated 1888 appear on the north and south sides, with a wrought-iron weathercock to the northeast.

The interior porch contains elaborate moulded ribbed vaulting with shallow bosses and one central pendant boss, with stone seats flanking the entrance. The main pointed arched north door has a hood mould and multiple narrow mouldings. Above is an empty ogee-arched crocketed niche flanked by finials and piers representing worn human figures, with further vestigial niches at the vault springings.

The nave is divided by north and south aisles separated by two three-bay arcades of rectangular piers incorporating engaged shafts of alternating widths. The capitals feature winged angles with scrolls (some renewed), with the figures springing from the main piers and their wings meeting to form the capitals of the intermediate ones. On the southeast pier is a decorative crocketed niche with a vaulted canopy and foliage base. The north wall of the south aisle displays a green man corbel above the spandrel, while the south aisle has seven figurative corbels with remains of arch springings, presumably relating to a now-vanished vault, and four carved corbels—three foliage and one face—at the apexes of the arcade arches. Three plain south corbels support the present roof. Two stained glass windows in the east are from the Kempe studio, with the remainder featuring renewed plain quarries. The roof is entirely renewed, with the main nave's three bays having barrel and kingpost construction, while the aisles have heavily moulded cross beams. The north aisle has a protruding moulded corner and a chamfered segmental pointed door to the parvis. An octagonal font with trefoil-traceried panels and a heavily roll-moulded splayed base, possibly of earlier date, is accompanied by a later font cover.

The central crossing has pointed unmoulded splayed chancel arches with a niche to the south and a moulded ogee roof loft opening to the north. A door to the tower newel stair is on the north side, with further moulded openings to the transepts. A renewed coffered door is present. The north and south transepts contain further corbels as springers and over apexes, with a Hodges monument dated 1798 in the south transept. The south transept features a moulded pointed arch with blind tracery panelling within the thicker wall. A ring of six bells, rehung in 1886, incorporates bells by Rudhall of Gloucester made in 1785.

The plain chancel, accessed by five steps, contains nineteenth-century tiles and a nineteenth-century barrel roof. The east window holds stained glass dated 1880 by Joseph Bell of Bristol, and a deeply splayed south window of 1988 by Geoffrey Robinson, also of Bristol.