Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church constructed primarily from local fine-grained grey and red limestone, along with coarse sandstone grading into conglomerate, which is mainly yellow with streaks of red. This sandstone/conglomerate is also used for some of the decorative dressings. The roofs are covered with concrete tiles. The church consists of a nave with a west gallery, a separate chancel, a west tower with a projecting stair turret, and a south porch.

The nave south wall has two bays, with a large projecting gabled porch on the left. The porch has a cross on its apex and a pointed arch with late 20th-century double doors. An inner door, also from the late 20th century, is set within a flat-topped opening with a massive lintel. This opening’s form is similar to the more obviously Norman north door, although its dressings appear newer. A 2-light window with 4-centred heads is located in the south east of the nave; this may date to the 16th century. The north wall features a similar window, a Victorian stepped buttress, a blocked north door with a massive lintel carved with a Maltese cross in relief, and a small window high up at the west end, likely dating to around 1818 to light the gallery. The roof is steeply pitched with coped gables and an apex cross on the south gable.

The chancel has an early 14th-century Y-tracery window on the south wall, a Victorian 2-light window with trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil above in the east gable, and a round-headed lancet in the north wall. The chancel east gable has a coped gable with a cross. The square tower has three stages, with a square stair turret projecting on the north east corner. The west wall of the tower has a blocked 4-centred arch doorway, above which is a 2-light window with a flat head and dripmould. The lights of this window are elliptically headed and may date to the 17th century; the jambs and mullion have been recently replaced. A string course sits between the first and second stage. This string course is followed by a louvred opening with a dripmould on the south face. The bell stage has louvred openings on each face, all with 4-centred heads, and a string to a castellated parapet. The stair turret rises above the main roof and is also castellated.

Inside, original medieval features include the walling, rere-arches of windows and doors, a plain Norman chancel arch with impost blocks, and the tall pointed tower arch. The furnishings are almost entirely Victorian. The font is possibly a re-cut 15th-century example. The small west gallery is reportedly from 1818, although the panelled front may be later, with supports and staircase appearing to be around 1880. A Rector’s stall is dated 1948, and the choir stalls are dated 1956. The ceiled barrel roof and tie-beams may also be from the mid-20th century, though they could be earlier. There is reportedly a single bell dated 1699.