Parish Church of St Bridget

Parish Church of St Bridget

This parish church comprises a chancel, nave, north chapel, south porch and west tower. The building is constructed from various materials: random pink and white sandstone to the chancel and nave, coursed limestone to the tower with areas of pebble walling, particularly on the south side of the chancel. The chancel, nave, porch and chapel have gabled, slated roofs.

Much of the 15th-century fenestration survives, with some 19th-century restoration work. The east window is a cusped, three-light window with Perpendicular tracery to the head and a projecting hoodmould with simple stops. The south side of the chancel is lit by a 15th-century two-light window with hoodmould. To the left is a small, four-centred, stone priests' doorway with complexly moulded surround and voussoired arch. The nave is lit on the south side by three three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould, set beneath a pink and white striped voussoired arch. The windows at the east and west ends are 15th-century, while the central window appears to have been substantially replaced.

The south porch is 15th-century, gabled and two-storey, with a low, wide four-centred doorway and voussoired arch. Above is a 14th-century cusped lancet, probably reset. Remains of a stone sundial survive on the ridge. The inner doorway is four-centred with a surround featuring concave moulding enriched with carved stylised flowers and a deeply projecting hoodmould with head stops. Above the doorway is a pinnacled and crocketted canopied niche, now empty. To the right of the doorway is an inscribed stone plaque commemorating The Great Flood, reading "the Great Flood of 20 Januarie 10 in the morning 1606".

The west tower is tall and three-staged with diagonal buttresses. A West Country-inspired crenellated parapet in bathstone is decorated with blind tracery and features a figure of a saint, possibly one of the Apostles, set within the central crenellation on each face. On the south side of the tower is a niche with pinnacled and crocketted canopy and carved figure. The lower opening is a cusped window, now missing its louvre. Each face has a two-light louvred belfry window with blind tracery. At the northeast corner is an octagonal stair turret rising above the parapet with blind tracery and moulded capping, with six stairlights to the north face.

The north side of the nave is lit by a single 15th-century three-light window at the east end. The west end shows scarring to the masonry and evidence of a former blocked square-headed opening with timber lintel. The north chapel is lit on the north and east faces with matching 19th-century windows in Perpendicular style. A small square-headed doorway to the west elevation shows evidence of a larger opening above, now blocked.

To the south of the church are the remains of the base of a medieval cross, set upon a large square rubble plinth.

The interior features a tall, two-order Perpendicular chancel arch with narrow shafts, capitals, bell-bases and concave inner moulding. The chancel, nave and north chapel have 15th-century wagon roofs with moulded principals and purlins and evidence of bosses now lost. The chancel roof is supported on a series of five carved stone corbel heads to each side, two of which have been replaced with simple blocks.

The north arcade comprises two bays, now blocked. The quatrefoil piers have alternating shafts and concave sections decorated with a foliate crockett to the jamb. The central and east piers repeat this detail immediately above the impost. The capitals are decorated with repeating stylised flowers with a variety of zig-zag decoration. The flowers on the west pier are stood on end, while those on the central and east piers are set square. The wagon roof to the north chapel is largely plastered over. Traces of surviving medieval red ochre paint are visible on the north side of the arcade.

The church contains a small 15th-century polygonal font on a Gothic traceried pedestal in the northwest corner of the nave. At the time of resurvey in November 1995, the church was unfurnished and undergoing restoration.