Church Heritage Record 628190

3-stage west tower with vestry in base, 3-bay nave with south aisle and south porch, 2-bay chancel.

Approximate: Nave 10m (33ft) x 5m (16ft), aisle 3m (10ft) wide, chancel 8m (26ft) long.

St Mary’s dates to the 13th and 14th-centuries. The first incumbent is recorded in 1298. The church was repaired and altered c. 1720 at the expense of the Earl of Halifax of nearby Horton Hall. Further restoration and rebuild was undertaken by local architect Edmund Francis Law [1810/11-1882] in 1862-3.

A decorative wrought-iron fleche was removed from the tower in 1968. An appeal was launched in the 1970s to support repairs to the church but an ICBS grant was cancelled. Work was undertaken in the 1970s to underpin the south-west buttress of the tower during which the remains of an earlier building were found, recorded, and covered over. In 1981 a grant for repairs to the church was approved with further repairs to the tower undertaken in 1983. The church ceased use in 1998.

There has been a church on the site since the 13th century. There is a brick-vaulted crypt containing burials beneath the nave, other burials within the church not ascertained. Roman finds have been identified within 500 metres. The site is of considerable archaeological potential. While there are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, the church will have played an important role in the history of the surrounding estate, and consideration should be given to the adjacent Grade II registered park and garden.

St Mary’s can be easily dissected into west tower, nave, south aisle and chancel, as each has a separate roofline. The chancel roof is pitched steeper and higher than the nave. The nave is topped with ornamental ridge tiles and the chancel tiled with scallop-shaped slates. A stone finial surmounts the east gable.

The west tower is constructed from random rubble and the base is likely to contain the oldest fabric in the church. It is of three stages, each separated by a stringcourse. It finishes with a plain parapet. It has a two-light window to the west at the first stage and a small lean-to boiler-room abuts the north side. The central section has clock faces to south and west sides and a circular window to the north. In the final stage single light louvred openings pierce each side.

Chancel walls are of one stone whilst the nave walls are of banded stonework. Continuous hollow-chamfered stone eaves run around the nave and chancel. The nave has two-tier angle buttresses and the chancel has three-tier angle buttresses. The east window is of three-lights with decorated tracery. Two two-light windows in south chancel wall. The north nave wall has a central two trefoil-headed light window flanked by single light trefoil-headed lancets. The south aisle wall has two two-light windows with quatrefoils above, with a two-light window to the east and single light to the west. All have hood moulds.

Access to the church is via the south porch which has single lights to east and west walls. Inside arch-braced trusses resting on corbels span the nave. The plastered walls are white-washed. The south aisle is separated from the anve by a 14th century three-bay arcade of pointed arches carried on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The floor is paved in quarry tiles with areas of raised pine pew platforms either side of the aisles. The oak benches have been moved to the north and south sides.

The tower arch at the west end is off-centre and separated by an oak screen given in memory of Lady Gunning in 1910. This area, paved with stone flags, has been used as the vestry.

At the east end, through a 19th century chancel arch, the chancel is raised by three steps. The arch-braced collar trusses rest on decorative corbels of heads and foliage. There are many good wall memorials and the fine centrally placed Parr tomb chest. Oak choir stalls, with pierced trefoils and crested top rails, are against north and south walls. The sanctuary is raised by another step, decorated with inlaid marble. The east wall has a limestone quatrefoil sill band above the reredos. Walls north and south of the sanctuary are lined with alabaster tiles to dado height and a marble piscina with inlaid decoration is set within the south wall.