Church of St. Mary © DCC 2002


Church of St. Mary © DCC 2002

The church consists of a nave with a four-bay north aisle and a south porch and a chancel with an organ chamber and vestry to the north. The church is built of sandstone, the medieval work is of coursed rubble and the modern work is of snecked stone, with a plinth, quoins and ashlar dressings. The roof is of grey Lakeland slates with graduated green slates on the chancel. The medieval church was built circa 1200, any evidence of later medieval changes have been removed during post-medieval alterations. It has been suggested that the skew alignment of the chancel, and the slight variation in both wall thickness and fabric type between the nave and chancel indicates that the chancel is later than the nave, although none of the evidence is strong enough to confirm this. A gallery at the west end of the nave, said to have been inserted in the 18th century, is shown on a plan of 1825 but was removed during the 1865-8 restoration. This restorations was carried out by Charles Hodgson Fowler, who returned the church to what was assumed to be its 13th century form. A major enlargement of the church occurred in 1911, this work was also carried out by Hodgson Fowler, who was the Diocese Architect at this time. (2)