St Mary the Virgin

St Mary the Virgin is a modest but attractive church of longitudinal plan and is a clear landmark from the road at the top of a hill, with its distinctive pyramidal capped tower. The church is built mainly of ironstone (marlstone) with limestone dressings. A date of about 1300 for the original construction is suggested by Pevsner although the church history, written by a former vicar in 2000 suggests an earlier date of around 1162.It has Early-English style tracery to aisle window and perpendicular clerestory. The font has early stylised carvings of St Michael which may be late Saxon or very early Norman. There is also a series of very early and interesting stone roof truss supports. There are two ancient stone tomb tops in the church. The church has long listed to the north and east and was restored in the eighteenth century. Further extensive work was needed and the north aisle was rebuilt 1865-7; the tower, south aisle, porch and chancel arch were rebuilt by R.W. Johnson 1875-6. Existing timber, stone, lead and glass were used where possible. As part of this work, new red deal benches were installed, the floor was tiled with Staffordshire tiles and a new south porch was erected.

The grant will help the church to carry out roof repairs and install new rainwater goods.