Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This church at Peover Superior comprises a south chapel dating to 1456, a north chapel probably built in 1648, a tower of 1741 probably designed by J Garlive, and a nave of 1811 by William Turner of Whitchurch.

The south chapel is built in ashlar with a leaded roof. It features a moulded plinth and string course, with angle buttresses at the corners containing offsets. A central buttress widens at its base where the wall thickens to accommodate an internal tomb-recess. All three buttresses have gargoyles above them. The windows display transitional tracery with very shallow curves to the sides of the pointed arches and hood-moulds with carved heads serving as label stops. The chapel has a battlemented parapet. A porch to the left, built at the same period, has a chamfered arch.

The north chapel has plain ashlar lower walls with three lunette windows to the north wall and one each to the east and west walls, all with cyma-moulded reveals. A console cornice runs above, supporting pedimented gable ends with plain tympana. This chapel of 1648 is one of the earliest regular classical buildings in the region.

The tower rises in three stages, built in stone with a plinth, quoins and bands between the stages. The west face has a central door, now blocked with rubble to its lower half and nineteenth-century stained glass above, flanked by stone reveals and an archway with projecting springers and keystone. An oculus on the first floor stage has four keystones to top and bottom. Above this sits a stone-surrounded arched belfry opening with sunken panels to the reveals, projecting keystone and springers, and louvres to the opening. A string course runs above the belfry. The parapet has stone piers at the corners and centre of each side with stone finials and coping. The design is very similar in its details to the Church of St John Baptist, Knutsford by John Garlive.

The nave dates to 1811 and comprises four bays with red English garden wall bond and stone dressings under a plain tile roof. It contains a nineteenth-century decorated two-light window to the left of the south chapel and a canted bay to the right to accommodate the organ. The northern side has windows loosely based upon those of the south chapel with similarly shallow curves to the arches. A nineteenth-century vestry sits to the north side, with a similar addition on the south side featuring a pointed arch to the left.

Interior of the South Chapel: A two-bay arcade to the nave is supported by a central octagonal pier with moulded base and capital, bearing chamfered arches. A similar archway to the porch is now divided by a twentieth-century glazed screen. The centre of the south wall contains a tomb reveal with a four-centred archway and ogee cresting with crockets. This holds alabaster effigies of Sir Randle and Lady Mainwaring, he depicted in armour. The nineteenth-century panelled roof replaced an earlier truss roof, for which figurehead corbels now remain redundant. A nineteenth-century screen separates the chapel from the nave.

Interior of the North Chapel: Three-bay arcade to the nave with semi-circular arches. A diamond-patterned alabaster floor. Pilaster strips with moulded bases and capitals between windows. A wooden strapwork ceiling with pendants and a sunken diamond-shaped panel to the centre bearing a coat of arms in relief. A free-standing marble sarcophagus contains effigies of Philip Mainwaring and his wife Ellen, dated 1647, both shown lying in prayer position with he in armour. Two alabaster tomb slabs commemorate Philip Mainwaring and his wife dated 1573 and Sir John Mainwaring and his wife dated 1586.

Interior of the Nave: An undivided nave and chancel. A replaced sarcophagus holds recumbent praying effigies of John Mainwaring and his wife dated 1410.