Tower Of Former Church Of St Chad

The tower of the former Church of St Chad is a 15th or 16th century structure, built of sandstone ashlar with a lead roof. It is a square tower of five stages. The western front features a moulded projecting plinth with a chamfered top and string courses separating the stages. Clasping buttresses, likely dating to the early 19th century, run up to diagonal buttresses via broaches. A richly moulded doorway, probably recarved in the 19th century, is centrally positioned, surrounded by quatrefoils in the spandrels and niches with crocketed ogee heads containing sculptures of a bishop on either side. Above this is a pair of decorated square panels, below a brattished string course. A central window sits above, featuring a 3-light casement with interlacing tracery, enclosed in a 19th-century moulded surround. Further niches flank the window, holding statues beneath projecting canopies topped with crocketed spirelets. Another brattished string course runs above. The third stage holds a central niche with a sculpture of a king wielding a sword. The fourth stage displays a central square wrought iron clock face. The fifth stage has two 2-light belfry openings beneath a common ogee hood mould, above which is a row of decorated square panels. Gargoyles are positioned at the corners and centre of the tower. The battlemented parapet is embellished with crocketed pinacles. The north and south faces mirror the western front, except for the absence of niches and the doorway; each features a 2-light window on the third stage. The rear elevation incorporates a cambered archway, originally providing access to the church, the ridge of which rose to the top of the second stage. The third stage has a lancet window, here lacking a clock face. The tower leans to the north due to the unstable sandy soil upon which it is built. In 1833, the original church was demolished and the tower straightened by James Trubshaw, who constructed a new nave and chancel based loosely on the prior structure. This was later replaced in 1892-3 by a church designed by James Brooks, which was subsequently demolished around 1976. The tower was noted in 1985 to be in danger of collapse.