Church of St Wenefrede is a Grade II listed building in the Cheshire West and Chester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 March 1967. Church.
Church of St Wenefrede
- WRENN ID
- pitched-rotunda-marsh
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Constituency
- Chester South and Eddisbury MP: Aphra Brandreth (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 1 March 1967
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Wenefrede, No Man's Heath and District
- OS grid reference
- SJ 536 490
- Coordinates
- 53.03641, -2.69225
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St. Wenefrede, built in 1892 by architects Douglas and Fordham for the Marquess of Cholmondeley, is a Grade II listed building located in Bickley. It is constructed from rock-faced snecked red sandstone rubble and features a roof made of small graded green slates with terracotta ridge tiles. The church has a Tudor-style tower topped with a spire, a south porch adjacent to the tower, and a 3-bay nave that includes a narrow north passage-aisle under the same roof. The chancel is accompanied by north vestries, one for the priest off the chancel and another for the choir off the west bay of the nave.
The tower is massive and squat, consisting of two stages with a splay-footed octagonal spire. It has a west window with three lights and three-light bell openings above, along with small pentice-roofed windows on each cardinal face of the spire. The nave features three-light square-headed windows with simple tracery on both sides, while the south side of the chancel has two 2-light and one 1-light pointed windows, all with simple tracery. The east window is also a three-light design, contributing to the overall simple and solid appearance of the church.
Inside, the north aisle is framed in oak, with posts that support two hammer-beam trusses that are simply detailed. The chancel arch lacks plinths or capitals and features quirked cavetto mouldings. The chancel has a boarded wagon roof. The church contains stained glass in the east window, as well as in the north and south 1-light windows in the chancel and the eastern south window of the nave. There are memorial windows dedicated to Captain Michael George Harrison, Lilian Robertson Scott (which is a copy of a window in Bombay Cathedral dedicated to her husband Michael H. Scott), and Winifred Ida, the widow of the 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley. The church also features an octagonal sandstone font with an ornate oak cover, along with an oak pulpit, lectern, choir stalls, and pews, all designed to harmonize with the overall furnishings.
Local climate
Church of St Wenefrede receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 58% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 68% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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