Church Of St Marys

Church of St Mary's, Handbridge

Parish church. Built between 1885 and 1887 by architect FB Wade at the expense of the first Duke of Westminster. The building is constructed of squared snecked red sandstone with steep Westmorland green slate roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower and spire, a five-bay aisled nave, a south-east chapel, a three-bay presbytery, an organ chamber with loft, a vestry, two south porches and a north porch.

The exterior features a three-stage tower with a recessed octagonal spire topped with a weathervane. The tower has angle buttresses and is crowned by a machicolated parapet with two diagonally-set pinnacles at each corner. Each cardinal face of the spire has a lucarne. On the west face of the tower sits a canted baptistry with three lancets and a hipped stone roof. The tower displays rose windows and lancets with blank lancets flanking on the north, west and south faces. Clock-faces on the north, west and south sides are flanked by blank trefoils. Paired louvred lancets serve as bell-openings on each face. A gabled porch on the south face of the tower was added by architect PH Lockwood in 1914 and has boarded oak double doors on ornate wrought-iron hinges.

The south aisle features triple lancets to each bay and gabled buttresses. A two-light window with plate tracery appears at the west end of each aisle. The south-east porch is gabled with a trefoil window to the west and a boarded door on ornate hinges. The nave clerestory has five triple cusped lancets in recessed arched panels, with a gutter on a corbel-table below. The south-east chapel has paired gables, each with a pair of lancets with trefoils above, and three cinquefoil windows to its east end. A pair of gables surmounts the chapel's south face.

The three-bay chancel clerestory has pairs of cusped lancets surmounted by trefoils. The east window comprises three lancets and three trefoils under a moulded arch, with a lancet and trefoil to each side. Two lancets and trefoils appear to the east bay of the north aisle. Dual lancets serve the vestry and, above, the east end of the organ loft. The north side of the vestry has a gable chimney with dual lancets to each side. The north porch, positioned in a corner with the vestry, has a rainwater head dated 1886 and boarded oak doors on ornate wrought-iron hinges. The north aisle displays four triple lancets, and the clerestory has five triple cusped lancets.

All bays of the church have stepped buttresses gabled at the top.

The interior is marked by fine proportions, spatial organisation and liturgical furnishing. The apsidal baptistry in the tower contains a pillared stone font with oak cover and has an encaustic tiled floor. Stained glass in the baptistry depicts Christ's baptism, created in 1887 by Edward Frampton. The tower floor is of encaustic tiles and features a portrait memorial tablet to Hugh Lupus, first Duke of Westminster, dated 1900. Leaded oak glazed inner doors open from the porch into the full-height tower arch.

The nave arcades feature double half-column west responds and four concave-faced octagonal columns to each side. Half-octagon responds appear to the east. Armorial glass fills the aisle and clerestory windows. A tall chancel arch with triple-shaft responds separates the nave from the choir. The nave floor is of wood-block, with three steps rising to the chancel, which has a mosaic floor. Furnishings include an oak reading desk, an oak pulpit with wrought-iron rail to the steps, and a wrought-iron screen to the south-east chapel. Bay-shafts articulate the interior, with stained glass in the south clerestory and a triforium to the organ-loft on the north side. Sedilia step up eastward, and the sanctuary height is emphasised by tall shafts. An altar rail of oak and wrought-iron precedes an excellent reredos by Frederic Shields and Clement Heaton, with the centre-piece dating to circa 1887 and the wings to 1896. The east window shows a Crucifixion, probably by Frampton.

The south-east chapel features double cross-vaults of timber with richly coloured glass in the east cinquefoil windows.