Church Of St Chad

Church of St Chad

A church of red sandstone ashlar with lead roof, comprising a western tower, nave with aisles, chancel, south-western porch, and north-eastern vestry. The building dates from 1543 and earlier, with significant additions and alterations carried out in 1870 by Ewan Christian and W Milford Teulon, in 1904 by John Douglas, and in 1926.

The western tower rises in three storeys with diagonal buttresses and a moulded plinth. The western front features an arched doorway to the ground floor with hood mould, above which is a 3-light Perpendicular window with hood-mould at the level of the string course. A plain stage occupies the middle section, with 3-light belfry openings to the top, flanked by a band of quatrefoils above and a string course with gargoyles positioned above the diagonal buttresses and at the centre. The tower is crowned with a battlemented parapet. The north face has a 2-light 19th-century window to the middle stage and a similar belfry stage as on the west front.

The south face of the nave features a two-storey porch at the far left with diagonal buttresses and a 4-centred arch with moulded surround, hood mould, and label stops. The first floor is slightly jettied, with the transition effected by a string-course with roll moulding. A central window displays a coat of arms immediately above, encompassed by the hood mould. The remainder of the south aisle contains seven windows of 4 by 5 lights with Perpendicular tracery; the two windows at the right belong to the Lady Chapel built in 1926. All bays have buttresses between them with offsets, and each window has a hood mould with label stops. A battlemented parapet crowns the south aisle.

The north aisle incorporates reset Perpendicular windows dating from the widening of the aisle in 1904 by Douglas. These vary from 2 to 4 lights and are set in the lower wall. The upper wall has three windows of 1904, each of 3 by 4 lights with Perpendicular tracery. A straight parapet runs above. A choir vestry of 1933 projects from the far left.

The east end displays a 3-light window with reticulated tracery to the chancel. To its left is a 5-light Perpendicular window reset from the eastern end of the south aisle when the Lady Chapel was added in 1926.

The interior reveals a nave of six bays, originally the full extent of the church before the chancel was added in 1870 and the Lady Chapel in 1926. The tower arch features a double chamfered rebate. Octagonal piers support the nave arcades, with moulded bases dying to octagonal bodies via broaches and moulded caps. The caps have slightly more concave faces to the north aisle and chamfered mouldings to the arches, with concave mouldings to hood moulds that have broaches at their bases. Roof trusses of arched braces spring from corbels and support collars. The south aisle window reveals have channels to their splayed reveals. The roof consists of arched braces rising to collars with king posts above and arched braces to either side.

The chancel, built around 1870 by Christian and Teulon, comprises three bays and features a reset 3-light Decorated window opening onto the present 1930s vestry. The priest's room above the porch is approached by a fine late 19th-century spiral staircase and timber gallery.

A memorial inscription cut into the stonework of the north aisle's western wall records that the aisle was added in 1904 and that the architect John Douglas of Chester, who loved the church in his boyhood, bestowed much skill and care upon it, his kindness and devoted interest being held in remembrance by W H Stables, Vicar.

The Stanley tomb on the north wall of the chancel dates from 1543 and comprises a chest of red sandstone with a black marble cover inlaid with a brass effigy of a knight in armour with hands clasped in prayer. A basket-arched recess above features tracery to its intrados, with a gabled surround having crocketed pinnacles to the sides.