Church Of St Stephen And All Martyrs

The Church of St Stephen and All Martyrs is a parish church dating from 1842-45, designed by Edmund Sharpe. It was constructed as a demonstration of the capabilities of terracotta, at the invitation of the terracotta manufacturer John Fletcher, and is considered the first church built using this material. The church is constructed of terracotta with a slate roof.

The plan comprises a nave with a west porch (originally intended as a tower with a spire), two transepts, a shallow chancel, and a vestry. The west porch has a flat roof and features a doorway with a round arch containing ball flower and text in deep relief, with ornate ironwork to the paired doors. The western gable is flat, topped by a full-height window, where the shafts have foliate capitals. The five-bay nave is divided by buttresses surmounted by finials, with two-light Decorated windows. The exterior features a parapet with openwork cusped scrolled decoration, and the transepts and chancel are similarly enriched with four-light Decorated windows.

Inside, the church has a nave, crossing, and two transepts. It includes a shallow chancel and an original vestry in the north-east angle. The nave has a hammerbeam roof with a collar truss and a short king post, supported by terracotta corbels and enriched with cusping. Pendant flying beams above the crossing are similarly decorated. Crossing arches are deeply moulded with ball flower decoration. A full-height western arch above the doorway and window is enriched with terracotta work incorporating ball flower, foliage, and text. The sanctuary has an elaborate decorative scheme, all executed in terracotta, including a blind traceried wall panelling forming a reredos, prayer boards with raised lettering set into ornate traceried and canopied panels, and wall surfaces made up of small foliate panels. A continuous frieze with raised lettering and a high-relief foliate band runs through both transepts, and a similar frieze forms a dado to the nave seating. Stalls throughout incorporate terracotta panels in seat backs and bench ends. The organ in the south transept is housed within a terracotta canopied casing. Applied decoration to the responds of the crossing arch includes incompletely exposed stencilled motifs, and window embrasures are enriched with terracotta foliate bands. Pictorial stained glass in the transepts is possibly contemporary with the church’s construction, while later 19th-century glass is found in the chancel and nave windows. These include a representation of the execution of Charles I and at least one window by Holiday.