Church Of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

Parish church built between 1853 and 1855, designed by A. Trimen, with additions in 1868 and 1880-1882. A further west porch was added in 1905. The building is constructed of stone with a slate roof and is designed in the Early English style, though the 1905 porch addition is in the Perpendicular style.

The church features a north-west tower and spire. The tower is four stages with angle buttresses. The west door has shafts with interlace capitals and a billet moulded hood mould above a traceried panelled door. A north window of the tower cuts into the second stage, which is blind to the west. The third stage contains a lancet window, while the bell chamber has paired lights with a steep gabled hood mould that cuts through a chevron frieze. Shafts support a projecting angle stone. The spire is a brooch spire with lucarnes.

The south door to the porch is set in a shallow segmental arch with a traceried overlight. The west wall has swept angle buttresses with pinnacles and a shallow canted bay containing Perpendicular tracery, with a 4-light window in the west gable above.

The south aisle has a 3-light west window with reticulated tracery. The aisles are divided into bays by buttresses, each containing a triple foiled lancet window. Curved triangular windows light a low clerestory above. A side chapel and organ chamber to the south have paired gables with triple foiled lancet windows. The chapel and organ chamber each have a 4-light reticulated traceried window. The chancel has two wide lancet windows to the south and a 4-light east window with a cross finial on the gable. The north aisle is similar.

Internally, the nave has an arcade of five bays to the south and four to the north, with the tower occupying the north-west corner. Alternate cylindrical and octagonal shafts carry double chamfered arches. Stilted arched embrasures light the clerestory windows above. Arched braced roof trusses with collars and two tiers of wind bracing span the nave.

The chancel arch has angled responds and a stepped arch, with short shafts superimposed on the responds carrying an inner chamfered arch. A slight hood mould is carried on small foliate corbels.

The north and south chapels are positioned behind the east bay of the arcade. The chancel roof is particularly ornate, spanning four bays with dog tooth moulding to the arched braces of a scissor braced roof. Cusped wind braces support angels carved at the head of the wall posts. Emblems of saints are painted in panels formed by the wind braces.

The church contains elaborate open-traceried choir stalls with gilded coats of arms, and altar rails in a similar style. The reredos consists of a painted panel depicting the adoration of the magi with a painted and carved frame, dated 1905, with traceried panels either side containing texts. An ornate traceried pulpit and eagle lectern form a series with the choir stalls and altar. The chancel north and south windows contain armorial glass.

The east window was created by Capronnier in 1883. A Second World War memorial chapel to the north features oak panelling and an altar.

Stained glass in the north and south chapel windows is in the Renaissance style, possibly by the same artist, dated between 1880 and 1895, and serves as memorials to the Radcliffe family of Werneth Park. The main west window contains stained glass of around 1874 in medieval style, though the colours are now faded and the inscription illegible. North aisle windows are by A G Moore of Liverpool, dating from around 1930 and 1958, and by G.E.R. Smith of London. South aisle windows are by Gustave Hiller of Liverpool, a series dated between 1907 and 1930, and by Heaton Butler and Bayne, 1910.

A baptistery was formed to the west of the south aisle in 1909. It contains a square font on a squat cylindrical base, with a statue of a saint holding a child. Low relief angels and children are carved on each side of the basin.

A First World War memorial tablet is located at the base of the tower. This is a painted wood triptych created by Henry A Payne of Amberley, Gloucestershire.