Church Of St Mark

WORSLEY

1479/1/64 WORSLEY BROW 09-MAY-03 WORSLEY (North side) CHURCH OF ST MARK WALKDEN ROAD WORSLEY (East side) CHURCH OF ST MARK

I Church. Built 1844-6; north aisle added 1851. By Sir George Gilbert Scott for Lord Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere. Snecked stone with slate and copper roofs. Nave with clerestory, aisles and west tower; chancel, side chapel, vestry and organ chamber. Gothic Revival in a C14 style. 5-bay nave and aisles with weathered plinth, weathered buttresses and coped parapet to aisle. Each bay has a 2-light window with Geometrical tracery. Gabled porch in bay 2. The chancel has a 5-light east window and is flanked by the side chapel and organ chamber all with parallel pitched roofs. The chapel has 3 bays and has added enrichment to buttresses and a pierced parapet. Imposing 4-stage tower with set back weathered and gableted buttresses has a weathered plinth, bands at each stage, west door, 3-light west window, clock faces on the third stage, 2-light belfry openings below crocketed gables and a dogtooth enriched eaves band with gargoyles. The spire is supported by flying buttresses and has gabled lucarnes at the base, all of which are liberally enriched by crockets and gargoyles. Interior: Decorated piers and double-chamfered nave arcade with hoodmoulds and head stops. Hammer-beam roof trusses. Carved stone font. The pulpit and organ case incorporate C16 and C17 carvings of French and Flemish origins, and the church contains much other woodwork of high quality including the choir stalls, sedilia and font canopies, and a near complete set of benches. The elaborate carved stone reredos with panels of mosaic and inlaid stone, mosaic floor and, probably, the fine iron screen (thought to be by J B Skidmore) were introduced in 1866. The monument to Lord Francis Egerton, d.1857, was designed by Scott, with effigy by Matthew Noble and decorative carving by J. Birnie Philip. The designer of the intensely coloured (possibly continental) stained glass in the east windows is unknown; window in south aisle (SA2) by Morris & Co., 1905. Outstanding architectural creation by Sir George Gilbert Scott over which he took great care. The church contains an exceptional group of fittings of both contemporary and antiquarian interest.

Listing NGR: SD7456600694