Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed building in the Trafford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 July 1985. A Victorian Church. 2 related planning applications.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- dreaming-window-khaki
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Trafford
- Constituency
- Altrincham and Sale West MP: Mr Connor Rand (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 12 July 1985
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Church Brow
- OS grid reference
- SJ 758 868
- Coordinates
- 53.37793, -2.36428
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a church built between 1858 and 1860 by W.H. Brakspear. It is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof and comprises a nave, aisles, a west tower, north and south porches, transepts, a chancel, a vestry, and the Stamford Chapel. The five-bay aisles have transomed, five-light, 16th-century-style square-headed windows with weathered buttresses and crocketed pinnacles (missing on the north side), castellations and a porch in the western bay. The clerestory features three-light traceried square-headed openings and castellations. The four-stage west tower has diagonal buttresses, crocketed pinnacles, ornate clock faces, four-light belfry openings, gargoyles, an enriched band, and castellations. The transepts and three-bay chancel exhibit set-back buttresses, five-light windows, and bold corner pinnacles, with a similar overall treatment.
Inside, the nave arcade features double-chamfered octagonal columns with moulded capitals. A double-chamfered chancel arch and tower arch are present, accompanied by a traceried screen and a bell ringers' gallery. The wide aisles retain early 16th-century roofs from a predecessor church, incorporating elaborate gilded and painted bosses. The nave roof is an ornate hammer beam construction, while the chancel and transepts have arch-braced trusses elaborately painted in the chancel. Notable monuments include a 14th-century Baguley monument, a 17th-century Brereton monument with two recumbent effigies and a canopy, and monuments to Henry Booth and Mary Warrington (1734 by Carpenter), and a Booth monument (1735 by Carpenter) with a sarcophagus, obelisk, cherub medallions, and a segmental pediment on Ionic columns. A Neo-Wren style wall plaque commemorating the Ninth Earl of Stamford is also present, alongside other 17th, 18th, and 19th-century wall monuments. Fragments of 8th, 10th, and 14th-century sculpture are incorporated. Stained glass is by Kempe and Clutterbuck, and stalls and the pulpit are by Temple Moore, dating circa 1910.
Local climate
Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,020 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 82% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 71% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 73% of listed buildings. Of these, 20 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 2 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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- 1, Church Brow
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