Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church in Kinnerley comprises a west tower of circa 1600, a nave and chancel designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and built in 1773-4, with a south porch added in 1889 during a general restoration of 1887-90. The tower was restored in 1862 by Revd. E.W.O. Bridgeman.

The building is constructed of red sandstone blocks with slate roofs finished with coped verges on carved stone kneelers, except for the porch which has machine tiles.

The tower rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses to the north-west and south-west angles. It features an embattled parapet, moulded string courses and plinth, and is topped with a low pyramidal slate cap with brass weathercock. The west window is a restored Perpendicular-style opening of four lights. Narrow round-headed windows light the first and second stages on the south side. Two-light Decorated-style windows with hoodmoulds and head-stops were added to the belfry in 1862, as were grotesques and gargoyles to the corners of the top string course.

The nave is divided into four bays and has three broad round-headed windows with boldly projecting keystones on the south side. A gabled stone porch of 1889 occupies the west bay, with angle buttresses and a pointed outer arch over a segmental inner arch; the recessed pointed doorway is contemporary with the porch. The north side contains three windows matching those on the south, and a lunette window in the west bay placed slightly to the left of an infilled open-pedimented doorway. Both sides have a moulded eaves cornice. The apsidal chancel is lit by similar windows on its north and south sides and also has a moulded eaves cornice. A lean-to boiler house of the late 19th century stands in the angle between the nave and north side.

The interior contains a king-post roof in five bays over the nave. A stilted pointed tower arch with roughly carved capitals is contemporary with the tower. The chancel arch, dating from 1887-90, is pointed with corbelled responds showing unfinished tooling.

The chancel contains a late 18th-century painted panelled wooden reredos with composite pilasters, fluted entablature, rosettes to dosserets, and egg and dart moulding to the cornice. The centre has a semi-circular pediment with a carving of a cross and the letters "IHS", flanked by urn finials. Round-headed panels in the centre display painted Ten Commandments, while panels to left and right with swags above contain painted text of the Creed and Lord's Prayer respectively.

An oak chest at the west end of the nave bears fleur-de-lys pointed ironwork and an inscription reading "ED: (Edward Davids) CW: (Churchwardens) RF: (Richard Fledge) 1681".

Other fittings and furnishings date from the late 19th century or later, including a stone pulpit of 1870. Stained glass in the chancel windows is by Tower, dated 1932.

The chancel on its north side contains an oval-shaped marble medallion surmounted by a carving of a bishop's mitre with heads of two winged cherubim beneath. This monument bears a Latin inscription to John Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester, and was erected by his grandson Sir John Bridgeman in 1719. On the south side of the chancel is an oval wall tablet to Sarah Evans (died 1783). Various 18th and 19th-century wall tablets to members of local families appear in the nave. A Benefactors' board dated 1792 is mounted on the north side of the tower, with a 19th-century continuation on the south side.