Church Of St Chad

Church of St Chad

This parish church stands on a pre-Conquest site and comprises work from several periods: the nave and chancel date from the late 14th century, the large north porch from the early 15th century, the tower from 1758, and the chancel was largely rebuilt in 1864 when the whole church underwent restoration.

The exterior is constructed of regularly coursed and dressed yellow and red sandstone, with pink sandstone ashlar applied to the south side of the chancel. The roofs are plain tile with coped verges. The building plan consists of a nave and chancel in one, a north aisle, a north-west tower, and a north porch.

The tower rises in three stages and is topped with an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles and weathervanes. Gargoyles run along the moulded cornice on the north, south and west faces. The belfry stage has windows with Y-shaped tracery, whilst the second stage features roundels with keystones on north and south sides (the southern one now occupied by a clock of 1897); the west side of the second stage has a window with plain Y-tracery matching the belfry windows. The first stage below contains a pointed window. A pointed doorway to the north is approached by a flight of five steps.

The nave is buttressed across three bays and contains cusped three-light windows in the centre and east bays, the former with a square head and the latter with a four-centred arch and elongated quatrefoils to the head. A small window with a cusped head sits in a rectangular projection to the right of the east window, formerly connected to the rood screen. The west bay preserves a pointed double-chamfered 14th-century doorway with hoodmould and head-stops. A vesica-shaped west window dates to 1856.

The chancel is buttressed across three bays. Its south side features a 19th-century three-light cusped window with quatrefoils above in the west bay. The centre bay has a small pointed doorway with hoodmould and head-stops, possibly reused from an earlier doorway. The east bay contains a small two-light cusped window with a quatrefoil above. The pointed east window comprises three cusped lights with a large multifoil above. To the left of the doorway, a stone bears an inscription to Hugh Lowes (died 1643), now partly illegible. The north wall is windowless and retains some medieval stonework in its lower courses.

The north aisle is buttressed across four bays. The two eastern bays have square-headed three-light windows with pointed heads, whilst the two western bays feature three-light trefoil-headed windows with cusping above and segmental arches. The east window has three lights with intersecting Y-tracery. A stone above the second window from the east bears a carving of a pick-like object of indeterminate date.

The late 15th-century porch occupies the west bay of the north aisle. It features a stepped gable, moulded cornice, empty statue niches flanking a richly moulded pointed doorway with head-stops, and diagonal corner buttresses. A plain 19th-century pointed doorway on the south side is inscribed above with an encaustic tile recording the "re-edifying" of the church in 1864.

The interior features collar beam roofs to the nave, chancel and north aisle. The nave roof has arch bracing, two tiers of circular windbraces, and richly carved wooden corbels. The east collar beam in the north aisle is dated 1602 and carries the Sandford family coat-of-arms. Stone corbels at the west end of the aisle probably survive from the medieval roof.

A mid-14th-century four-bay arcade separates the nave from the aisle, with short octagonal piers having moulded capitals and plinths and pointed double-chamfered arches. The westernmost arch is cut by the east wall of the tower. The arcade continues for a further two bays to divide the chancel from the north (former Sandford) chapel at the east end of the north aisle.

At the junction between the nave and chancel, the wall has been shaved away to accommodate the former rood screen, with the positions of loft doorways still visible. Similar evidence exists for a screen between the north aisle and chapel, which has a restored trefoil-headed piscina in its south wall.

Restored 14th-century choir stalls stand against the south wall of the chancel, with plain misericords except for the westernmost, which is carved with a male head and leaf decoration. 19th-century pews in the nave and aisle incorporate reused 17th and 18th-century panelling. A wood carving of Charity (probably 16th or early 17th century) is fixed to the pew next to the north door. A Jacobean communion table, carved with birds and floral decoration, is currently placed in the north aisle, along with two oak chests probably dating to the 18th century. Two 18th-century paintings on wooden boards flank the south doorway, depicting Moses and Aaron, and probably once flanked the altar. The nail-studded door is probably late medieval, though it has been completely re-planked on its external side.

An octagonal font dates to 1849, replacing an earlier font now positioned outside the church.

The church contains significant stained glass. Fragments of 15th-century glass from Battlefield have been reassembled in the north-east window of the north aisle. A notable collection of mid to late 19th-century glass fills windows throughout the church, most notably the south-west nave window (circa 1864) by David and Charles Evans of Shrewsbury, the east window of the north aisle (circa 1887) with Minton tiles beneath, and the engraved glass (circa 1855) in the north-west window of the north aisle.

Monuments include 19th-century wall tablets to members of the Sandford family in the north aisle chapel and to the Hill family in the chancel. Outstanding amongst these is the memorial by Thomas Carline depicting the burial of Sir John Hill (died 1824). A small brass to Robert Hand (died 1757) is fixed to the wall by the north door. Three benefactors' boards are mounted in the tower, the earliest dated 1696.

Historical context: A priest is recorded here in Domesday, and the large size of the parish suggests that the church, collegiate until the late 13th century, may originally have been a minster.