Church of St Chad

Church of St Chad

This church occupies the site of the burial of St Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (669-672). The building spans several centuries of development, beginning with 12th and 13th century arcades and alterations to the gabled south aisle, followed by a late 13th century tower and east window. The 1660s saw the addition of a clerestory, while the 19th century brought further modifications: a lean-to north aisle in 1840 and a porch, chancel roof and vestry in 1862. The structure is built in ashlar with a brick clerestory and tile roofs, with slate roofs to the aisles. It features a plain plinth and coped gables.

The plan comprises a three-bay chancel and five-bay nave with aisles, and a west tower.

Externally, the chancel displays offset angle buttresses and a gable cross. The five-light east window contains intersecting tracery. The south side is decorated with a 19th century ball flower cornice and two offset buttresses between a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery, a single-chamfered lancet with hood, and a two-light window with Decorated tracery. The north side is similar, with a gabled vestry featuring fishscale tiles, a quatrefoil above a two-light east window, a gable cross, a diagonal buttress and a plain north door. The clerestory, originally continuing over the chancel, has an ashlar cornice and coping to the parapet, with two-light Y-tracery windows.

The north aisle has offset and diagonal buttresses with a cornice featuring heads. Its two-light windows display Decorated tracery and a three-light west window sits above a basement entrance. The north door features continuous moulding. The south aisle has offset and angle buttresses, a cornice and embattled parapet, with two-light windows showing Y-tracery and traces of original 12th century round-headed windows and their gables. Three-light windows occupy the east and west ends. The gabled porch features diagonal buttresses and an entrance of one order. Above it sits a small ogee-headed niche containing a statue of St Chad. The three-panel door retains old fittings and studs. The inner entrance comprises three orders with a boldly cusped moulded arch.

The tower has offset angle buttresses with a south-east turret rising higher than the tower itself. A three-light west window with flowing tracery and hood opens to the west. Two-light bell-openings appear above single-light openings on sill courses, all louvred. The tower is topped with a cornice and embattled parapet, crowned by a richly scrolled wrought-iron wind vane dated 1886.

Interior features include a chancel with an arch-braced collar roof and collar purlin. The chancel arch has half-octagonal responds with foliate capitals and a hood with head stops. The nave contains arcades with double-chamfered arches on piers with simple capitals—hexagonal to the south, octagonal to the north—supporting a plaster groin vault on corbels. A triple-chamfered tower arch stands above a blocked 12th century window. The south aisle has a flat timber ceiling.

The chancel contains a 19th century ogee-headed piece with linen-fold panelling. An altar displays three figures in arches on paired columns with cherubs above, whilst the reredos presents high relief of the Good Shepherd with ogee arches and brattishing to the cornice. A 17th century altar rail features turned balusters and strapwork panels with friezes of scrolls and grapes. Plain stalls with tracery panels occupy the chancel. The nave holds a pulpit sunk into the floor with canted angles, tracery and linen-fold panels. The tower arch features a screen with reliefs and a statue of St Chad. The north aisle contains an organ and vestry at its east end. The south aisle houses a 15th century font with panelled stem and shields in quatrefoils.

The church contains numerous fine 18th and 19th century wall tablets as memorials. Notable among these is a chancel north monument to John and Mary Alden (died 1655 and 1664), with a panel divided by an armorial bearing flanked by Doric columns and a broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron and pendants. On the south side stands a monument to Elizabeth and Michael Biddulph (died 1657), featuring a slate panel with scrolled sides and broken pediment bearing armorial, together with an apron decorated with a skull and swags. Additional monuments commemorate Lucy Porter (died 1786), the step-daughter of Samuel Johnson, and Catherine Chambers (died 1767), the Johnson family servant, erected in 1910. The south aisle contains a monument in the form of a cartouche with cherubs, armorial bearing and drops for T Hinton (died 1757), fashioned as an apron panel. A painted charity board dates to 1654.

The stained glass includes a good east window executed by two different hands, with the central lights possibly by Clayton and Bell. Some Arts and Crafts glass appears in the south aisle, along with other 19th and 20th century stained glass throughout the church.