Church Of St Theobald And Saint Chad

Church of St Theobald and Saint Chad

A late 13th-century church largely rebuilt and restored during the 19th century. The building is constructed of Hartshill granite rubble with sandstone dressings and moulded cornices, with tile roofs featuring coped gable parapets with moulded kneelers. In 1857, the architect Ewan Christian undertook a major restoration and added a porch, vestry, organ chamber, and west bell turret, at a cost of £2,000.

The church comprises a 4-bay nave, 2-bay chancel, south porch, north organ chamber, and west bell turret, designed in the Decorated style. Bar tracery throughout is almost wholly restored or renewed. The chancel has a splay plinth and moulded sill courses, with angle buttresses and two south buttresses of two offsets. The 3-light east window has a stepped sill course, and all chancel windows have hood moulds with 19th-century head stops. A small chamfered south doorway contains a plank door with old strap hinges, while 2-light windows occupy the remaining wall spaces. The north side is largely similar, with an organ chamber projecting only slightly and featuring angle buttresses and a re-set 2-light north window.

The nave has eastern and western buttresses merging with kneelers, one ancient and one 19th-century south buttress. The south porch is positioned at the second bay and has small buttresses flush with the front and a cross finial. The porch doorway has two moulded orders, 19th-century iron gates of openwork quatrefoils, and inside, a doorway of two chamfered orders with a hood mould with 19th-century head stops. The late 13th-century door has applied ribs and large strapwork hinges. Three 2-light windows have hood moulds without stops. The north side is largely similar, with a vestry in the same position as the porch and diagonal buttresses of two offsets, alongside a traceried north lancet.

The west front has two 2-light windows set high up in the gable, a wide, shallow central buttress with a narrower upper section, and a corbelled top. A projecting buttress of two offsets rises to a 19th-century octagonal turret with similar buttresses to the east, north, and south sides, and chamfered lancet openings to alternate sides. A moulded cornice with ball flower decoration crowns a stone spire with weathercock.

The interior has painted rough render throughout. The nave and chancel feature 19th-century hammerbeam roofs with carved angels to the hammerbeams: five bays to the nave and three to the chancel. The chancel contains a trefoiled piscina in the south-east corner. The chancel arch has two chamfered orders; only the outer arch is original, with the hollow-chamfered jambs with trefoil heads and the inner half-round responds with moulded octagonal capitals being 19th-century work. A similar 19th-century arch serves the organ chamber.

The fittings are almost wholly mid-19th century. The chancel is decorated with encaustic tiles and has wood seats below the south-east and north-east windows. A late 19th- or 20th-century carved, painted, and gilded reredos adorns the east end. A painted sandstone pulpit stands in the nave. The font has an octagonal stem and round bowl, both with foliage bosses. A lectern and candle stands of painted wrought-iron and brass complete the furnishings.

Stained glass includes fragments of medieval glass in the west windows and vestry. The east window is mid- to late 19th century. The chancel windows are 19th-century works: the north-east window dates to 1894 and the south-west to 1907 by Heipe and Tower; the south-east window of 1872 may be by Kempe.

Wall monuments constitute a significant record of local families. The chancel north wall holds a partly-painted alabaster monument to William Purefey (died 1616) and his son Francis (died 1613), featuring two near life-size kneeling figures beneath two decorated arches, framed by Corinthian columns on pedestals with obelisks above, a frieze of shields, an achievement of arms, and two inscription panels. The chancel south-east contains a partly-painted alabaster monument to Michael Purefey (died 1627), with a kneeling figure beneath a decorated arch framed by Ionic columns with cartouches above and an achievement of arms. The south-west wall bears a monument to George Abbott (died 1648, erected 1649), featuring an architectural design with Composite columns on consoles framing a panel, a moulded cornice, and an arms cartouche. Abbott defended Caldecote Hall against Prince Rupert on 28 August 1642. The nave west wall contains two almost identical monuments to Michael Purefey (died 1570) and Joyce Purefey (died 1585), with tablets bearing achievements of arms framed by Composite columns, elaborate entablatures, and central semi-circular pediments with the family crest and three semi-spherical finials. Nathan Wrighte (died 1721) is commemorated by a white marble cartouche and drapery with a winged head below.