Church Of The Holy Ascension

STUDLEY BIRMINGHAM ROAD SP06NE (East side) Mappleborough Green 1/200 Church of the Holy Ascension 11/12/69

GV II

Church. 1888. Designed by Julius Alfred Chatwin. Rock-faced limestone with limestone dressings. Tile roofs with coped gables. Aisled nave, chancel, south chapel and north organ chamber, south porch and west tower. Early English style. Symmetrical 4-bay nave and 2-bay chancel. South door has shafts and moulded arch with hood mould and head stops. Plank door with elaborately scrolled hinges. Timber porch on stone base has glazed tracery and half-glazed panelled double-leaf doors. Chancel has diagonal buttresses. East window of 3 stepped lancets. North and south sides have trefoiled east lancets. Low north organ chamber and south chapel have lean-to roofs. Trefoiled east lancets. Sides have single window of 4 small trefoiled lancets. Very narrow aisles have 3-light windows with Geometrical bar tracery and hood moulds. Trefoiled west lancets. Tower has moulded plinth. Stair turret on north side. 3-light west window with bar tracery. Moulded string course. Bell openings to each side of paired trefoiled lancets. Hood moulds. Crenellated parapet with gargoyle. Interior: ashlar with contrasting lighter dressings. Chancel east window has detached shafts and moulded arches. Moulded string course, stepped down and continued under north and south lancets. Lancets have rere-arches with hood moulds and stops. Paired arches to south chapel of 2 chamfered orders with octagonal pier and responds, under blank super-arch. Spandrel has quatrefoil with coat of arms. Organ in archway to north. Pair of sedilia have moulded frame with trefoils and half-trefoils in spandrels. Piscina in similar frame but without shafts and with inner trefoiled round arch. Wagon roof. Fine chancel arch has inner and outer shafts, 2 roll mouldings and hood mould with carved head stops. Low stone screen wall, incorporating pulpit, has moulded plinth, and top with ballflower ornament. Fine octagonal pulpit has upper part of oak with paired trefoiled lancets, and carved and traceried panels, and carved frieze. Nave has 4-bay arcade with alternating octagonal and round piers and responds and moulded bases and capitals. Arches of 2 chamfered orders with hood moulds and head stop to each end. Tower arch of 3 chamfered orders, without imposts. Wagon roof. Stone rib-vaulted south chapel has carved basses. Aisles have lean-to roofs on moulded polygonal corbels. Fittings: Unusual alabaster font, a lifesize kneeling angel holding lobed bowl. South chapel has good quality wrought iron screen and gates. Stained glass: fine east and west windows. North aisle north-east window dated 1900. A fine and completely unaltered example of late 19th century church desiqn. J.A. Chatwin (1829-1907) was a pupil of Sir Charles Barry and a notable Birmingham architect. (Buildings of England; Warwickshire, pp.347-348).

Listing NGR: SP0871067428