Church Of St Stephen

Church of St Stephen

Parish church built in 1854–5 by H Woodyer, with alterations and additions of 1893–4 by Temple Moore. The building is constructed of dressed coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and is roofed in slate with gable-end parapets. The chancel roofs are set entirely behind high parapets with moulded copings. The church comprises a north-west tower, a five-bay aisled nave with a south porch, a three-bay chancel with two-bay aisles, and a north-east lean-to vestry. The design is in the Decorated style, with most window and door openings featuring hood moulds with returns or stops.

The north-west tower rises in three stages with strings and a chamfered plinth. Angled gabled buttresses with offsets stand at the west corners. The lower stage features a cusped lancet with an ogee head on the west elevation and a north archway containing a pair of doors with basket arches on columns with moulded capitals and bases. The second stage carries a pair of traceried lancets in both north and west elevations. The belfry stage has two-light louvred openings with nookshafts and a corbel table at eaves level enriched with carved heads. An octagonal broach spire crowns the tower, ornamented with lucarnes and a weathervane. At the north-east corner of the tower, rising to the second stage, is an angled stair projection with two loopholes and a doorway.

The nave aisles are set beneath separate gabled roofs. The west elevation has buttresses with offsets flanking the west window, and a diagonal buttress at the south-west corner. The west window is of four lights above a small doorway. The south aisle has a three-light west window with a quatrefoil-in-circle opening in the gable apex. The north and south elevations each have a sill string and buttresses flanking the easternmost window and above the westernmost windows. The north elevation displays three three-light windows and a four-light easternmost window, while the south elevation has a two-light westernmost window, two three-light windows, and a four-light easternmost window.

The south porch has a steeply pitched gabled roof with a cross finial at the apex of the gable-end parapet. Gabled angled buttresses with offsets support the structure. The pointed archway is enriched with ball flowers, nookshafts, and shields carved on the label stops, with a pointed doorway within.

The chancel features a plinth band and stepped sill string, with angled buttresses and offsets at the east end. The five-light east window has a pair of ogee-arched lights beneath a pointed head in the apex. Two-light and three-light windows are arranged at clerestory level on both side elevations. The aisles flanking the chancel have diagonal buttresses with offsets at the east corners. The south aisle contains two-light and three-light windows, with another three-light window at the east end. The north aisle has a two-light window, a door, and an east window of curvilinear tracery. The north-east lean-to vestry has a three-light east window and a north door.

Interior

The five-bay nave arcades consist of two chamfered orders on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The two-bay chancel arcades stand on circular columns with semi-circular east responds. A two-bay arcade between the nave and chancel aisles is supported on octagonal piers. The pointed chancel arch, chancel arcades, and chancel vault are additions by Temple Moore. The chancel is finished with a painted plaster quadripartite vault. A cusped arched niche with nookshafts appears in the south-east of the chancel, possibly serving as a piscina (close inspection was not possible at the time of survey in July 1985). The reredos is carved as a three-bay arcade with relief panels. Wrought iron screens separate the nave from the chancel aisles.

A red marble octagonal font with an octagonal stem surrounded by eight colonnettes with foliated capitals stands in the nave. The vestry contains medieval tiles from Bordesley Abbey.

Glass

The south aisle contains two stained glass windows by Kempe and Tower. The westernmost bays of the nave and south aisle are separated from the main body of the church by a mid-20th-century glazed partition, which creates a community centre space.

Setting

This large church occupies a prominent and elevated site in the town centre.