Church of St Mark

Church of St Mark

This is a mid-19th-century church built of dressed yellow sandstone with a later chancel of snecked sandstone, all under slate roofs. The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower incorporating a porch, southeast vestry and northwest choir vestry.

The tall four-stage west tower is the dominant feature. Its upper stage is slightly inset and crowned with battlemented parapets and a short swept slate-covered roof topped by a weather-vane. Diagonal buttresses with offsets flank the tower. The west doorway has a pointed arch and hoodmould containing a boarded door. The second stage features a tripartite window with narrow lancets linked by a continuous hoodmould. A diamond tablet on the third stage contains a roundel inscribed with the date 1836. The north face displays a clock by J Benson of London. The fourth stage has louvre openings with single lancets and hoodmoulds throughout.

The six-bay nave features single lancet windows divided by shallow angle buttresses with offsets. At the west end, single lancets flank the tower and light the gallery. The choir vestry is a single-storey gabled range at right-angles to the tower and nave, with a triple lancet window to its gable end.

The chancel has a continuous sill band. Its east window is in plate tracery with three stepped lancets and two roundels, with hoodmould and floral end stops. The north side of the chancel has a single light and an outshut to the right with a three-light window to its front and single light to the left return. The south side has a pair of lancets without hoodmould, to the left of which sits the vestry. The outshut vestry features a pointed-arched doorway to its east side with steps leading down to a basement boiler room; its south window has paired lancets and a stone stack to the left rear.

Internally, an entrance lobby within the tower contains double wooden part-glazed doors with small panes leading into the nave. The wide nave has a six-bay roof ceiled at collar level with substantial tie-beam trusses supported on arched braces, curved principals and crown-posts, arched wind braces, and a wall-plate with pierced decoration and panelled roof. A gallery at the west end rests on two narrow cast iron columns, its front featuring continuous blind lancets.

A central aisle divides the pews. The circular pulpit of Caen stone stands to the front left, with a frieze of pierced lancets above blind cusped lancets and floral bosses. An arched organ recess lies to the left of the pulpit; the organ was built in 1879 by Whiteley Brothers of Chester. The font at the west end is a plain octagonal bowl on a circular stem, inscribed with IHS monograms and a memorial inscription to four-year-old Cyril Davison, donated by his parents in 1876.

The chancel arch is pointed with several orders of mouldings on short wall shafts with ringed capitals. The panelled ceiling features stencilled floral decoration on its panels. A wood panelled reredos was donated in 1924, and choir stalls feature open traceried panels. The carved oak altar is a war memorial donated by the choir.

Memorials include a square marble tablet with draped urn to the south wall of the nave commemorating Trevor Owen Jones of Wepre Hall (died 1839) and his wife Mary, by William Spence. A brass tablet to Howell Owen (died 1890), also of Wepre Hall, lies to the left. Further brass tablets on the south wall include one to George Bate of Kelsterton Hall. A marble war memorial tablet with arched top stands on the east wall of the nave. The north wall of the nave displays three square marble tablets, including one to Lieutenant Roger Whitley Bate, who died in 1901 during the Boer War.

The stained glass programme is extensive. The east window depicts the Crucifixion, dedicated to Thomas Bate (1850-1910) of Kelsterton Hall and erected in 1912, replacing earlier glass. At the west end at gallery level is a depiction of the Evangelist St Mark. To the north of the nave from the right end is a memorial of 1871 to James Davison showing Jesus by the Sea of Galilee with three disciples, the face of the disciple James replaced by that of the deceased. Adjacent is a memorial to Lieutenant Roger Whitley Bate (died 1901) including St George slaying the dragon. The next two windows depict the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and formed part of the 1876 east window. Its third panel, showing the Ascension, is in a window to the south of the nave. Early 20th-century dedications also appear on the south wall, including one to Charles and Ellen Davison of Fairfield. At the left end is a memorial to Cyril Davison (died 1865, aged 4) showing angels carrying the child heavenwards. Further stained glass in the north and south chancel windows includes one showing the angels of death to Sarah Jane Davison.