Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A church comprising a western tower with integrated porch, an aisleless nave, and a later chancel with north and south gabled transepts. The building is constructed of roughly coursed yellow-brown stone under slate roofs.

The tower is three stages tall with embattled parapets and a pyramidal slate roof. It features stepped diagonal buttresses, with the bell stage containing louvred Tudor-arched openings. The western front displays a doorway with a Tudor-arched head and square hoodmould, containing boarded double doors, together with a window to the second stage. Above this is a clock set within a diagonal stone panel. Narrow stairlights run along the north and south sides. Throughout the tower and nave, windows are consistently detailed as 2-light openings with cinquefoiled heads beneath hoodmoulds. The windows sit within 4-centred arches. Buttresses with offsets and a plinth are characteristic features, with angle buttresses positioned between the windows of the three-bay nave.

The later chancel is built of snecked sandstone ashlar and incorporates gabled transepts. The southern transept houses a vestry, accessed through a pointed-arched doorway on its return, while the northern transept contains an organ chamber. Windows throughout the chancel follow Perpendicular style with 2- or 3-light openings, their lights topped with cinquefoil heads. Diagonal buttresses support the structure, and the gable ends of the transepts feature 3-light windows; that to the south has a segmental head with square hoodmould. The sanctuary has 2-light windows to its north and south sides, while the chancel's eastern window is 3-light with a hoodmould bearing end stops sculpted with the heads of Queen Victoria and the late Prince Albert. The northern transept's 3-light window has end stops bearing the heads of Mr and Mrs Johnson. The chancel incorporates raised stone copings with kneelers, a moulded eaves cornice, and a sill band.

Interior

The nave displays simple Georgian character with a steeply pitched roof spanning five-and-a-half bays, supported by collar trusses carried on decorative wooden corbels. Pews have plain bench ends, and doorways retain Tudor-arched heads.

A west gallery with a wooden front is supported on four posts said to derive from a late 15th-century tester bed. Detailed analysis by Timbrell of the badges, coats of arms, and decoration on these posts suggested they formed part of the marital bed of Henry VII. The gallery front incorporates further ornamental woodwork including a depiction of St Anne with the Virgin and Child, thought to be of German medieval origin, and a pair of griffins, probably from the same source. A central coat of arms is Hanoverian, pre-dating 1801, flanked by panels referring to Rector Neville and the construction of the church in 1824. To the right of the chancel arch stands an ornamental panelled vestry door, its woodwork believed to have originated from the same bed as the gallery posts, possibly the tester or bedstead.

A heavily decorated octagonal wooden pulpit stands to the southwest of the nave. Its top moulding is thought to be a cornice from the bed, while the remainder incorporates other sources including Jacobean panelling to the base.

Beneath the chancel arch lies an early medieval stone piscina, currently serving as the font. The 19th-century font at the western end, featuring incised quatrefoils, is no longer in use.

The chancel features a high stone chancel arch with multiple moulded orders and a hoodmould bearing angel head stops. A similar arch on the north side of the chancel leads to the organ chamber. The chancel roof is panelled and four-sided with a toothed cornice. Windows have rere arches with angel head stops.

Monuments and fittings

A large wall monument on the south side of the chancel is constructed of red sandstone with a cinquefoiled ogee head bearing the arms of the City of Chester. It commemorates William Johnson, who erected the chancel in 1876. A World War II memorial is located on the north side of the nave.

Stained glass in the north and south chancel windows is by Kempe and depicts the Annunciation and the Flight into Egypt. The eastern window was replaced in 1916 and is by Powell & Sons, but retains the original dedication to Lavinia Glynne of Hawarden Castle.