Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is an early 19th-century Gothic style cruciform church with a longer north transept and a west tower. The building is constructed of whitened brick with buttresses and a dentil eaves course, with a slate roof.

The tower is three stages tall with diagonal buttresses in the lower two stages. Its pointed west doorway has a continuous moulding and double boarded doors. A small window sits on the north side. The middle stage contains a two-light west window and a clock on the south face. A raised band sits below the shorter bell stage, which has pointed bell openings with louvres and a steep pyramidal shingled roof on deep projecting eaves.

The windows throughout are mostly two-light with wood-framed Y-tracery. The nave has two windows. The south transept has a three-light south window with intersecting stone tracery and hood mould with foliage stops. The chancel is two bays; a window in the left-hand bay sits above a lean-to boiler room against the east wall of the south transept beneath a corrugated iron roof. The right-hand bay of the chancel has been rebuilt. The chancel has a three-light east window with intersecting stone tracery. The north transept has one east window, a pointed boarded north door below a pointed three-light gallery window with intersecting glazing bars and diamond-leaded glazing. The west side of the transept and north side of the nave both have two windows.

An outshut vestry is built against the east wall of the north transept, with a studded east door and north window with leaded glazing.

The nave and chancel both have a single collar-beam truss with corbelled diagonal braces and small windbraces. The crossing has double-chamfered segmental arches and a pyramidal roof with a large central foliage boss. The north transept has a coupled roof truss on corbels. The nave contains a west gallery with re-used round-headed panels to its front. The north transept has an organ gallery with re-used panelled front, carried on a joist-beam ceiling of re-used material and further strengthened by two cast-iron posts cast by Smith of Whitchurch. The chancel has panelled wainscot and a wooden communion rail with plain balusters.

Interior fittings include an octagonal font with a panelled stem and quatrefoils around the bowl. Pews have simple shaped ends, and choir stalls have panelled ends. The polygonal pulpit has linenfold and blind Gothic arched panels. The east window depicts the Ascension, raising of Lazarus and raising the son of the widow of Nain, dating from after 1858. The chancel south window, by M. and A. O'Connor of London and dated 1871, depicts parables of the Good Samaritan and the Lost Sheep.

The church contains numerous wall monuments. In the chancel east wall north of the window is a large marble wall tablet by van der Hagen of Shrewsbury to Reverend Richard Congreve (died 1782) of Iscoyd Park, featuring an inscription panel on a high base, triangular head with draped urn, surmounted by shield, trumpet and laurel. On the south side of the east window is a tablet with draped urn to Martha Congreve (died 1809) by S. and T. Franceys of Liverpool. In the chancel north wall is a tablet with polished marble surround incorporating a foliage frieze to Charlotte Harriet Godsal (died 1861) and family by Poole & Son of Westminster. A brass tablet with relief inscription commemorates children (died 1917-18) of Philip and Ellen Godsal by Guln, Gawthorp & Sons of London. In the chancel south wall is a simple wooden plaque to Joseph Jacob, rector of Whitewell 1885-1926.

The south transept contains memorial tablets to Robert Thom (died 1927), to Captain Philip Warburton Lee (died 1917) with bust, a marble tablet to Joseph Lee (died 1852) by Dodson of Shrewsbury, and to John Parsons (died 1800) and Grace Parsons (died 1855) by Harrison of Chester. Simple brass plaques commemorate William Lee (died 1888) and Louisa Lee (died 1883).

The nave south wall has a marble tablet to the Presbyterian minister and preacher Philip Henry (1631-96), originally at Whitchurch but brought here in 1844. The north wall has a simple tablet to Thomas Foulkes (died 1916), and the north transept a tablet to Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee VC RN, killed in the Battle of Narvik in 1940.