Parish Church of St Chad

Parish Church of St Chad

This is a Perpendicular aisled church of red sandstone blocks laid in courses, with a rectangular plan. The west tower is said to date from 1679, and the main body of the church comprises an unbroken aisled nave and chancel. The north and south doors feature Perpendicular-style windows, and the parapet dates from the later 18th century.

The south door is a four-centred arch with an enriched drip mould surround. Above it is a carved stone panel containing a much-weathered scene of the Annunciation. A tablet in the parapet above records the names of John Rowe and Joshua Powell as church wardens in 1732.

The east end elevation displays Perpendicular panel tracery windows to the chancel and aisles. Beneath the chancel window is an ogee-headed marble memorial slab inserted to commemorate Jasper Peck of Cornish Hall, who died in 1688. The apex of the gable parapet contains a tablet inscribed "THE REVEREND JOHN ADAMS MINISTER 1732" with an iron cross on the apex. The chancel and north aisle buttresses are finished with decorative finials.

The west tower contains a peal of six bells by Rudhall of Gloucester, which were installed in 1714 and rehung in an iron bell frame in 1896. The clock on the west tower was installed in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.

The interior has five-bay arcades in the nave with tall acutely-pointed arches on octagonal piers. There is no structural division between the nave and chancel, which continues for a further two bays with wide four-centred arches on octagonal piers with exaggerated concave faces. Steps rise to the sanctuary, which has a floor of plain and encaustic tiles and is separated from the north and south chapels by low walls. A continuous camber-beam roof with decorated panels and foliated bosses runs through the chancel, with similar roofs in the aisles. In the south wall of the south chapel is a reset piscina with an ogee head flanked by abraded crocketted pinnacles. At the west end is a tall narrow tower arch. The exposed stone walls bear numerous mason's marks and graffiti, some dating from the 18th century.

At the southwest end is a font with an octagonal bowl boldly carved with faces and stems bearing heraldic motifs, including the fleur-de-lis of Henry VII and the stag head caboshed of the Stanleys. The heraldry is said to suggest a date of 1483.

19th-century furnishings are generally of oak. The chancel screen features open ogee arcading. An octagonal pulpit on a stone base is richly carved, and the pews have poppyheads. The organ was built by Norman & Beard in 1910 and rebuilt in 1976.

Monuments include a copper plate on the north wall of the north chapel by Silvanus Crue of Wrexham commemorating Thomas Crue, who died in 1666. His name appears in an acrostic within a well-executed design incorporating skulls, hourglasses, sundials and a recumbent skeleton. A brass on the north aisle wall shows an angel blowing the last trumpet and commemorates Mary Dutton, who died in 1767. Above the north door is a Neoclassical monument with a festooned urn and winged putto for Christiana Smith, who died in 1811. On the west side of the tower arch is a brass with an angel, skull and winged hourglass for John Lloyd, who died in 1784. Above the south door is a cartouche with drapery and winged putto, partially legible.

The windows are mainly of plain glass, with the exception of a south aisle window featuring Saints David, Asaph, Chad and Swithun, in memory of G T Kenyon, dated 1912 and signed PGG.