- St Mary's Church, Eccleston
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St Mary's Church, Eccleston 
St Mary's Church, Eccleston, from the south
St Mary's Church, EcclestonCoordinates: 53°09′27″N 2°52′46″W / 53.1576°N 2.8794°W OS grid reference SJ 412 626 Location Eccleston, Cheshire Country England Denomination Anglican Website St Mary, Eccleston Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade I Designated 1 June 1967 Architect(s) G. F. Bodley Architectural type Church Style Gothic revival Completed 1899 Construction cost £40,000 Specifications Materials Red sandstone Administration Parish Eccleston and Pulford Deanery Chester Archdeaconry Chester Diocese Chester Province York St Mary's Church, Eccleston, is in the village of Eccleston, Cheshire, England, on the estate of the Duke of Westminster south of Chester. The church is designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.[1] It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester. Its benefice is combined with that of St Mary, Pulford.[2]
Contents
History
There was a medieval church on the site which was entirely rebuilt in 1809 by William Porden for Earl Grosvenor. A chancel was added in 1853. This was replaced by the present church in 1899, designed by G. F. Bodley for the 1st Duke of Westminster at a cost of £40,000 (£3.34 million today).[3][4]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is built in red ashlar sandstone. Its plan consists of a west tower, a continuous six-bay nave, a chancel with a clerestory, north and south aisles, and north and south porches.[1] A long vestry block projects to the north. The tower has long bell-openings, irregular buttresses and an embattled top. Canopied niches above the south door contain statues.[5] The church is considered to be an example of Bodley's mature style anticipating features of Liverpool Cathedral.[1]
Interior
The authors of the Buildings of England series are impressed by the furnishings of the church, in particular the reredoses by Farmer and Brindley, the chancel screens, the organ case and the bench ends. All the stained glass is by Burlison and Grylls.[5] The font is made from Thessaly marble, and has a lifting oak cover decorated with the carvings of eight saints. In the baptistry is part of a memorial to the Grosvenor family dated 1624 that has been moved from the old church. The east end of the south aisle is occupied by the Grosvenor Chapel. Above its altar are the carved figures of Jesus, Saint Augustine and Saint Paulinus.[6] In the church is a monument to the memory of the 1st Duke of Westminster dated 1901, which consists of a tomb-chest and canopy designed by Bodley with an effigy by Farmer and Brindley, sculpted by Leon Joseph Chavalliaud.[5] Opposite on the south wall is a bronze bust to the 2nd Duke. Elsewhere in the church are memorials to the 4th Duke, and to Captain Hugh William Grosvenor, who was killed in the First World War.[6] The organ was built in 1899 by Gray & Davison. It was modified around 1910 by Henry Poyser and further modified in 1984.[7] The ring consists of eight bells which were cast by John Taylor & Co in 1899.[8]
External features
The churchyard has an avenue of lime trees. The gates date from the early 18th century. They were made by the Davies Bros., and were originally at Emral Hall, Flintshire. In the northeast part of the old churchyard is a fragment of Porden's former church on the site which was retained as a "picturesque feature".[5] This consists of a sandstone wall with the lower parts of two windows measuring about 60 feet (18 m) long by 18 feet (5 m) high. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building.[9] Also listed Grade II are the walls and gates between the old churchyard and Old Church Lane.[10]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Church of St Mary, Eccleston", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1138410, retrieved 21 April 2011
- ^ Eccleston, St Mary, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/eccleston-st-mary-chester/, retrieved 21 April 2011
- ^ Salter, Mark (1995), The Old Parish Churches of Cheshire, Malvern: Folly Publications, p. 35, ISBN 1-871731-23-2
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ a b c d Hartwell, Claire; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 352–353, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
- ^ a b Anon. (1977), A Guide to the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Eccleston, Chester, Eccleston, Cheshire: St Mary's Church, Eccleston
- ^ Eccleston St. Mary, British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D08363, retrieved 14 August 2008
- ^ Eccleston S Mary, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Eccleston&Submit=++Go++&DoveID=ECCLESTONC, retrieved 14 August 2008
- ^ "Remains of former Church of St Mary, Eccleston", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1138376, retrieved 21 April 2011
- ^ "Walls and gates between Old Church Lane and the old churchyard, Eccleston", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1138375, retrieved 21 April 2011
External links
Categories:- Church of England churches in Cheshire
- Grade I listed churches
- Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire
- Religious buildings completed in 1899
- 19th-century Church of England church buildings
- Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire
- Diocese of Chester
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