THE STAFFORDSHIRE HISTORIC CHURCHES TRUST

We hope you will enjoy visiting the churches shown in this leaflet. None of these churches receive state aid towards their preservation and maintenance of fabric, and unfortunately repairs are constantly necessary. The SHCT is a charity [no. 240854], which gives grants of up to £3000 to churches of all denominations in Staffordshire.

We ask you to consider joining the trust for a minimum subscription of £10 p.a. so that we can continue to offer financial support to these churches.

www.staffordshirehct.org.uk

01 03 02

ST MARY, STAFFORD [01]Collegiate Church with Perpendicular octagonal crossing tower. Nave with five bay arcades c.1190 - 1200. Chancel c.1300. Fine north transept with ‘Decorated’ window and doorway. Unusual Norman font. Foundations of Saxon church of St Bertelin west of church. Look out for tomb chest of Sir Edward Aston[d.1568] of Tixall.

ST CHAD, STAFFORD [02]Despite heavy restoration by Ward and Scott in the 19th Century, a good example of a small Norman parish church. Norman nave with circular piers, east and west crossing arches with beakhead ornament and zig-zag chancel with black arcading. Perpendicular crossing tower.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS [QUAKERS],FOREGATE STREET, STAFFORD [03]Built 1730. Small single room brick building with original panelling, gallery, staircase and overseers bench. Hiding place in roof from days of persecution.

Stafford Church Trail Christianity has been established in the Stafford area since the late 7th Century. However the earliest work to be seen in local churches dates from c.1200. The churches listed here are a selection representing the main periods of church architecture, together with their various fittings such as box pews, galleries, screens, pulpits and, of course the numerous memorials to the people whom these churches served in the past.

For opening arrangements please contact the Tourist Information Centre, Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, Eastgate Street, Stafford, ST16 2LT. T. 01785 619 619

Many thanks to Mr D Baddeley and Mrs F Sheridan.

Collegiate ChurCh St Mary.

the parish church of Stafford. First major restoration by Scott 1841-44.

01

11

11

ST MARY, CASTLE CHURCH [04]Perpendicular west tower. Church rebuilt by Scott and Moffat 1844-45 in Norman style with lancets

in lower chancel. Large mysterious slab with close abstract decoration c.1180-1200, probably part of

an altar. Church probably associated with village of Monteville, ‘the old hollow way’ to castle passes

through churchyard.

ST AUSTIN’S [RC], WOLVERHAMPTON ROAD, STAFFORD [05]

Originally built 1791, extended 1815-17. Present church dates from 1861-62, by E W Pugin. Brick with stone

dressings. 16th Century Flemish figures in west window. Other windows by Hardman.

HOLY TRINITY, BASWICH [06]Medieval west tower with 18th Century top. Norman

chancel arch. Nave and chancel rebuilt in red brick 1740 by Richard Trubshaw. Georgian west gallery. One

elevated family pew. Three decker pulpit. Tomb chest [1587] with shields and four tapering square balusters.

ST MICHAEL, COLWICH [07]

West tower 1640 in Gothic tradition. Rest of building mainly Victorian by Stevens of

Derby 1856. Early English style arcades. Ornate chancel with canopied stalls. Monuments to

Wolseley and Anson families. Admiral Anson of Shugborough [d.1762] buried in family crypt.

ST JOHN BAPTIST [RC], GREAT HAYWOOD [08]Built 1828 at Tixall and moved here 1845 by

local Catholics. Ornate west front with high octagonal south west turret. Straight headed, late

Perpendicular windows, with stone panelled dado underneath inside. Rich west gallery.

ST MARY, INGESTRE [09]Built beside Ingestre Hall, 1676, for Chetwynd family. Attributed to Wren. West tower with balustrade. Nave with flat ‘Decorated’ stuccoed ceiling and chancel with plaster tunnel vault. Round clerestory windows. Magnificent carved oak screen and pulpit with tester. Memorials and tombs of Chetwynd and Talbot families. Early electric light fittings 1876.

ST JOHN, STOWE-BY-CHARTLEY [10]Basically Norman church as nave, chancel and doorways with zig-zag and scalloped capitals show. Several windows and west tower ‘Decorated’. Effigies of Sir Walter Devereux [d.1537] and wives, of Chartley, with Renaissance decoration. Two tablets by Lutyens [1916 and 1927].

ST ANDREW, WESTON [11]One of the finest Early English west towers in the county. Early 13th Century with lancet windows and broad clasping buttresses. Wide triple chamfered arch. Arcades and chancel arch later 13th Century. Rest of church mainly by Scott 1860 and Butterfield 1872. Two bells c.1400.

St JohN, StoWe-By-Chartley

Norman Church with several windows and west tower in ‘Decorated’ style.

10

06 10 1109

all SaiNtS,SaNDoN

ornately carved box pew.

ALL SAINTS, SANDON [12]Mainly 13th to 15th Century. Windows with Y tracery

and inter-sected tracery, also three stepped lancet lights. Good arch-braced roof. Ornate north aisle

remodelled 1851 as chapel for Earls of Harrowby. 17th Century reredos and pulpit with tester. 17th Century

heraldic glass in east window. Elevated family pew 1782. Look out for the Large monument to Sampson

Erdesweick, the antiquary [d.1603]. Painted family tree 16th Century.

CHRIST CHURCH, HILDERSTONE [13]Built 1827-29 by Thomas Trubshaw. Commissioners’

type church with north west low tower with 40ft spire. Inside, octagonal piers with leaf capitals.

Lancet windows. Box pews.

ST MICHAEL, STONE [14]Early example of Gothic Revival style, built 1758 in

grounds of earlier Augustinian Priory. Square west tower. Two tiers of windows with Y tracery along

nave. Two galleries. Original box pews. Two 17th Century tombs of Crompton family in churchyard.

Classical style Mausoleum of Earl St Vincent, Nelson’s admiral, to east of church.

ST DOMINIC [RC], STONE [15]Large, towerless, spacious church with nave, aisles and transepts in late 13th Century style. Built 1852-63. Nave by Charles Hansom. Monument to Archbishop Ullathorne 1889. Attached to convent of similar date.

ST MARY, SWYNNERTON [16]Norman west doorway in tower. Chancel and nave arcades Early English. Y tracery and reticulated tracery windows 13th Century - 14th Century. Effigy of cross-legged Knight [Sir John de Swynnerton d.1254]. Remarkable 7ft high statue of seated Christ c.1260-1280. Good 19th Century stained glass.

ALL SAINTS, STANDON [17]West wall of nave and north aisle Norman, probably from earlier church. Early English north and south arcades. Tower 14th Century. Restored by Scott 1846-47 who built chancel in best lancet style. Remains of 15th Century brass cross and two 16th Century memorials.

ST PETER, BROUGHTON [18]Built in Gothic style 1630-34 as private chapel for Broughton family, on site of earlier chapel. Short nave with two bay arcades. Windows straight-headed with round arched lights. High box pews. Several 17th and 18th century memorial tablets. Good 15th century stained glass in east window.

ST CHAD, SLINDON [19]Very fine late Victorian church designed by Basil Champneys for JC Salt of the banking family. Late Gothic, freely treated and very successful. Cruciform plan with low central tower. Restrained interior. Windows by Kempe.

12

11 14

11

1412 18 14

St laWreNCe, CoPPeNhall.

‘a perfect 13th Century village church, small but of great dignity.’

28

ST LAWRENCE, GNOSALL [25]Fine collegiate church dominated by crossing tower. Contains some of best Norman work in Staffordshire in the ornate west crossing arch, and the blank arcading and triforium of the south transept. Rest of church 13th - 15th Century. Lovely ‘Decorated’ five light east window with flowing tracery.

ST EDITHA, CHURCH EATON [26]12th Century Norman west tower with deeply splayed windows, topped by 15th Century recessed spire. Nave and aisles Early English and ‘Decorated’. Fine Perpendicular seven light chancel east and 19th Century memorials to Crocket family.

ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS, BRADLEY [27]Originally Norman but rebuilt in 13th and 14th Century. Early English lancet window and ‘Decorated’ east chancel window with flowing tracery. Three bay arcade probably brought from Austin Friary in Stafford 1540s. Norman font with Greek key decoration. Kneeling figures of Thomas Browne [d.1633] and wife.

ST LAWRENCE, COPPENHALL [28]Nave and chancel with Victorian bell turret. West doorway with continuous roll- mounting. Lancets along nave. Simple pointed chancel arch. Very thick stone ashler walls.

HOLY TRINITY, ECCLESHALL [20]Described by Pevsner as ‘one of the most perfect

13th Century churches in Staffs’. Strong west tower, windows with Y tracery, long chancel.

ALL SAINTS, CHEBSEY [21]Mainly Norman with Early English south arcade.

Fine west tower, Perpendicular with eight pinnacles and outside stair turret. Beautiful medieval roof.

Some windows by Kempe 1901. 13th Century carved stone coffin. Anglo-Saxon cross-shaft in churchyard.

ST CHAD, SEIGHFORD [22]Norman chancel arch and north arcade. 13th Century

chancel. West tower built in local brick in 17th Century after collapse of Norman crossing tower. Church Warden chest 1610. Squires pew 1748. Fine

Jacobean pulpit. Alabaster tomb of William Bowyer [d.1593] 15th Century glass in south chancel window.

ST MARY, HIGH OFFLEY [23]Part of nave and north doorway Norman c.1200.

Chancel and five bay south arcade early 13th Century. Early English tower and east window with

triple stepped lancet lights. ‘Decorated’ chancel window with reticulated tracery. Fine chancel

roof with moulded beams. 18th Century tablets to Skrymsher family.

ST PETER, NORBURY [24]Striking Georgian brick tower [1759]. Early 14th

Century nave and chancel with ‘Decorated’ two light windows with inter-sected tracery.

Trussed-rafter wagon roof. Effigy of Ralph Botiller d.1342 [donor of church]. Fine 14th Century brass of

Lady Hawys Botiller.

11 14 12

11

21 23 25 26 27

STAFFORD

BASWICH

COLWICH

GREAT HAYWOOD

STOWE-BY- CHARTLEY

INGESTRE

WESTON

SANDON

HILDERSTONE

STONE

SWYNNERTONSTANDON

BROUGHTONSLINDON

ECCLESHALL

CHEBSEY

SEIGHFORD

HIGH OFFLEY

NORBURY

GNOSALL

CHURCH EATON BRADLEY

COPPENHALL

CASTLECHURCH

J1 4

M6 J13

M6 J14

A34

A520

5013

5405

5026 5026

50265027

5066

5066

A518

A51

A518

A513

A513

A449

A449

5013

27

28

26

25

24

23

22

2120

19

1617

18 1415

11

12

13

07

12

08

09

10

03

0405

06

0102

Follow the Stafford Churches Trail

the trail [01 ]

[01] STMARY[02] STCHAD[03] SOCIETYOFFRIENDS[04] STMARY[05] STAUSTIN’S[RC][06] HOLYTRINITY[07] STMICHAEL

[08] STJOHNBAPTIST[RC][09] STMARY[10] STJOHN[11] STANDREW[12] ALLSAINTS[13] CHRISTCHURCH[14] STMICHAEL

[15] STDOMINIC[RC][16] STMARY[17] ALLSAINTS[18] STPETER[19] STCHAD[20] HOLYTRINITY[21] ALLSAINTS

[22] STCHAD[23] STMARY[24] STPETER[25] STLAWRENCE[26] STEDITHA[27] STMARYANDALLSAINTS[28] STLAWRENCE

04 28 10