St Mary's Church, Nantwich
| St Mary's Church, Nantwich | |
|---|---|
.JPG)
St Mary's Church, Nantwich
|
|
 St Mary's Church, Nantwich
Location in Cheshire
|
|
| 53°04′02″N 2°31′14″W / 53.0671°N 2.5206°WCoordinates: 53°04′02″N 2°31′14″W / 53.0671°N 2.5206°W | |
| OS grid reference | SJ 651 523 |
| Location | Nantwich, Cheshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | St Mary's, Nantwich |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 19 April 1948 |
| Architect(s) | George Gilbert Scott (restoration) |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Gothic |
| Specifications | |
| Height | 101 feet (31 m) |
| Materials | Red sandstone |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Nantwich |
| Deanery | Nantwich |
| Archdeaconry | Macclesfield |
| Diocese | Chester |
| Province | York |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Rev Barry Wilson |
| Priest(s) | Rev Stephen Snelling |
| Curate(s) | Kaushal David |
| Laity | |
| Director of music | Alison Phillips |
| Organist(s) | Simon Russell |
| Churchwarden(s) | Steve Lockett, Pat Stalker |
| Flower guild | Glenys Ellis |
| Music group(s) | Jonathan Griffiths |
| Parish administrator | Gail Johnson |
St Mary's Church is in the centre of the market town of Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It has been called the "Cathedral of South Cheshire" and it is considered by some to be one of the finest medieval churches, not only in Cheshire, but in the whole of England. The architectural writer Raymond Richards described it as "one of the great architectural treasures of Cheshire", and Alec Clifton-Taylor included it in his list of "outstanding" English parish churches.
The building dates from the 14th century, although a number of changes have since been made, particularly a substantial 19th-century restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The church and its octagonal tower are built in red sandstone. Features of the church's interior include the lierne-vaulted ceiling of the choir, the carved stone canopies of the sedilia in the chancel, and the intricately carved wooden canopies over the choirstalls together with the 20 misericords at the back of the stalls. The church is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Nantwich.
The first building on the site was a chapel of ease in the parish of Acton. In about 1130 both Acton church and Nantwich chapel came under control of the Cistercian abbey of Combermere. The building of the present church started in about 1340 in the Decorated style, which was the style most commonly used in English church building at that time. The masons, who came from Yorkshire, used local sandstone, probably from Eddisbury near Delamere. Building work was interrupted between 1349 and 1369, probably due to an outbreak of the Black Death plague. By the 1380s the town's prosperity had recovered and building work resumed. This phase of construction was carried out by master masons associated with Lichfield and Gloucester cathedrals, now building in the Perpendicular style. The south transept was endowed as a chantry chapel in 1405. In the late-15th or early-16th century, the south porch was added, the nave roof was raised and the clerestory windows were added. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, six chantry chapels were removed in 1548. Between 1572 and 1577 the transept ceilings were renewed, and between 1615 and 1633 the church floor was raised because of flooding, a west gallery was built, and the walls were painted white, with the addition of scriptural texts. The church was briefly used as a prison for Royalists captured at the battles of Nantwich and Preston during the Civil War.
...
Wikipedia