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- 1. St Chad, Stafford, Staffordshire, England
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Parish church St Chad's is on Greengate Street, one of Stafford's main shopping streets running S from the market square. Its W front is entirely the work of George Gilbert Scott (1873-74), but this conceals a church that is substantially 12thc. and considerably larger than expected. It is cruciform with a crossing tower and aisles to the nave. The aisles have four-bay arcades carried on heavy cylindrical piers with scallop capitals and chevron decoration on the two eastern arches of each arcade. Above the E respond capitals and pier 1 capitals on the nave faces of both arcade walls are attached half-shafts rising to clerestory sill level, with plain cuboidal blocks where capitals and bases would be expected. The W responds of the arcades are of a later date than the rest, suggesting that the nave might originally have extended further W, but the vicissitudes undergone by the façade (see below) make this by no means certain. Above the arcades are round-headed clerestory windows; originally 12thc. but entirely remade. The aisles are entirely Scott's work. The only nave doorway is at the W. The crossing tower was rebuilt in the 14thc. and restored by Robert Griffiths of Stafford in 1884, and all four crossing arch heads are 14thc., although the beautifully carved 12thc. W arch was retained, the new W crossing arch being constructed immediately to the E of it. In the detailed descriptions below, the 12thc. arch is called the chancel arch. The N arch was rebuilt in the 19thc, incorporating 12thc. carved capitals and imposts discovered in the restoration. The E arch has 12thc. embrasures, capitals and imposts supporting the 14thc. archivolts above. The S arch appears to be entirely 14thc. work, but it is largely concealed by the organ. The N transept is by Griffiths (1886) and now houses the Jevons Memorial Chapel, furnished in 1937. The S transept was not rebuilt until 1953-55 and houses the organ with a vestry behind it. The chancel is now of three bays, with 12thc. windows in the two western bays, original on the N side, and 12thc. interior wall arcading in these bays on the N and S sides. The exterior chancel stringcourse also stops at the end of bay two, indicating that the 12thc. chancel was a bay shorter than the present one. It may have ended in an apse.
- 2. St Mary, Stafford, Staffordshire, England
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Parish church (formerly collegiate church) Although St Mary's is in the centre of Stafford it stands in its own large close, reached through a narrow passage from Greengate Street, the main shopping thoroughfare on which St Chad's stands. The church is a large one, cruciform with transepts and an octagonal crossing tower that had a spire until 1594. The chancel has five-bay aisles, the N largely given oven to organ and vestry use, and the S a Lady Chapel. The nave is aisled too, with five-bay arcades and a clerestorey. The earliest fabric here is 13thc., and there is also Decorated and Perpendicular work, and the church was thoroughly restored by George Gilbert Scot in 1841-44. According to Pevsner's analysis, the nave and its arcades are early 13thc. work, although the crocket capitals are Scott’s. The W doorway and a plain N aisle doorway are also early 13thc., while the W window belongs to the later 13thc. The S aisle windows are 14thc. and the N aisle windows and clerestorey are Perpendicular. The S doorway and its porch are Scott's. As we move into the transept and chancel, Scott's work becomes more apparent, doubtless because when the spire fell in 1594, it fell eastwards. The N transept was not restored, and retains an early 14thc. N doorway and window, and a Perpendicular clerestory. Scott removed the clerestories in the chancel and S transept. Some 13thc. windows survive in these parts of the church, but most of the windows are Scott's. The only 12thc. feature is the Italianate font.
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