Search results

Search terms: Staffordshire

1. All Saints, Alrewas, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Alrewas grew up alongside the Trent, near its junction with the Thame, and the Trent joins the Trent and Mersey canal here, running in its bed for just a mile or so before the two divide again at Wychnor Bridges. In the 19thc. too it was an important station on the South Staffordshire Railway. The A38, Britain's longest A-class road, running from Bodmin (Cornwall) to Mansfield (Notts) once ran through it, but Alrewas has now been bypassed and despite its commercial history is now a quiet and attractive village. All Saints has an aisled nave, chancel and W tower. The present appearance of the nave, as a hall-church with a loft arcade and aisles as high as the main vessel, is due to Basil Champney's rebuilding of 1891. Two original 12thc. nave doorways survive, now re-set in the W wall of the tower and the N nave aisle. The chancel is much narrower than the present central nave and dates from the 13thc. It was restored in 1877 but the original sedilia and piscina remain, and there is a S chapel now used as an organ loft. In the 14thc. a S aisle was added to the nave with piers shorter than at present, and the chancel arch replaced, and in the same period the W tower with its angle buttresses was built. The two 12thc. doorways must have been re-set at this time. The S doorway is 14thc. and protected by a porch of 1866. In the 16thc. the S arcade piers were heightened and the aisle and chancel roofs raised; a second storey of windows being added to both. Champney's work involved the demolition and rebuilding of the N nave wall as an aisle wall, and the insertion of a tall N arcade. He did not try to match the S arcade in detail, opting for quatrefoil piers with individual moulded capitals rather than octagonal piers and capitals. The William Salt Library holds exterior views of the church dating from before both 19thc. restorations, but unfortunately all from the SE or SW. They at least confirm that the raising of the S aisle and chancel roofs had already been carried out before the 19thc. restorations. Romanesque sculpture is found on the N nave doorway and the tower doorway.
2. St Peter, Alstonfield, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St Peter's has a clerestoried nave with four-bay N and S aisles. The S arcade is 14thc., while the N and the square-headed clerestory windows date fromc.1500. The nave has N and S doorways, both under porches. The S doorway is 12thc. work and its 13thc. porch is now used as a store for building materials; the N doorway is 16thc. The chancel arch is also 12thc., while the chancel includes three 13thc. lancets in its side walls. The chancel was rebuilt in 1590 (inscription) and restored in 1870. The W tower arch is tall and Perpendicular. The tower has a 16thc. W doorway, diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners, but the Y-traceried bell-openings are stylistically ofc.1300. The nave bases are concealed by the present floor, and in the chancel the piscina is very low in the wall, both features indicating that the original floor level was lower than it is now. Construction is of coursed rubble including roughly squared large blocks of ashlar. There are Anglo-Saxon fragments built into the stonework around the N porch and others loose at the W end of the N aisle. The Romanesque features described here are the S doorway and the chancel arch.
3. St Peter, Alton, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Alton stands on rising ground on the S slope of the Churnet valley, five miles to the N of Uttoxeter in the region of hilly woodland to the S of the Weaver Hills. The castle to the E of the church was built by Bertram de Verdun from 1176, and rebuilt as a house for the Earl of Shrewsbury to designs by Pugin from 1847-52. There was a school on the site, which was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy in 1855, and a presbytery, which became their convent. The castle itself remained a private dwelling until 1919 when the Sisters of Mercy bought it to extend their boarding school. When the school closed in 1989 the castle was left empty until 1995, when the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham bought it, reopening it as a residential youth centre in the following year. The church itself has an aisled nave without a clerestorey, a much taller chancel with a S chapel and a W tower, all in pinkish grey ashlar. In the nave, both aisles are of five bays with part of a sixth at the W end, curtailed by the later tower wall. The N aisle is 12thc. in origin with a round-headed arcade but heavily restored. It has been screened off from the nave with wooden panelling, glazed above, between the arcade piers. The W end of the aisle now accommodates a kitchen and lavatories, and the E end a chapel. The S arcade is much higher, with tall slender piers and stilted arches. Again it is heavily restored, but an odd respond at the E end may give some hint of an earlier arrangement. The nave has a S doorway without a porch. The chancel is much taller than the nave, and has a low chapel to the S, added by J. R. Naylor in 1884-85. It is unusual in having a four-centred chancel arch. The W tower has a grand early-13thc. W doorway but the upper parts are 15thc. The church was restored in 1830-31 by J. T. Holmes of Cheadle, when a gallery was added, and the church, in Pevsner's view, was all but rebuilt at that time. This is certainly true of the aisle walls and their arcades. The most interesting of the antiquarian views in William Salt Library SV I 63; an undated 19thc. drawing showing the S side of the nave and chancel. No chapel is shown, which dates the drawing before 1885, but the nave already has the Y-tracery windows it has today. The S doorway was then protected by a porch. There is probably no original 12thc. sculpture in the building, nevertheless both nave arcades are described below.
4. St John the Baptist, Armitage, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Armitage is in central south Staffordshire, to the E of Cannock Chase and 2 miles SE of Rugeley. The village is built along the A513 road from Rugeley to Handsacre, and the latter and Armitage now form a continuous conurbation. This road follows the line of the River Trent, and St John's is built on a sandstone outcrop overlooking the river.
5. St Leonard, Blithfield, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Blithfield takes its name from the river Blythe, a tributary of the Trent, and is some 8 miles E of the centre of Stafford and 4 miles N of Rugeley. There is no village any longer; all that remains are the hall, the church and the old rectory (damaged by fire in 1962 and rebuilt into apartments in the 1980s). The old village disappeared, probably in the 16thc. or 17thc., to allow the extension of parkland for the hall. The Blythe itself was dammed in 1953 to form Blithfield Reservoir, over two miles long and half a mile wide, and now a centre for wildlife and leisure activities as well as a source of water for S Staffordshire.
6. St Mary and All Saints, Bradley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Bradley lies some 4 miles SW of Stafford in a gently undulating landscape of small dispersed farms, traditionally dairy. The church is of red sandstone and has a nave with a N aisle, chancel with a N chapel and a W tower. The chancel side windows indicate a late-13thc. date, although the E window with its flowing tracery is 14thc. The two-bay N chapel is of the late-13thc. In the nave, the three-bay arcade with its quatrefoil piers and sunk quadrant mouldings in the arch belongs to the early 14thc. There is no clerestory, but the S nave wall has been fitted with three tall 15thc. windows that light the interior admirably. To the same period belong the battlemented parapets of the nave and tower. The N nave aisle is linked to the N chapel by a simple, very plain arch, perhaps early-13thc., and an old roofline visible in the masonry above this demonstrates that the aisle has been widened and heightened, probablyc.1500 (see VIII Comments/Opinions), the date of the aisle windows. The nave has N and S doorways without porches; the N 19thc. and the S 16thc. The tower and its arch are 14thc. and later work. It had a W doorway that was blockedc.1907 using 12thc. and later carved stones on the interior. Other 12thc. carved stones are set in the S nave wall outside, and the church is also important for its chip-carved font. Antiquarian views in the William Salt Library are a view from the N by J. Curtes of 1798 (SV II 122c), one from the SE by Buckler of 1842 (SV II 29), and one of the tower from the W, also by Buckler, 1842 ((SV II 117). This last shows the W doorway before it was blocked. There is also an 1842 Buckler drawing of the font (SV II 121).
7. All Saints, Chebsey, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Chebsey is a village on the river Sow, 5 miles upstream from the centre of Stafford. All Saints has a spacious nave with no clerestory and S aisle, a chancel and W tower with a modern vestry on the S side of it. Nave and chancel are 12thc.; visible in the two 12thc. N nave doorways (one now blocked and neither with a porch), the flat buttress on the N nave wall, and the tiny round-headed lancets on the N walls of the nave and chancel. The S aisle was added in the mid-13thc., and the chancel arch remodelled at the same time. Both this and the four-bay S arcade have pointed, double chamfered arches and moulded capitals. The S doorway, under a porch, is also 13thc. The W tower is 15thc. with diagonal buttresses, a SE stair turret and a battlemented parapet with pinnacles. Construction is of reddish sandstone, much renewed especially in the S aisle wall. The 12thc. doorways and windows are very plain, but the interior niche left by the blocking of the eastern doorway now contains loose 12thc. stones carved with foliage in relief. There are two 19thc. S views in the William Salt Library, Stafford, SV III 74 and 75a, but they add little to our knowledge of the building.
8. St Mary and All Saints, Checkley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St Mary's has a W tower, a very tall clerestoried nave with tall N and S aisles with four-bay arcades, and a square-ended chancel. The chancel is the only one of these elements that is straightforward. It has a five light E window and tall three-light side windows with intersecting Y-tracery, i.e. ofc.1300, and the continuous chancel arch with sunk quadrant mouldings is of the same date. The N arcade is 13thc., with moulded capitals, some decorated with nailhead, and alternating round and octagonal piers. The pier capitals of the S arcade are stylistically earlier, late 12thc., including flat leaves and volutes, but the respond capitals have very complex mouldings and are much later, as are the double-chamfered pointed arches. Furthermore the S arcade is considerably taller than the N, and must have been heightened. The clerestory windows are square-headed triple lights with ogees; a 14thc.-15thc. type convincingly attributed to the early 17thc. by Pevsner. The N aisle windows are 17thc., and the S doorway is ofc.1300. It is protected by a rib-vaulted porch. The lower storey of the W tower is 12thc. with a flat buttress and small round-headed lancets, all chamfered, plain and renewed. The upper storey is Perpendicular with mullioned and transomed bell-openings but a plain parapet with tiny crocketed pinnacles. The tower arch, confusingly, is 14thc. Decorated. In Pevsner's account, the church was practically rebuilt in the early 17thc. using the old elements and this seems the only way to account for the contradictions in the architecture. 19thc. views of the church, inside and out, and the font are available in the William Salt Library, Stafford (see IX Bibliography). The remodelled 12thc. S arcade is described below, as is the most important Romanesque feature in the church; the font.
9. St Editha, Church Eaton, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Church Eaton is an attractive village in the W of the county, 6 miles SW of Stafford and 4 miles from the Shropshire border. The village lies between the Church Eaton Brook, to the E, and the Shropshire Union Canal, to the W, in an undulating landscape mostly devoted to dairy farming. The church stands at the E end of the High Street, and is of local sandstone. It consists of nave, chancel and W tower with spire. N aisle has been added to the nave, and extended eastwards alongside the chancel to form a chapel. Beyond this, at the E end of the N chancel wall, is an unusual 17thc. vestry. On the S of the chancel is a 19thc. organ room. The two-storey tower is 12thc., with clasping buttresses to the lower storey, which also has two small round-headed lancets in the W wall. The upper storey has plain round-headed lancets on its N, S and W walls, and on the E wall a larger round-headed window into the nave. All the external lancets are chamfered, suggesting a late-12thc. date, and this is confirmed by the pointed tower arch and its capitals, and by the bell-openings, with twin pointed openings under a barely-pointed enclosing arch. The broach-spire, recessed behind a plain parapet with gargoyles at the angles, is dated by Pevsner to the 15thc. It has lucarnes at two levels. The nave has a S doorway ofc.1300, and tall 15thc. windows. On the N, the four-bay arcade is mid-13thc., with pointed, chamfered arches and nailhead decoration on the moulded capitals. The square-headed aisle windows are 14thc, however. The N chapel is 15thc., with tall, three-light square-headed windows, and a two-bay arcade with arches taller than the nave arcade and crudely cut octagonal capitals. In the present liturgical arrangement the chancel has been shortened, so that its screen and step are alongside the central pier of the chapel arcade. The seven-light E chancel window is a beautifully skeletal work of the 15thc. The 19thc. additions include the S porch and the organ room and vestry on the S side of the chancel. Romanesque work recorded here comprises the tower bell-openings and tower arch, a cushion capital set in the S porch, and the broken and repaired remains of an elaborate early-12thc. font, closely related to the font at Bradley.
10. Dosthill Norman Chapel, Dosthill, Staffordshire, England

Chapel
Nineteenth century accounts of Dosthill describe it as a village or hamlet in the parish of Kingsbury, and a centre of brickmaking and coalmining. Diorite also outcrops at Dosthill, known locally as Dosthill granite and was formerly quarried for use as roadstone. Little of this industrial activity survives, and Dosthill is chiefly known as a centre for scuba diving (in a former quarry) and a place to watch birds. It is now on rising land at the southern edge of Tamworth, which has expanded, almost absorbing it. The chapel stands in the churchyard of St Paul's parish church, to the NE of the 19thc. church. It is a single-cell box now, with 12thc. doorways to N and S and three small round-headed windows, in the north, south and west walls, all with replaced heads. There is also an oculus in the west gable. There was originally an eastern presbytery, but this has been removed, and the chancel arch blocked and fitted with a window, perhaps 16thc.-17thc. Above this, the western gable has been rebuilt in brick. It is now used as a parish room.
11. St Mary, Enville, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Enville is in the extreme SW of the county, less than 4 miles W of Dudley, but only 9 miles SE of Bridgnorth (Salop) and 6 miles N of Kidderminster (Worcs). The church is on a hill at the northern end of the village, and to the S and W are the extensive grounds of Enville Hall. St Mary's is a red sandstone church comprising a chancel with a N organ room; a nave with N and S aisles and a N porch; and a tower, incorporating a S porch, at the W end of the S aisle. The four-bay nave arcades are carried on cylindrical piers of coursed ashlar; the S arcade 12thc. and the N 13thc. but heavily restored. The tower does not respect the S arcade; i.e. its N wall blocks the W bay completely. The church was restored and enlarged by George Gilbert Scott in 1871-74. His work included the rebuilding of the chancel (including the organ room), the insertion of new aisle windows on both sides, the erection of new porches and the rebuilding of the tower. This has an elaborate crown based, according to Pevsner, on Gloucester Cathedral or Dundry. The tower was restored in 1990-92, following falls of masonry onto the aisle roof. Romanesque sculpture is found in the S nave arcade and on carved panels and corbels set into the spandrels above pier 1, on the nave and aisle sides.
12. St Peter, Gayton, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Gayton is a scattered village in central Staffordshire, some 5 miles NE of the centre of Stafford. It stands on a rise above the Trent, a mile away to the SW, and Gayton Brook, a tributary of the Trent, runs to the N of the village centre. The church is on the W side of the village with a moated site alongside it.
13. St Lawrence, Gnosall, Staffordshire, England

Formerly Collegiate church, now parish church
St Lawrence's is a cruciform church begunc.1100 with substantial later additions. Three-bay aisles were added to the nave in the 13thc.; the arcades have pointed, double chamfered arches carried on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The W doorway and the triple lancet above it are also 13thc., as are the small lancets in the W walls of the aisles, so it is possible that the length of the church was changed in the 13thc. too. The S doorway is 13thc. too, now under a 19thc. porch (by Lynam, 1893). The 12thc. chancel has been drastically remodelled, but the original shallow buttresses remain on the N wall. The five-light E window is a spectacular example of mid-14thc. flowing tracery. A Lady Chapel was added on the S side of the chancel c.1500. It has tall three-light windows and a parapet, and a view of the E end serves to point up both the ineptness of the addition and the contrast between the sinuous Decorated tracery of the chancel and the austere late-Perpendicular work of the chapel. Also Perpendicular is the eastern chapel added to the N transept. The most recent addition is the new N vestry, designed by Ian Henderson of Horsley, Huber and Associates of Stafford and dedicated by the Bishop of Stafford in 1994. It is linked to the N nave aisle doorway by a passage containing a lavatory and an outer door, and thus combines the functions of porch, vestry and washroom.
14. All Saints, Grindon, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Grindon is a remote village high in the Staffordshire Moorlands, situated in a loop of the River Hamps. It is surprising to find a church there that seems more suited to an urban setting, but All Saints is just that; a tall and solid ashlar building ofc.1845, built by F. and H. Francis in an early-14thc. style. Its wide nave has four-bay aisles with no clerestory, and it has a broad low chancel with a N vestry, and a tower with a tall broach spire with lucarnes at its foot. The old church was demolished in 1845, and a drawing by Buckler of 1847 shows the present building (William Salt Library SV IV 227). An undated watercolour entitled 'All Saints Church, Grindon' (William Salt Library SV IV 226b) shows a distant SW view of a church with a pinnacled tower without a spire, and a nave with a clerestory, i.e. not the present church, so presumably the old one. In the same collection is a Buckler drawing of 'One of the Capitals and remains of the Shaft of the Old Church at Grindon' (William Salt Library SV IV 228b). This shows a cylindrical pier carrying a low cushion capital with a square impost. The only Romanesque feature is a disused font bowl, at present under the tower.
15. St Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Church and Hall originally formed a group, with the Hall to the W, and this is shown in two views by Stebbing Shaw (1798-1801) in the William Salt Library (SV VIII 62a, 62b). Nothing is known of the Hall before the early 16thc., and such remains as survive today are of that period or later. St Michael's has a W tower with an octagonal spire behind a plain parapet, and a long nave and chancel in one, with no chancel arch, a single roof and a continuous clerestory. J. C. Buckler a produced a SE view of the church (1839), now in the William Salt Library (SV VIII 61a), looking much as it does today. The separation between nave and chancel was once by means of a rood-loft reached by a spiral stair on the S side, which remains in part. The present position of the chancel is marked by a step, and there are three nave arcade bays to the W of this and one similar chancel arcade bay, plus a smaller bay to the E. On the N side of the chancel, both arches give onto a chapel, now containing the organ and a vestry. On the S the smaller E arch acts as the canopy of the Cotton tomb ofc.1500, and the chapel is still used for its proper purpose. There is another vestry to the E of the S chapel, so that overall the S chancel aisle extends to the E end of the church, while the N aisle stops one bay short. The nave is 12thc., and its upper W window survives in part, along with traces of another on the N side of the chancel, and masonry to either side of the tower at the W end. The tower and chancel are 14thc, and the arcades and clerestory Perpendicular. The church is of grey ashlar inside and out; the interior apparently recently cleaned and looking very bare. The church has three fonts, or at least three bowls, two 12thc., one inside and one out, and the third the 19thc. piece that is actually used. Curiously, Pevsner mentioned only the less interesting of the Romanesque fonts.
16. St Mary, High Offley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
High Offley is a scattered village in the W of the county near the Shropshire border. It stands on an elevated site above the Shropshire Union Canal. St Mary's has a nave and chancel of equal width but separately roofed and with no chancel arch between them. The present chancel step is some 2 miles E of the change in roof design. S aisle runs the entire length of nave and chancel, and the E end of it is given over to the organ. There are N and S nave doorways, the S under a porch, and a W tower. The earliest fabric is seen in the N nave wall and the E chancel wall, and consists of roughly shaped sandstone blocks irregular in size and coursing. It probably dates from the early 12thc. The present three-light chancel E window is reticulated (i.e.c.1320) but signs of a plain round-headed 12thc. triplet are visible to either side of it. The plain chamfered N doorway must be ofc.1200, and the squat, three-storey tower is slightly later, with shallow clasping buttresses, a W lancet whose round head is not original, and 13thc. double bell-openings. The parapet has battlements and neo-classical pinnacles, probably 18thc. Like the tower, the five-bay arcade dates from the beginning of the 13thc.; it is round-headed but its capitals are moulded. The E respond capital, however, is a reused 12thc. volute capital carved with heads, and this is the only Romanesque sculpture to be found here. Antiquarian views in the William Salt Library, Stafford, all dating from the first half of the 19thc. show various differences from the church we see today, indicating a later restoration. G. P. Harding's S view of 1821 (SV IV 320) shows a gabled porch, apparently of red brick, whereas J. Buckler's 1843 SE view shows a Tudor porch with a parapet (SV IV 321). Buckler’s NW view of the same year (SV IV 323) shows a two-light pointed W window in the tower, confirming that the present round-headed lancet is a replacement.
17. Holy Cross, Ilam, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The church stands in the grounds of Ilam Hall; a building of 1821 erected by Jesse Watts-Russell. The present hall replaced a hall built for John Port in 1546, and it was Port's successor, also John Port, who sold up to Russell in 1809. This John Port's son, also John, became vicar of Ilam. Watts-Russell died in 1875 and the house passed to the Hanbury family, who sold it in 1927 to a restaurateur. When he went bankrupt, the house passed to a building contractor, who promptly demolished two-thirds of it. A view before the demolition may be seen in the William Salt Library (SV V 12). What was left was purchased in 1934 by Sir Robert McDougal, who gave it to the National Trust. It now houses a Youth Hostel, and a National Trust shop, and serves as a focus for walkers. Jesse Watts-Russell was also responsible for the curious appearance of Ilam village, which he rebuilt in a Swiss style on a slightly different (and steeper) site, because the surrounding countryside reminded him of the Alps. In the centre of the village is a small-scale copy of an Eleanor Cross that Watts-Russell erected in 1840 in memory of his wife.
18. St Leonard, Ipstones, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St Leonard's has an aisleless nave, chancel and W tower. The nave is broad and has a S doorway under a porch and a battlemented parapet. The chancel is the same height and width as the nave, and shares the same roof and parapet. It has screened-off vestries to N and south, the S vestry now housing the organ. The tower has two storeys and angle buttresses. There are pinnacles rising from the bottom of the upper storey and a battlemented parapet. The church is of red sandstone ashlar and was begunc.1787, although the style is largely ofc.1300-50, to judge from the window tracery. It was commissioned by John Sneyd of Belmont Hall, who had quarrelled with the incumbent of the old church of St Leonard. The argument was resolved, and the old church became Chapel House. The present church was restored by Giles Gilbert Scott jr in 1877. The chancel was rebuilt in 1902-03 by Gerald Horsley, who was also responsible for the screen. There are three 19thc. drawings in the William Salt Library, two by J. C. Buckler dated 1841, before Scott's restoration. All show exterior general views, in which the church looks much as it does today except that it has no S porch. During the 18thc. campaign a 12thc. figural tympanum was discovered by the builders, in use as infill for the walls of the old church. This was salvaged, and is now installed in the S interior nave wall, between the middle pair of windows. It is the only Romanesque feature.
19. St Mary, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The village of Kingswinford has now been entirely absorbed into the Dudley conurbation. In 1851 it was described as 'a small but pleasant village, with many new houses, three miles WSW of Dudley' (White). The parish, however, was an extensive one, heavily populated even then, with 22,221 inhabitants dispersed among eight villages and twenty hamlets, largely employed by the coal, iron, glass, brick and pottery industries. Kingswinford village still exists, in name at least, as the area immediately around the church, with a green and a pond. Bradley Hall, a timber-framed house dated 1596, once stood in the village too, but when it was taken down its timbers reused by K. H. Smith for use in neo-Tudor houses at Stratford-upon-Avon in the early 20thc.
20. All Saints, Lapley, Staffordshire, England

Former Benedictine Priory church, now parish church
Lapley lies 7 miles S of Stafford, just off the Roman road from Chester and Whitchurch that joins Watling Street near Water Eaton. There are earthworks to the N of the church, suggesting pre-Roman occupation in the area. The church stands on high ground at the western edge of the village, and is a substantial priory church; aisleless with a central tower and originally cruciform, but the transepts have been taken down, their arches walls blocked and the walls buttressed, presumably to take the strain of the heightening of the towerc.1475-1500. Only the W crossing arch survives in its originalc.1100 form, but it has been extensively restored. The E arch has been replaced; perhapsc.1300, and the lateral arches are built into the 15thc. walls, although traces of both are discernable. Angle buttresses have been added to the tower, and an upper storey added with large late-15thc. three-light bell-openings, a band of quatrefoils and a battlemented parapet. The nave is of uneven 12thc. ashlar, much disturbed and with traces of a blocked round-headed doorway of early Norman form on the S. There are no functioning nave doorways now, and the lateral windows are 19thc. replacements of reticulated (c.1330) originals. Entry is via the W doorway. The chancel is distinctly misaligned towards the S. It is ofc.1100 at the W end, with a plain round-headed S window and a flat buttress, and was extended eastwardsc.1300, based on the evidence of a Y-tracery S window and the sedilia and piscina below it. The church is of greyish or pinkish ashlar; thec.1100 work of irregular, squarish blocks unevenly coursed; the 14thc. work of longer but thinner blocks, uneven in size but coursed regularly, and the 15thc. and later work with larger blocks, more accurately squared. The William Salt Library has three antiquarian views of the exterior; a drawing of 1800 from the S by the Rev. S. Shaw (SV VII 31a), an engraving of the same drawing (SV VII 31b), and a view by Buckler from the SE of 1842 (SV VII 32). They add little to our knowledge of the church. There was a proposal to restore the church in 1950 that would have effectively removed much of its Romanesque character by rebuilding the nave and chancel with stepped buttresses and new gothic windows. It was approved but fortunately the work was not done. The only Romanesque work recorded here is the W crossing arch.
21. St James, Longdon, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The nave has no aisles but broad transepts at its E end. The N transept is of 1870 by A. Hartshorne; 13thc. in its details, but with a single opening to the nave consisting of shafted piers carrying a heavy joist. The S transept is of two pointed bays, and was built by John Stoneywall, later Abbot of Pershore, around 1500. The nave roof is modern and fitted with skylights. The nave E wall has the remains of wallpainting at the top. There are N and S nave doorways; the S under a porch and the N now giving access to a vestry. The chancel arch is 12thc. work, and the chancel is 13th-14thc., with simple lancets at the W end and Y-traceried window further E. The E window has reticulated tracery of the early 14thc. The W tower is 14thc., with diagonal buttresses at the W end and reticulated bell-openings. The parapet, with battlements and crocketed pinnacles at the angles, may be a later addition. Construction is of red sandstone ashlar throughout. The S transept has battlements. There are drawings of the church in the William Salt Library, dating from 1769 to 1841 (SV VII 35a, 35b, 36, 37a) and one of the S doorway of 1843 (SV VII 38). All show the church much as it is today. In the same collection are drawings of the font, of 1842 (A. E. Everitt - SV VII 42) and 1843 (J. C. Buckler - SV VII 41). Romanesque features are the chancel arch, the bowl of the font, and the two nave doorways. The N doorway was not accessible when the church was recorded.
22. St Bartholomew, Longnor, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Longnor is a small town, little bigger than a village but with its own market square and market hall. It is in NE Staffordshire, half a mile from the river Dove that forms the border with Derbyshire and built on a ridge between the valleys of the Dove and the Manifold. As early as 1300 the open fields along the Dove valley and the steeper land running down to the Manifold were in use as pasture land. The present church is a rebuilding in grey stone of 1780-81 and consists of nave and a W tower. The nave is a broad and rectangular with an altar at the E and no separate chancel. In 1812 the walls were raised to allow the insertion of galleries at the W and S. Gallery-level windows were added at the same time - round-headed like those below them. A false ceiling was installed in 1948-49 as part of a general post-war restoration, so the upper windows are visible only on the exterior. The W gallery was converted into a meeting room in 1996. The tower is contemporary with the nave, and has projecting quoins and an embattled parapet with pinnacles at the angles. This is apparently the third church on the site. The previous two were Chapels of Ease to Alstonefield; the first of unknown date, probably 12thc., and the second a 16thc. new build. The Tudor church had become unsafe by 1730 and was derelict by the 1770s. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
23. All Saints, Madeley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Madeley is in NW Staffordshire, just over a mile from the Shropshire border and four miles E of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The parish was formerly an extensive one, occupying the fertile, hilly ground as far W as the county boundary. It consisted of the three villages of Great, Middle and Little Madeley and Onneley, to the W. All of these lie along the A525 road from Whitchurch to Newcastle. Madeley was apparently always the largest settlement. The church is alongside the main road, with the Old Hall (now a 17thc. building) immediately to the N. Old Madeley manor is a mile to the S, but ruinous, and the new manor is in Little Madeley to the NE. Red and blue clay is still extracted for brick manufacture, and coal was formerly mined at Leycett colliery (closed 1957) and Silverdale (closed 1998). All Saints is a red sandstone church with a nave with aisles, a S porch and transepts, a chancel with a N chapel and a W tower. The oldest part of the church is the 12thc. N arcade. The S arcade and clerestorey are ofc.1300, and both aisles have been widened; the N in the 14thc. and the S in the 15thc., to judge from the windows. The nave aisles are of four bays and extend partway alongside the tower to the W. The S porch is 15thc. Its original entrance has been blocked, and the modern entrance to the church is through a doorway cut into the E wall of the porch, allowing the insertion of lavatories at the S end. The N transept was added in the 14thc., and a lancet at the W end of the N arcade wall (originally the outer wall) indicates that there was no transept here before that. The S transept is 15thc., as is the N chancel chapel (now a vestry). The chancel itself was completely rebuilt in 1872 as part of a restoration by Charles Lynam of Stoke-on-Trent. Views of the church before this restoration are in the William Salt library. The tower is 15thc. with a 19thc. battlemented parapet with finials. Romanesque sculpture is found in the N nave arcade.
24. St Peter, Maer, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The village of Maer is in the Staffordshire uplands, in the NW of the county. On Berth Hill, half a mile to the N, is an Iron Age hill fort, and the settlement has presumably moved down the hill towards the lake or mere that gives the village its name, and that is now in the grounds of the hall. The entire area was heavily wooded, but clearances must have begun before the Conquest, and by the time of the Domesday Survey there was land for two ploughs as well as woodland a league square. Church and hall are very close together; the road that now separates them originally ran behind the hall but was diverted in the 19thc. so that it did not divide the hall from the lake. Despite their proximity, the precipitous slope on which the church is built raises it high above the hall. The effect of this slope on the architecture of the church is best seen inside the building. Nave and chancel share a single (horizontal) roof, but the chancel floor is four steps above the nave. There is no chancel arch. The nave has a late-12thc. S doorway under a porch (of which more below), and a N aisle with a two-bay arcade, perhaps 15thc. in date. The chancel has a N organ chamber with a vestry to the E of it, both dating from 1877, and the W tower is 13thc. with a battlemented parapet and stumpy pinnacles added, perhapsc.1600. They may, indeed, belong to the rebuilding known to have taken place in 1610. Two drawings of 1838 and 1843 show the S porch with a room above it, entered by an external staircase (William Salt Library, SV VII 62a and 62b). By 1875, when an early photograph was taken, the tower was entirely overgrown with ivy. There was another restoration in 1877, when the ivy was cleared, the porch was reduced to a single storey, the entire church was re-roofed, the old organ loft and gallery were removed and the present organ chamber and vestry were added. The E window also dates from this restoration. The only Romanesque work described here is the S doorway.
25. St Nicholas, Mavesyn Ridware, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The church and the manor house alongside it were foundedc.1140 by Hugo Malvoisin, also founder of Blithbury Priory. All that remains of the medieval manor house is the timber-framed gatehouse ofc.1400. By the end of the middle ages, the church had a nave with N and S aisles and a S porch, a chancel and a W tower. In 1782 it was described as 'very damp and ruinous', and was taken down and rebuilt except for the N aisle and the tower. The present eccentric confection is the result. The church as it stands today has a broad, brick nave with a W doorway, a coved plaster ceiling, and small polygonal apse at its east, both dating from 1782. On the N side of the nave, and at a slightly lower level, is the Trinity aisle, or Cawarden Chapel, separated from the nave by a 14thc. arcade of three bays. The aisle is older than this, retaining 13thc. lancets in its E, W and N walls. In the chapel are collected a large number of memorials of the Mavesyn, Cawarden and Chadwick families, including two 13thc. effigies of knights. There are also contains hatchments and reliefs, largely retrospective and dating from around the time of the 18thc. rebuilding. The Perpendicular W tower (actually NW of the nave) is the only other medieval fabric, and both this and the N aisle are of grey ashlar. Romanesque interest centres on the foliage-ornamented font.
26. St John the Baptist, Mayfield, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St John's has an aisled nave with three-bay arcades and a S doorway under a porch. The chancel is square ended and the W tower has diagonal buttresses. The S arcade and S doorway date from the 12thc., both with round arches and the arcade with cylindrical piers. The N arcade also has round arches, but the piers have a quatrefoil plan and the capitals have crockets. The style is early 13thc., therefore, but Pevsner suggests that it belongs to the rebuilding of the aisle in 1854 by F. W. Fiddian and Ewen Christian. This is incorrect; Fiddian's plan suggests that the arcade was not replaced, and it also appears on J. Buckler's drawing of 1844 (William Salt Library SV VII 69). The S porch is dated 1866, and must replace the porch shown on Fiddian's plan. The chancel windows have Y-tracery or (at the E) reticulated tracery, pointing to a date in the first half of the 14thc. The external cresting of the chancel roof looks 18thc. According to an inscription on its W face, the tower was begun by T. Rolleston in 1515. It has Perpendicular bell-openings and W window and doorway, and a battlemented parapet with eight tall pinnacles. Construction is of reddish ashlar. A plain 12thc. window head is reused as facing stone above the S porch. Two 12thc. lancets are shown above the porch in a Buckler drawing of 1839 (William Salt Library SV VII 66), but they are no longer there, and this window head probably belonged to one of them. Romanesque features recorded here are the S arcade and the S doorway.
27. All Saints, Milwich, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
In 1791 the S wall of the medieval church collapsed, bringing part of the roof down with it, and fabric surveys concluded that the entire church apart from the W tower would have to be rebuilt. The present nave and chancel thus date from 1791-94, and they are built of bricks from Milwich Heath. The nave is long and broad, and separated from the short, low square-ended chancel by a square-headed arch with rounded interior angles. It has a full-width gallery at the W end. In 1888 the interior walls were lined with pitch pine by two local carpenters, giving the church an unusual sauna-like appearance, and the interior was extensively remodelled in 1906, including the laying of a mosaic floor in the chancel. The 15thc. W tower is decorated with a row of shields and a stringcourse with gargoyles below the battlemented parapet. The William Salt Library, Stafford, has exterior views of the church by T. P. Wood of 1835-45 (SV VIII.145b) and by Buckler of 1841 (SV VII.77), both also showing the parsonage at the W end (now destroyed), but no view dating from before the collapse of the medieval nave is known. The only 12thc. feature is the arcaded font.
28. St Chad, Pattingham, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Pattingham is in the SW of the county, close to the Shropshire border. The outer suburbs of Wolverhampton are only two miles away to the E, but the western prospect is of hilly farmland towards the Severn and the Shropshire Hills. The village centre retains some of its ancient charm, but the building of dormitory estates to the S and E has changed its scale and character significantly.
29. Ranton Priory, Staffordshire, England

Originally house of Augustinian canons
The ruined priory of Ranton and the remains of the Georgian hall alongside it stand in landscaped parkland 1 mile W of the village of Ranton and 5 miles W of Stafford. All that survives of the abbey church is the W tower and a short section of the S nave wall rebuilt to house the S doorway. This doorway is of the late 12thc. The 15thc. tower has angle buttresses, a five-light W window and two-light bell-openings below a saltire frieze and an embattled parapet. All the main windows are now blocked with bricks. To the S of the church is the ruined shell of the house, called Ranton Abbey and dating fromc.1820 according to Pevsner. Various antiquarian drawings survive in the William Salt Library, many by Buckler and most concentrating on the W tower. SV VIII 59 (Buckler 1842) shows the S doorway looking much as it does today, but it is not clear from this whether any more of the nave wall was standing at that date.
30. St Mary, Rolleston on Dove, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Rolleston is now practically a suburb of Burton-on-Trent; what was a small village with an economy based on arable (cereals and beans) and dairy farming situated on the edge of Needwood Forest having largely abandoned its agricultural activities and expanded its housing stock in the 20thc., not without some resistance from the older villagers. It was an estate village until the Rolleston Estate, landlord to most of the local farms, was broken up and sold off in the 1920s. Little evidence of this remains, owing to the post-1945 expansion of the village.
31. St Chad, Seighford, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Seighford is a small village only 2½ miles NW of the centre of Stafford. St Chad's is a curious mixture of brick and stone building. he W tower is of red brick and 17thc., with brick clasping buttresses and stone pinnacles added in 1748. This, or something like it, is also the date of the brick nave, but the chancel and the N nave aisle and its eastward extension to form a N chapel are of stone. The tower was built in the western bay of the nave, so that the W bay of the four-bay N arcade is alongside it. This end of the aisle has now been converted for use as a kitchen and lavatory. The arcade itself is 12thc. and the nave has no clerestory. The chancel arch is also 12thc., but the chancel contains a 13thc. piscina and nothing earlier. The arch to the N chapel is segmental and very broad, presumably rebuilt. The responds supporting it are Perpendicular (Pevsner reports the W respond as EE). The chapel is now occupied by the organ, with a vestry to the E. There are two antiquarian view of the church in the William Salt Library. A sepia wash drawing of 1838 by T. P. Wood shows its elevated position well in a distant view from the N (SV VIII 155a), and another sepia wash drawing by Buckler shows the church from the SE (SV VIII 156). Both show the building much as it is today. The only Romanesque features are the N nave arcade and the chancel arch.
32. Statfold Chapel, Staffordshire, England

Chapel, formerly Parish church
Statfold is in the extreme SE of the county, 3 miles NE of Tamworth. Statfold chapel stands in the grounds of Statfold Hall, to the N of the hall itself, and is not marked on the OS Landranger map. The present hall is a brick building of 1571 and later. The hall, the chapel, Statfold Farm and a few scattered houses are all that remain of Statfold, although the topography of a field immediately to the N of the chapel suggests that the village was here. It is likely to have been deserted in the early Tudor period following enclosure by the landlord. The chapel serves as a mortuary chapel for the Wolferstan family. It was restored and refitted for use as a parish church in 1906, although the parish has never been populous enough to support its own minister. It is now attached to the benefice of Clifton Campville. The chapel is a single-cell gabled box with steps to an altar at the E. The 12thc. W doorway is the oldest part of the fabric, while the priest's doorway dates from the 13thc. A good deal of work was carried out in the first half of the 14thc; the chancel windows and the sedilia and piscina being of that period. It contains two wall tombs with female effigies; both of the later 14thc. Drawings by Buckler show the exterior (1838) and the interior (1848) (William Salt Library SV X 8, SV X 9a) looking much as they do today structurally, but with the roof covered in ivy. A small steeple at the W end was pulled down as unsafec.1680. Construction is of sandstone quarried nearby. The stonework is of regular ashlar blocks except at the W end, where it is rubbly and irregular. The western gable has been rebuilt incorporating a millstone as a decorative feature. This appears in Buckler's engraving. The only 12thc. features are the W doorway and the font. The author is grateful to Mr Francis Wolferstan for allowing access to the chapel.
33. St Chad, Stafford, Staffordshire, England

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.
34. St Mary, Stafford, Staffordshire, England

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.
35. All Saints, Standon, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
All Saints, Standon is wildly asymmetrical inside and out. From within it can be seen to have an aisled nave with a clerestory on the N but not the S. The N arcade is of two 13thc. bays but occupies only the eastern part of the nave. To the W on this side is a stretch of 12thc. walling that still contains the original N doorway, which is thus inside the church now (as is the case with the S doorway at Rolleston on Dove). The S arcade is much taller, too tall to accommodate a clerestory above it, and is of two and a half bays; the half-arch bearing on the W wall of the nave. The W tower is not set symmetrically between the arcades, but is set towards the S. Its S wall is in line with the S arcade but its N wall is well inside the line of the N arcade. The tall 14thc. tower arch is thus place to the S of the nave rather than in the centre. Further confusion at the W end has been caused by the later additions. The S aisle has been extended alongside the tower as far as its W face. There is also an addition to the N of the tower, but it extends only as far as the line of the N arcade. In compensation, however, it is much taller, and a large and entirely inappropriate window has been inserted in the W wall of the nave to provide it with some indirect light. The result of all this is the bizarrely calligraphic outline of the W elevation of the church. At the E, the chancel is by Scott, of 1846-47 in a 13thc. style. He chose to line up the chancel fairly between the nave arcades. There is an organ loft to the N of the chancel, and a vestry to the S. It is difficult to suggest a logical sequence of building that would have resulted in All Saints Standon, and the old views in the William Salt Library do not help much. SV IX 122a and 136a, of 1837 and 1841 respectively, show the SE view before the restoration, with no vestry to the S of the chancel and with S aisle with a gablet. SV IX 131 is a similar view after the restoration, showing the new form of the aisle and the new vestry in place. SV IX 130 is a SW view of 1847 that shows the rebuilt S aisle, and shows too that the W elevation was much the same then as it is now. The only Romanesque feature of the church is the N doorway.
36. St Mary, Swynnerton, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Swynnerton is an attractive village on a low hill just 6 miles S of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is centred on the church and the hall just to the S, the latter standing in Swynnerton Park. A view of the hall from the SW, published in 1821, shows the church in the background (William Salt Library SV X 59b). St Mary's has an aisled and clerestoried nave, a chancel with a S chapel (the Lady Chapel, now a vestry) and a W tower. The nave is 12thc. in origin, and of large, irregular ashlar blocks. It retains a round-headed W window and a W doorway to the tower. The tower itself is also 12thc. in its lower parts, including another W doorway (which Pevsner suggests is re-set here), but in the 14thc. diagonal buttresses were added and the upper stage rebuilt in more regular ashlar. Drawings of 1838 and 1841 (William Salt Library SV X 59a and 60) show the parapet with urns at the corners. The form of the five-bay nave arcades and a dogtooth stringcourse at the top of the nave walls indicate that the aisles were added in the 13thc. The clerestory has quatrefoil openings of the same period. The E bay of the each nave aisle has been enlarged to form a chapel; the S Perpendicular and battlemented, the N 13thc. in style but perhaps 19thc. (it does not appear in the 1838 drawing noted above). There is a 13thc. S doorway under a porch. The chancel arch is 13thc., with nailhead on moulded capitals and detached en-delit shafts, and the chancel is of the same date. The details of the S chancel chapel indicate that it was added in the early 14thc. Beneath it is the Fitzherbert family vault. Romanesque sculpture, elaborate for the county, appears on the two W doorways.
37. St Editha, Tamworth, Staffordshire, England

Parish church (Collegiate church to 1548)
Tamworth stands on the river Tame in the extreme SE of the county. The Warwickshire border is just 2 miles to the E, but until 1888 it ran through the centre of Tamworth. The historic centre is on the N bank with Tamworth Castle overlooking the river and St Editha's church just to the N, occupying the N side of St Editha's Square, which is now a market place.
38. All Saints, Trysull, Staffordshire, England

Parish church, formerly chapel
Trysull is a small village in the SW of the county, only a mile from Womborne and two from the edge of Wolverhampton, both to the E. For the moment the village is surrounded by the rolling farmland of the area; the prospect least affected by the industrial sprawl being westward towards the Severn and the Shropshire Hills. The village itself lies in the shallow valley of the Smestow Brook, which runs W to E at this point before turning S to follow the line of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, eventually joining the Stour near Kinver.
39. St James and St Bartholomew, Waterfall, Staffordshire, England

Formerly chapel, now parish church
Waterfall is a moorland village, on a hill above the River Hamps. There is no waterfall here; the village taking its name from the behaviour of the River Hamps, which abruptly disappears underground among the limestone rocks nearby, re-emerging near Ilam. The church has a blocky nave and W tower, both dating from 1792 and typical of their date with round-headed windows and heavy ashlar facings. The chancel was rebuilt in the 1890s, using old masonry, and the chancel arch is 12thc., if restored. To the N of the chancel is a chapel, also of the 1890s, now used as a vestry. The only other 12thc. feature is the arch now set above the 18thc. S nave doorway under a porch dated 1894. It looks, says Pevsner, 'curious'.
40. St Andrew, Weston under Lizard, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
The church is set at the northern edge of the extensive grounds of Weston Park, a great house built by Sir Thomas and Lady Wilbraham in 1671, to the Lady's designs. There was an older church on the site, which Lady Wilbraham largely pulled down, retaining the W tower and the E wall of the chancel, with its 14thc. three-light reticulated E window. The present nave and chancel are a single box-like space, with a family chapel and a vestry facing one another across the chancel (added by Ewan Christian in 1876-77). The tower has tiny W diagonal buttresses and is largely 14thc. work. The tower arch is tall, pointed and continuous. Set in the interior S wall of the tower are two 12thc. carved stones from the old church. They were discovered and set here during G. E. Street's restoration of 1869-70.
41. St Peter, Yoxall, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Yoxall was built along the river Swarbourn, which runs from N to S here. It was on the edge of the Needwood Forest, which was not enclosed until the 19thc. Its main street is now the A515 from Lichfield to Ashbourne and the church stands back from this in a spacious churchyard. St Peter's is mostly by Woodyer of 1865-68 and has an aisled nave with a clerestorey, a chancel with N and S chapels and a W tower. The nave is spacious with five-bay arcades in a Decorated style and a clerestorey with square-headed quadruple lights. The S doorway is genuinely medieval and of c.1200 and has no porch; the N is 19thc. The chancel chapels are both of two bays, and the N now contains the organ. The W tower has a battlemented parapet and tall crocketed finials. Drawings predating Woodyer's restoration show a similarly aisled nave, apparently without a clerestorey and with no N porch; a very similar W tower and a much lower chancel without chapels. The only feature included here is the S doorway.