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- 1. St Mary, Acton, Cheshire, England
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Parish church St Mary's is built of red sandstone ashlar. It has a four-bay aisled nave with a clerestorey; the aisles extending W alongside the tower, and the present clerestorey a rebuilding of 1879. The arcade piers are mid 13thc., but they have been heightened, and the capitals are late 19thc., part of Paley and Austin's restoration of 1897-98, although one of the originals survives as a loose stone in the S aisle. The W tower is also 13thc. in its lower parts. It was once over 100 feet tall, but the top of it fell in 1757 and was rebuilt shortly afterwards by William Baker. The chancel arch is 14thc., but the long chancel itself is Perpendicular, articulated inside with colossal four-centred wall arcading. It has a N chapel added after the nave aisles, and the N aisle E window survives, with its tracery but lacking its glazing, inside the church (something similar took place at Bunbury). The grandest monument is a large 17thc. chest tomb with recumbent figures of Sir Richard and Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham in the S aisle. More interesting is the wall tomb in the N aisle, with an alabaster effigy of Sir William Mainwaring (d.1399). The figural but mutilated font is Romanesque, as are a series of important carved stones, some figural, at present at the E end of the S aisle, behind the Wilbraham tomb.
- 2. St Mary, Bruera, Cheshire, England
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Parish church (benefice of Aldford and Bruera). Bruera is in SW Cheshire, 4 miles S of the centre of Chester. It is a manor house village consisting only of the church, a moated site immediately to the NW and a few scattered houses nearby. There are traces of ridge-and-furrow cultivation in the surrounding fields.
- 3. St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire, England
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Parish church St Wilfrid's has a long nave and chancel, continuous inside and out with no chancel arch but the division marked by a step. N and S aisles occupy the five bays of the nave and two bays of the chancel; a short aisleless section of chancel at the E end is raised for the main altar. At the W end is a tower, and a transeptal vestry has been added to the N chancel aisle. The earliest part of the fabric is the remnant of a corbel table high in the N wall of the S aisle. This indicates an early 12thc. aisleless church. In 1334 the Boydell Chapel was added alongside this nave on the S side, and features of this remain in the S windows and some of the glass. In 1525-39 there was a major rebuilding involving the construction of both arcades and aisles, and the W tower. The clerestorey was added in 1833, and remodelled in the major restoration of 1874 by Paley and Austin. The N vestry also dates from this restoration. The font and the corbels in the S aisle are described below.
- 4. St Oswald, Lower Peover, Cheshire, England
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originally chapel of ease, now parish church A spectacular and important timber church with a stone W tower, said to be of 1582 (see Pevsner) but probably earlier. The aisled nave (13th-14thc.) is of four bays, and the slightly lower chancel of two, all timber work with box pews. The nave aisles continue alongside the chancel, the N aisle dating from 1624 and the S from c.1610. They now house an organ loft and vestry to the N and the Shakerley Chapel to the S. The three vessels have separate roofs, built by Salvin in his restoration of 1852, but originally the nave and its aisles shared a single roof. The church was founded in 1269, hence none of the fabric is 12thc. What is at issue is the font, said to have been brought from Norton Priory in 1322.
- 5. St Thomas, Mellor, Cheshire, England
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Originally chapel of ease, now parish church Mellor stands in the High Peak on the border with Derbyshire. Indeed it was in Derbyshire until 1936 when it was reassigned, along with neighbouring Ludworth, to Cheshire. Recent excavations have disclosed an Iron Age hill fort alongside the church. St Thomas's was formerly a chapel of ease to Glossop in Derbyshire, and remains in the Glossop Deanery of the Diocese of Derby. The church has a 15thc. W tower, but whatever was to the east of this was replaced from 1815 to 1830 with a simple aisleless nave and chancel of brick. Something similar took place at Church Lawton. The only Romanesque feature is the font, one of the most interesting in the county.
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