The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Edith (now)
Parish church
The village lies along a stream springing from the foot of the Wolds. The church has west tower with spire, aisled nave, and chancel. It is a 19thc. building but retained parts of the medieval church. With tasteful fittings, fine mosaic floor and well-placed lighting, the interior effect is very good. The architect was J. L. Pearson for Sir Tatton Sykes, and the work was done about 1858-9. The sculptural remains for this corpus are confined to the S doorway and the chancel arch: the structure of the chancel itself is said to be ‘Norman too, though few traces remain’ (Pevsner & Neave 1995, 331); 12thc. worked stones have been identified reused in the fabric of the N aisle wall (L. A. S. Butler).
The south doorway is a round-headed doorway of four orders and label, rebuilt by Pearson using 50-60% of the old work in the arches. It is easy to tell the old from the new by the colour of the stone. The new parts he supplied follow the old work, clearly so in areas that are of continuous pattern, but where the entire stone is new the content is also credible (Wood 2011). The chancel arch was reconstructed from finds in the Victorian rebuilding, but the jambs may have remained in place, under a pointed Gothic arch.
Parish church
St Edith's has an aisleless 12thc. nave with a 14thc. chancel, its E window with flowing tracery. There is no tower, but a 12thc. double bellcote on the W gable of the nave. A pair of buttresses on the W wall encloses a vestibule. The N doorway is a later modification; pointed and now half blocked to turn it into a window. On the S side, and unprotected by a porch, is one of the finest Romanesque doorways in Cheshire. A plain N vestry was added to the chancel in 1926, but otherwise the church has received little attention in recent years. Construction is of irregular sandstone blocks with thick mortar courses. A corbel above N doorway is not Romanesque and is illustrated for reference only.
Parish church
This small church consists of a nave with a bell turret and a chancel. It was rebuilt in 1867 by R. J. Withers who reused a couple of Romanesque elements: the two unmoulded N and S windows in the nave and the chancel arch.
Parish church
W tower, four-bay nave with N and S aisles, S porch, and chancel; all from the 13thc. to the first half of the 14thc. Some restoration by Charles Kirk in 1879; chancel rebuilt in 1900 by Brewill and Bailey. Sole evidence of the Romanesque period here is a pillar piscina.