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St Edith, Shocklach, Cheshire

Location
(53°2′45″N, 2°50′55″W)
Shocklach
SJ 432 502
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Cheshire
now Cheshire West and Chester
  • Ron Baxter

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Feature Sets
Description

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.

History

Shocklach was held by Robert FitzHugh in 1086, and Drogo held it from him. No church was noted at that time. In the later middle ages the estate was held by the Breretons, landholders in the county since the 12thc., but the date of their acquisition of Shocklach is not clear.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Miscellaneous
Comments/Opinions

No other examples of this heavy geometrical style of carving survive in the county. A date c.1150 is tentatively suggested.

Bibliography

N. Pevsner and E. Hubbard, The Buildings of England. Cheshire, Harmondsworth 1971 (repr. 1978), 334.

R. Richards, Old Cheshire Churches, London 1947, 294-96.