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St Mary, Bowdon, Cheshire

Location
(53°22′38″N, 2°21′49″W)
Bowdon
SJ 759 868
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Cheshire
now Greater Manchester
  • Ron Baxter

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Feature Sets
Description

St Mary's is a substantial church of 1858-60 by W. H. Brakspear, spacious within and equipped outside with an array of battlements and pinnacles. It has a W tower, a clerestoreyed, aisled nave of six bays, N and S transepts, and a chancel with an organ loft and vestry on the N side and a chapel on the S. The stone is a pink sandstone. There is a collection of loose stones in the N transept, including the Romanesque fragments described below.

History

In 1086 Bowdon was held by Hamo from Earl Hugh. There was a church and a priest to which half a hide belonged.

Features

Loose Sculpture

Comments/Opinions

The chip-carved stones must belong to a campaign of c.1100, but both the Saracen's head corbel and the bishop relief are later 12thc. The form of the bishop relief - a rectangular stone containing only part of the figure - suggests a large tympanum rather than a tomb slab, which is a very exciting possibility. Unfortunately the inscription is too curtailed to offer much help in identification.

Bibliography

N. Pevsner and E. Hubbard, The Buildings of England. Cheshire. Harmondsworth 1971 (repr. 1978), 109-11.

R. Richards, Old Cheshire Churches. London 1947, 64-67.