St Mary and All Saints Church, Great Budworth

Infobox religious building |building_name=St Mary and All Saints Church
Great Budworth |
Great Budworth, Cheshire, England | map_type= Cheshire | latitude= 53.2936 | longitude= -2.5043 |geo= |religious_affiliation=Anglican |district=Diocese of Chester |consecration_year= |status=Parish church
leadership=Revd Alec Brown, vicar |website= [http://www.greatbudworthchurch.org/ St Mary's and All Saints] |architect=Anthony Salvin
William Butterfield
John Douglas |architecture_type=Church |architecture_style=Perpendicular |facade_direction= |year_completed=
construction_cost= |capacity= |length=convert|121|ft|m|0 |width=convert|52|ft|m|0 |width_nave= |height_max= |dome_quantity= |dome_height_outer= |dome_height_inner= |dome_dia_outer= |dome_dia_inner= |minaret_quantity= |minaret_height= |spire_quantity= |spire_height= |materials=Red sandstone

St Mary and All Saints Church, Great Budworth is in the centre of the village of Great Budworth, Cheshire, England (gbmapping|SJ663775). It is a Grade I listed building.cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=57538 |title=Images of England: Church of St Mary and All Saints, Great Budworth |accessdate=2007-07-28 |publisher=English Heritage ] It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Great Budworth. [cite web |url= http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/diocesesparishes/infosheets/parish_results.html?parishid=C02908 |title= Information Sheet |accessdate=2008-08-10 |publisher= Church of England]

Clifton-Taylor includes it in his list of 'best' English parish churches. [cite book | last =Clifton-Taylor | first =Alec | authorlink = Alec Clifton-Taylor| coauthors = | title =English Parish Churches as Work of Art |edition= | publisher =Batsford | date =1974 | location =London | pages =240 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0 7134 2776 0 ] Richards describes it as "one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture remaining in Cheshire". Pevsner considers it to be "one of the most satisfactory perpendicular churches in Cheshire" and states that "its setting brings its qualities out to perfection".cite book | last =Pevsner | first =Nikolaus | authorlink =Nikolaus Pevsner | coauthors =Edward Hubbard | title =The Buildings of England: Cheshire |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press| date =2003| origyear=1971| location =New Haven| pages =227–228 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0 300 09588 0 ]

History

In the Domesday Book there is a reference to a priest at Great Budworth. The church and its living were given to the Augustinian canons of Norton Priory by William FitzNigel, Constable of Chester and Baron of Halton in 1130. Geoffrey de Dutton was an early benefactor of the church. The oldest part of the present church, the Lady Chapel, dates from the 14th century; the rest of the church from the 15th and 16th centuries. Rowland E.E. Warburton of Arley Hall paid for a restoration of the church in the 1850s. [cite web |url=http://www.greatbudworthchurch.org/A%20brief%20history.htm |title=A Brief History of Great Budworth Church|accessdate=2007-09-09 |last=Steele |first=Robert J. |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year=2003 |month=May |format= |work= |publisher=St Mary’s and All Saints Church |pages= ]

tructure

It is an impressive church, built generally in the perpendicular stylecite book | last =Bilsborough | first =Norman | title =The Treasures of Cheshire | publisher =The North West Civic Trust | date =1983 | location =Manchester | pages =141 | isbn =0901347353 ] although the long, and older north transept is constructed in the decorated gothic style. Built in red sandstone, the plan consists of a west tower, a six-bay nave with clerestory, north and south aisles and a chancel flanked by chapels to the north and south. The north transept forms the Lady Chapel and the shorter south transept is the Warburton Chapel. At the west end of the south aisle is the south porch. The entire church is crenellated.cite book | last =Salter | first =Mark | title =The Old Parish Churches of Cheshire | publisher =Folly Publications | date =1995 | location =Malvern | pages =40 | isbn =1871731232 ] On the north side of the tower is a sculpture of Saint Christopher and on the south side one of the Blessed Virgin. It has diagonal buttresses and an octagonal south-west turret, a Tudor-arched west window, small arched ringers' windows on the north, west and south faces, a clock on west face, and two-light belfry windows with stone louvres. Its top is crenellated with eight crocketed pinnacles.

Fittings and furniture

The nave ceiling dates from the first quarter of the 16th century and is subdivided into 72 panels. In the Warburton Chapel are five oak stalls dating probably from the 13th century and considered to be the earliest in Cheshire. Two old chests are in the church, the older one being medieval and the other dated 1680. The octagonal font dates from the 15th century. In the sanctuary are two Jacobean chairs. The screen to the north transept is by Anthony Salvin. The stained glass in the east window and in the east windows of both aisles is by Kempe dating between 1883 and 1901. In the north transept is Expressionist glass by Fourmaintreaux dated 1965.

In the north chapel is a memorial to Sir Peter Leicester, the 17th century historian, and in the Warburton Chapel is the alabaster effigy of Sir John Warburton who died in 1575.cite book | last =Richards | first =Raymond | title =Old Cheshire Churches | publisher =Batsford | date =1947 | location =London | pages =170–175] In the north chapel is an organ which was designed by Samuel Renn and installed in 1839. It is recognised by the British Institute of Organ Studies as being an "Organ of Historic Importance". The organ was restored in 2004 at a cost of £60,000. [cite web |url=http://www.greatbudworthchurch.org/renn%20organ.htm |title=The Renn Organ |accessdate=2007-09-09 |publisher=St Mary’s and All Saints Church ] The church plate includes a chalice and paten dating from around 1571, a paten dated 1685, two flagons dated 1719, and two chalices dated 1796. The ring is of eight bells, all cast by Rudhall of Gloucester. Six of these are dated 1733, one is dated 1760 and the other 1822. [cite web |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=budworth&Submit=++Go++&DoveID=GREAT+BUDW |title= Great Budworth, S Mary & All Saints |accessdate=2008-08-10 |publisher= Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers ] The parish registers begin in 1559 and the churchwardens' accounts date back to 1699.

External features

The churchyard wall of sandstone and brick dates partly from the late medieval period with additions made in the 18th and 19th centuries. It incorporates a water trough. [cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=57541 |title=Images of England: Churchyard wall |accessdate=2007-11-03 |publisher=English Heritage ] The lychgate to the churchyard was erected in 1920 as a war memorial to the First World War. It is oak framed on a sandstone plinth, with an oak crucifix on the front gable. [cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=57540 |title=Images of England: Lychgate to Churchyard |accessdate=2007-11-03 |publisher=English Heritage ] In the churchyard is a stone sundial from the late 18th century consisting of a vase baluster on a round step sitting on a square flagstone base with a copper dial and gnomon. [cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=57539 |title=Images of England: Sundial |accessdate=2007-11-03 |publisher=English Heritage ] Just outside the churchyard wall are stocks probably dating from the early 18th century. [cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=57542 |title=Images of England: Stocks |accessdate=2007-11-03 |publisher=English Heritage ] All these structures are listed Grade II.

Gallery

Notes

External links

* [http://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/budworth.html Photographs of the church and village by Craig Thornber]