- St Mary's Church, Handbridge
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St Mary's Church, Handbridge 
St Mary's Church, HandbridgeLocation in Cheshire
St Mary's Church, HandbridgeCoordinates: 53°10′58″N 2°53′20″W / 53.1829°N 2.8889°W OS grid reference SJ 406 655 Location Handbridge, Chester, Cheshire Country England Denomination Anglican Website St Mary, Handbridge Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade II* Designated 10 January 1972 Architect(s) F. B. Wade, P. H. Lockwood Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Completed 1914 Specifications Spire height 168 feet (51.2 m) Materials Red sandstone, slate roofs Administration Deanery Chester Archdeaconry Chester Diocese Chester Province York St Mary's Church, Handbridge is in Handbridge, an area south of the River Dee, in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is also known as the Church of St Mary-without-the-Walls. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[1] It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Chester.[2]
Contents
History
The church was built between 1885 and 1887 to a design by F. B. Wade for the 1st Duke of Westminster.[3] A porch was added on the south face of the tower in 1914 which was designed by P. H. Lockwood.[1]
Architecture
Exterior
St Mary's is constructed in ashlar Waverton stone with dressings of Runcorn sandstone.[3] It has Westmorland green slate roofs. The plan consists of a five-bay nave with a clerestory, a three-bay chancel, a chapel at the southeast, an organ chamber and a vestry. There are two porches, on one the south and one on the north. At the west end is a three-stage tower with a recessed spire. It has clock faces to the north, west and south, paired louvred bell-openings on each face, a machicolated parapet, two pinnacles at each corner, lucarnes to each cardinal face of the spire and a weathervane.[1]
Interior
The baptistry is in the tower and has an encaustic tiled floor and a stone font with an oak cover. The stained glass in the baptistry is dated 1887 and is by Edward Frampton. It depicts Christ's baptism. In the baptistry is a portrait memorial dated 1900 to the first Duke of Westminster. The nave is floored with wood blocks. There are three steps up to the chancel with wrought iron rails. The chancel has a mosaic floor. The southeast chapel has a wrought iron screen. The pulpit and lectern are in oak. To the north of the chancel is a sedilia. The east window is probably also by Frampton.[1] The reredos was designed by Frederic Shields and made in cloisonné by Clement Heaton.[3] The ring consists of eight bells which were cast by Mears and Stainbank at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1887.[4]
External features
The walls, gates and railings of the churchyard were also designed by F. B. Wade for the first Duke of Westminster in 1887, and are listed Grade II.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d "Church of St Marys, Handbridge", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1375848, retrieved 2 May 2011
- ^ St Mary without the Walls, Chester, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/chester-st-mary-without-the-walls/, retrieved 2 January 2011
- ^ a b c Hartwell, Claire; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 282, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
- ^ Handbridge S Mary, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Chester&Submit=++Go++&DoveID=CHESTR++HA, retrieved 14 August 2008
- ^ "Wall, railings and gates to St Marys churchyard and rectory, Chester", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1375849, retrieved 2 May 2011
External links
Media related to St Mary's Handbridge at Wikimedia CommonsCategories:- Church of England churches in Cheshire
- Grade II* listed churches
- Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire
- Religious buildings completed in 1914
- 20th-century Church of England church buildings
- Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire
- Buildings and structures in Chester
- Diocese of Chester
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