Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST CHAD (1139180)

WINSFORD FORMER U.D. SWANLOW LANE SJ 66 NE 11.10.49 Church of St. Chad. GV II* Church. 1543 and earlier with additions and alterations of 1870 by Ewan Christian and W Milford Teulon and of 1904 by John Douglas and of 1926. Red sandstone ashlar with lead roof. Western tower, nave with aisles, chancel. South-western porch and north-eastern vestry. Tower: diagonal buttresses and moulded plinth, of 3 storeys. Western front: arched doorway to ground floor with hood mould and 3-light Perpendicular window above with hood-mould at level of string course. Plain stage to middle with 3-light belfry openings to top with band of quatrefoils above and string course above that with gargoyles above diagonal buttresses and at centre. Battlemented parapet: above. The north face has a 2-light C19 window to the middle stage with similar belfry stage as on west front. Nave: South face has 2-storey porch to far left with diagonal buttresses and 4-centred arch with moulded surround, hood mould and label stops. The first floor is slightly jettied and the transformation is effected by a string-course with roll moulding. There is a central window with a coat of arms immediately above encompassed by the hood mould. The remainder of the south aisle has 7 windows of 4 x 5 lights with Perpendicular tracery, the 2 windows at right being of the Lady Chapel built in 1926. All bays have buttresses between with offsets and each window has a hood mould with label stops. There is a battlemented parapet above. the north aisle has some reset Perpendicular windows dating from the widening of the aisle in 1904 by Douglas. These are of 2, 3 and 4 lights and set in the lower wall. Upper wall has 3 windows of 1904 of 3 x 4 lights with Perpendicular tracery. Straight parapet above. Choir vestry of 1933 to far left. East end has a 3-light window with reticulated tracery to the chancel end. To the left of this is a 5-light Perpendicular window reset from the eastern end of the south aisle when the Lady Chapel was added in 1926. Interior: Nave of 6 bays, originally the total extent of the church before the chancel was added in 1870 and the Lady chapel in 1926. Tower arch has double chamfered rebate. Octagonal piers to nave arcades with moulded bases dying to octagonal bodies via broaches and with moulded caps which have slightly more concave faces to the north aisle and chamfered mouldings to arches and concave mouldings to hood moulds which have broaches at their bases. Roof trusses of arched braces springing from corbels and supporting collars. South aisle window reveals have chanels to their splayed reveals. Roof of arch braces rising to collars with king posts above and arched braces to either side. Chancel of 3 bays built c1870 by Christian and Teulon with reset 3-light Decorated window giving onto present (1930 s) vestry. The priest's room above the porch is approached by a fine late C19 spiral staircase and gallery of timber. The North aisle has a memorial inscription cut into the stonework of the western wall which reads THIS AISLE WAS ADDED IN 1904 THE STONES OF THE OLD WALL WERE PLACED IN THEIR NEW POSITION THE ARCHITECT WAS JOHN DOUGLAS OF CHESTER WHO LOVED THIS CHURCH IN HIS BOYHOOD AND IN AFTER YEARS BESTOWED ON IT AS ON MANY ANOTHER CHURCH MUCH SKILL AND CARE HIS KINDNESS AND DEVOTED INTEREST ARE DESERVEDLY HELD IN REMEMBERANCE W H STABLES VICAR. The Stanley tomb to the North Wall of the chancel is of 1543 and has a chest of red sandstone with a black marble cover inlayed with a brass effigy of a knight in armour with hands clasped in prayer. Basket arched recess above with tracery to intrados. Gabled surround with crocketed pinnacles to sides. Listing NGR: SJ6501965098