Building record 90/1 - All Saints Church, Daresbury Lane

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 55956 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

All Saints Church. Parish church rebuilt 1870-2 by Austen and Paley leaving the 16th century tower intact. It is constructed of red sandstone with a slate roof. It has a five bay nave in perpendicular style with aisles, tower to the west at the end of the nave, and entrances opposite each other in north and south aisles. Tower has angle buttresses, large west perpendicular window, louvered windows to all faces at bell-stage, gargoyles and crenulations. All windows are generally perpendicular style and contain stained glass. Roofs of south aisle, chapel and organ chamber are pitched and of slate, the north aisle roof is a lead covered lean-to. The interior chancel is flanked by one organ chamber and a two bay memorial chapel. Plain octagonal columns support the aisle arcades. Chancel has elaborate carved cambered collar trusses with wall brackets, those to the nave are similar but with level collars. The south aisle roof has simple hammer beam trusses. There is a Jacobean pulpit. 19th century Oak screens with bratticing enclose the chapel. The choir stalls with are carved with poppy-heads and there are carved bench ends in the nave. There is a quality marble wall memorial in the nave. There is an elaborately carved gothic oak cover over the stone font.

<2> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner R C, 1985 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Altar screen has flamboyant design with a fine Green Man. Memorial window to Lewis Carroll, born in Daresbury, shows scenes from Alice in Wonderland.

<3> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, p.195 (Book). SCH3078.

Perpendicular west tower, the rest of the church is by Paley & Austin 1870-2 and perpendicular like the tower. Nave, aisles, two bay south chapel, one bay north chapel and vestry. Bold roof with solid braces. Screen: square panels with very flamboyant design on the dado and on the chancel’s east wall. Pulpit is probably Jacobean, an unusual design with angle figure brackets. Paten flagon inscribed 1738, paten inscribed 1746 and undated chalice.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ58SE1 (Index). SCH2487.

<5> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.I p.731-6 (Book). SCH1389.

‘..Ancient parochial Chappel (a daughter of the mother-church of Runcorn) dedicated to All Saints..’ The chapel was established in or by the twelfth century as a chantry chapel. George Ormerod, in 1819 prior to the 1870 rebuild, described a stone church in the pointed style with many new windows. It comprised a nave, chancel with side aisles, another chancel at the end of the southern aisle (rebuilt with stone in 1773) and a tower. He describes at the division of the navel and the chancel the remains of a rood-loft with rich carved work beneath it. The church contains various eighteenth and nineteenth century memorials. He notes that a documentary source (Harl MSS. 2151 p.108) dating from 1572 which refers to various coats of arms represented in the stained glass and grave stones in the churchyard marked with crosses the heads of which are florees and which had swords at the sides of them, indicating the sepulchres of crusaders.

<6> Richards R, 1947, Old Cheshire Churches, p.141-5 (Book). SCH2309.

During a hurried visit to Cheshire in 1869, Dr Cox noted at Daresbury the remains of a rood loft and excellently carved screen (also noted by George Ormerod), but before he study it in more detail the body of the medieval church was destroyed prior to the 1870 rebuild. The soffit (the under horizontal face of the lintel or architrave) survives and forms part of the panelling in the sanctuary and the facing of the low screen. It comprised thirty-four panels 15” square and1.5” thick with a perforated traceried design showing eleven varieties of treatment. It was possibly similar to screens at Llananno in Radnorshire, Llanwnog in Montgommery and Runcorn (the latter destroyed). With the exception of the sixteenth century tower the entire church was rebuilt in the perpendicular style in 1872. The tower conforms to the general Cheshire pattern, it is found at the west end of the church. It is sturdily built, the corner buttresses terminating with the battlements, surmounted by a weathervane in the shape of a fish. The windows are plain with few embellishments. The date 1110 is carved on the southern side of the tower, it is probable that is was originally 1550, but the figures becoming weathered may have been incorrectly ‘restored’ in the seventeenth century, the fives being mistaken for ones. It contains a ring of eight bells, four being cast in 1725. The ringers chamber in the belfry contains a painted rhyme whose initial letters spell out the word Daresbury. The Jacobean pulpit is carved with the heads of angels and is possibly the most elaborate of its kind in the county. There is a stained glass window in memorial to Lewis Carroll which depicts many of the characters from Alice in Wonderland and a sculptured monument by Gibson depicting Henry Byrom mourning the loss of his wife Sarah. The communion plate comprises a flagon dated 1738, a paten of 1746 and a chalice, inscribed but undated. All are donations. The register dates from 1617 and the churchwardens accounts from 1663. The will of John Dutton of the new manor 1542 refers to the creation of a new window in the southern side of the church. The window was to incorporate his name and his remains were to be interred next to the image of St Elyn. A number of bequests indicate that the church/chapel did not have a resident preacher in the early seventeenth century.

<7> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 23/09/2009 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

St Elyn is probably St Helena, but may be the Welsh saint St Elen. It is notable that the dates of the register and churchwardens records fall within the same period of as the bequests for the establishment of a preacher (see 6).

<8> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 134/2 1844 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Footprint of the pre 1870 church is depicted on the Tithe map for the township of Daresbury.