Building record 1271/1 - Church of St Mary

For air photos, see NJH 3503/11-13 & 16. Photos-church 4.043, ?Celtic head 4.040-2.

<1> Richards R, 1947, Old Cheshire Churches, Richards R 1947 /286-288 (Book). SCH2309.

Church of St Mary, Off Rostherne Lane. No church is mentioned in Domesday at Rostherne, but a chapel at High Legh within the Parish is given. It could in fact be this church. Sir Peter Leicester refers to a deed of 1188 recording a church at Rostherne. He dates the steeple to 1533, but in 1741 it fell down and was replaced by the present tower. List of vicars 1188.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1230301 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Church, Grade I Listed. C14 with C16 additions. Tower of 1742-4 by John Rowson and restoration and remodelling of chancel and vestry of 1888 by Sir Arthur William Blomfield. Sandstone with slate and lead roofs. Tower, nave with side aisles, chancel with side chapels and vestry. Tower to west end of 3 diminishing stages; south front has moulded plinth, then plain ashlar walling rising to height of nave ridge with 2 slit windows to left side. Heavy cyma-moulded string course with circular clock dial above. Band above. Venetian bell opening above this with louvres and impost band. Parapet ramps up at corners with vases to corners and centre. North front exactly similar save for absence of slit windows and bulls-eye window in place of clock dial. West front similar but has pedimented doorcase with keystone and fanlight arched window above this with 2 arched lights and central oculus at apex and hood mould above. South front: 4-bay nave with stone mullioned and transomed Perpendicular windows of 3 x 2 lights in rectangular chamfered, surround. South porch of c.1886. Buttresses between these with off-sets. 3 gabled timber dormers above, each of 3 cusped lights. Chancel has left-hand window of 4 arched lights above priests door. 5 x 2 light Perpendicular window to right similar to those in nave. Chantry chapel to right, slightly projecting with setback buttresses to left and 2 setback buttresses to right hand corner all with off-sets and surmounted by crocketed pinnacles. 2 Cl9 early Perpendicular windows with hood moulds. East front: blank wall to east front of south-east chantry chapel with shallow angled gable with cross at apex and crocketed pinnacles to offset buttresses. C19 decorated window to east end of chancel with steeper gable above and cross at apex. Diagonal buttress to north-east corner with arched door and 3-light_flerpendicular window to far left. Swallow pitched gable to vestry with cross at apex. Slightly projecting chantry chapel with 3-light Perpendicular window similar to those on south front. Octagonal battlemented chimney to left hand gable. Nave of 4 bays to aisles with 3 to clerestory as on south front but here the clerestory is walled with a separate aisle roof instead of having dormer clerestory windows. 3 3-light Perpendicular windows to aisle with doorway to right with head moulding and hood mould. Clerestory windows are 3-light of Perpendicular format. Battlemented octagonal chimney to right. Interior: 4-bay nave with round Early English piers to north arcade, roll moulded bases and capitals and double chamfering to arches, the outer chamfering cusped. South arcade has octagonal columns taller than those on the north side, with capitals of stepped profile and double chamfered arches, here unstopped, C19 king-post roof with brattished ties. Chancel: 4 bays with octagonal piers to both sides. Monuments: C13 of a recumbent knight. Wall monument to Samuel Egerton by John Bacon, 1792, white and variegated grey marble. Central catafalque with sarcophagus above surmounted by a stunted obelisk with a flaming 2-handled lamp above. High relief figures of Hope with an anchor and Patience holding a book and standing complacently on a thorny branch. Excellently carved. Free-standing monument of Charlotte Lucy Beatrix Egerton by Richard Westmacott Jnr. 1845. Recumbent female figure on bed with winged angel kneeling over her, his hand outstretchedin blessing.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ78SW2/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<4> Higham N J, 1984-9, Professor Nick Higham's Aerial Photographs, 1989/1/53a-36a (Aerial Photograph). SCH7659.

<5> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2015, Church of St Mary, Rostherne, Cheshire: Assessment of Furnishings, R4577 (Client Report). SCH9176.

The church of St Mary is situated above Rostherne Mere and the present building contains fabric from different periods. It has a wide south aisle, and a spacious chancel flanked by chapels (including the Egerton, Mere and Agden Chapels) and vestries. The Egerton Chapel is of particular interest because of two high quality memorials. One is to Samuel Egerton, carved by John Bacon and signed 1792, a composition with obelisks, urns and allegorical figures of Hope and Patience; and the other to Lady Charlotte who died 1845, carved by Richard Westmacott Jnr. She tragically died on her wedding eve, and is seen asleep with an angel kneeling beside her.

The round piers of the north arcade are early 13th century in the Early English style; the taller octagonal piers of the south arcade early 14th century; while the nave and aisles are otherwise from circa 1525 and Perpendicular in style. Following the collapse of the medieval spire in 1741, a new tower, the West Tower, was built between 1742-44 in the classical style by John Rowson with John Gatlive. At the same time, the Perpendicular tower arch was blocked, and the damaged roof of the nave was restored and fitted with a ceiling.

A Faculty was granted in March 1800 for ‘pewing’ the church and flagging of the aisles. This took the form of box pews and is recorded in a pew ownership plan of 1838 and a drawing of a similar date. The drawing also shows the west gallery which was later removed and the pulpit which occupied a central position in the church. This arrangement lasted until 1888 when the character of the church underwent a major transformation following a Faculty of 1887 which records that ‘repair and restoration is much needed’. The restoration was undertaken by Sir Arthur Blomfield and included the re-roofing of the chancel, building a chancel arch and adding a vestry, as well as reconstructing the sweeping roof with its three dormer windows.