Building record 735/1 - Church of St Oswald, Lower Peover

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

Church of St Oswald, The Cobbles. Grade I Listed. A chapel since 1269; present structure of nave and chancel probably late C14 and C15, the aisles altered and reroofed 1852 by A.Salvin; west tower probably 1582, but looks a little earlier. Oak-framed nave, chancel, aisles with east chapels, tower of Alderley sandstone. The body of the church is an exact rectangle in plan, with only the tower projecting. 3-stage crenellated tower with diagonal buttresses, oak west door, Y-traceried 2-light west window, 3-light mullioned windows to bell-ringers' chamber, lozenge clock-faces on north, west and south faces and Y-traceried 2-light bell-openings. Nave and aisles, under a single roof until 1852, now with 3 ridges, and Chancel, chapel and vestry with 3 lower roofs have mullioned windows with arched lights; the exterior frame has largely been renewed in restoration, with much lozenge and chevron bracing. Gabled south porch; flat-ogee arched doorways to vestry, south chapel and north aisle. Sandstone plinth throughout. Interior: 4-bay nave arcade has octagonal posts and capitals with 3 convex mouldings carrying arched braces, all of oak. Aisles plastered and with the 1852 roof structures lighter than the medieval nave. Chancel of 2 bays has chamfered posts and arch-braced trusses. Shakerley Chapel south, 1610; Holford Chapel, north (now organ chamber and vestry). Good parclose screens with moulded posts above a row of panels; restored chancel screen with vase splat balusters; C17 altar table and altar rail; C17 pews, all of oak with panelled doors - those in south aisle and east of north door in north aisle against the aisle walls have half doors (to retain rushes on floor). Dugout chest of oak in south aisle, probably C14; simple round font probably brought from Norton Priory 1322; bread shelves by font 1720 and 1739, pulpit and lectern 1853; memorial glass, mostly 1890's; charity board in tower. 2 bells probably from 1541; 4 by 1610, 2 added 1853; clock with chimes 1897. Monuments to Sir Geoffrey Shakerley 1696 and Katharine Shakerley 1725. The interior is outstanding as an (altered) example of a medieval oak-framed church and for its C17 furnishings. C.f.St.James and St.Paul, Marton. N.Pevsner and E.Hubbard The Buildings of England - Cheshire; J.C.Sladden The Background and History of St.Oswald's Church, Lower [Peover.]

<2> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Book). SCH3078.

<3> Sladden J C, The Background & History of St Oswald's Church (Book). SCH3053.

<5> Sladden J C, 1982, Beside The Bright Stream (Book). SCH396.

<6> Aeon Archaeology, 2017, St. Oswald's Church, Lower Peover, East Cheshire: Archaeological Watching Brief, R4015 (Client Report). SCH8238.

Archaeological watching brief undertaken in February 2017 at the Grade I Listed St. Oswald's Church, Crown Lane, Lower Peover, WA16 9PY, during the excavation of a drop shaft for a sewage treatment plant, the foundations for a new toilet block and the associated service trench.

The foundation trench for the toilet block discovered a deposit of clay within a cut possibly representing a wall foundation for a boundary wall. It correlates with a land division visible on the 1836-51 Tithe Map for Nether Peabody. The apportionment 334 is given to a narrow area on the eastern limit of the churchyard with the plot name 'slip by churchyard' belonging to John Allen for use as meadow, this could indicate that the land sloped away to the east and that the wall denoted a boundary between the meadow and churchyard. Furthermore this area of the churchyard appears to have been used as a deposition area for refuse both in terms of vegetation and leaf litter, and also with regards to 19th century ceramic and glass, possibly related to grave memorandum.

Recording work was also undertaken for a number of grave markers which were moved as a result of the ground works.