Calveley Church is in the village of

Calveley Calveley is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The village lies 5½ miles to the north west of Nantwich. The parish also includes parts of the settlements of Ba ...

, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican church in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of St Boniface, Bunbury, the deanery of Malpas, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the

diocese of Chester The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The building originated in the 17th century as a barn. It then became the

coach house Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coa ...

for the nearly Calveley Hall. In turn, it was converted into a chapel for the hall in about 1838. In 1911 the church was enlarged by the de Knoop family, the owners of the hall, who added a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

, and the interior of the church was renovated. During the First World War, the hall and church were used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. After the Second World War, the hall became uninhabited, its fabric deteriorated, and it was demolished in 1952. Money was raised, and the future of the church was secured for the local residents. It later became incorporated into the parish of Bunbury.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in whitewashed brick with a slate roof. It has a rectangular plan, consisting of a three- bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and a single-bay

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

. An organ chamber and a porch project to the north. The porch is

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

, standing on a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

, and has stained glass in the windows on each side. Over the entrance to the porch is an inscription reading "The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in". The windows contain stone

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s and transoms. On the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s are stone finials.

Interior

Inside the church, the furnishings are Jacobean in style, and date from the renovations of 1911. They include a five-arched screen standing between the nave and chancel; this carries an oak

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

. Attached to the screen are the pulpit and, at the opposite end, the

lectern A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. ...

. On the west wall are two late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

panels from an altar, which depict scenes from the Nativity. There is also a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

to the memory of a member of the de Knoop family who died in 1916. The stained glass is by

Powells Powells or Powell's may refer to: Places * Powell Islands (Powells), Raa Atoll, Maldives Cities, towns, communities * Powells Corners, Ontario, Canada United States * Powells Crossroads, Tennessee * Powells Point, North Carolina * Powellton, ...

. The two- manual organ was built in 1911 by Samuel Whitely.

References

{{Churches in Cheshire Church of England church buildings in Cheshire Grade II listed churches in Cheshire Diocese of Chester

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior

See also

References