Chebsey is a small village in
Staffordshire 2.5 miles southeast of
Eccleshall
Eccleshall is a town and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is located seven miles northwest of Stafford, and six miles west-southwest of Stone. Eccleshall is twinned with Sancerre in France.
His ...
on a confluence of
Eccleshall
Eccleshall is a town and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is located seven miles northwest of Stafford, and six miles west-southwest of Stone. Eccleshall is twinned with Sancerre in France.
His ...
water and the
River Sow
The River Sow is a tributary of the River Trent in Staffordshire, England, and is the river that flows through Stafford.
Course
The river rises to the south of Loggerheads, near Broughton and flows south-east beside the villages of Fairoak ...
some 5 miles northwest of
Stafford. The population of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
at the
2011 census was 566. It comprises a number of houses and cottages and a village church dedicated to
All Saints.
All Saints church
Standing above the village on a natural mound of higher ground, the church is mostly built from reddish sandstone in the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style and dates from the 12th century. The west tower dates from the 15th century, and is constructed from mostly grey with some red sandstone blocks. The external staircase
turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
(on the southeast corner of the tower) at Chebsey, is quite an unusual feature. Though it is very common in the churches of the
South of England
Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes ...
and especially those of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
and
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
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, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, yet it is rarely seen in churches of the
English Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
and
North of England. Parts of the south wall of the church show signs of extensive repairs, mostly in red sandstone. The churchyard contains an
Anglo-Saxon cross shaft. Inside the church can be found
late Victorian stained glass windows by
Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lich ...
, and a 13th-century stone coffin. The church was extensively renovated in 1897 under the supervision of
Staffordshire ecclesiastical architect Andrew Capper.
The churchyard contains the
war graves
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...
of a soldier of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and an
airman
An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions.
In civilian aviation usage, t ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
CWGC Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from casualty record.
Notable people
*
Margaret de Clare
Margaret de Clare, Countess of Gloucester, Countess of Cornwall (12 October 1293 – 9 April 1342) was an English noblewoman, heiress, and the second-eldest of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and his wife Joan of ...
(1293–1342 in Chebsey) an English noblewoman, heiress, and the second-eldest of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, making her a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.
*
Sir William Stafford of Chebsey (c.1500–1556) courtier and Essex landowner and the second husband of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn. They married in secret in 1534 and initially lived at Chebsey
*
Richard Garnett (1789–1850) an English philologist (historical linguist), author and librarian at the British Museum. In 1836 he was presented to the living of Chebsey which he relinquished in 1838.
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 21, Garnett, Richard
retrieved 9 August 2018
See also
*Listed buildings in Chebsey
Chebsey is a civil parish in the Borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. It contains 16 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, an ...
References
External links
''Photograph of Chebsey Church, c.1925''
{{authority control
Borough of Stafford
Villages in Staffordshire