Ingestre is a village and
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 authority ...
in the
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...
district, in the county of
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the
2011 census was 194. It is four miles to the north-east of the county town of
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...
.
Ingestre Hall
Ingestre Hall is a Grade II* 17th-century Jacobean mansion situated at Ingestre, near Stafford, Staffordshire, England. Formerly the seat of the Earls Talbot and then the Earls of Shrewsbury, the hall is now owned by Sandwell Metropolitan Bor ...
is a local landmark.
It was formerly served by both
Weston and Ingestre railway station
Weston and Ingestre railway station was a former British railway station opened by the North Staffordshire Railway to serve the village of Ingestre in Staffordshire in 1849.
Nearby was the Ingestre and Weston station opened by the Stafford a ...
and
Ingestre railway station
Ingestre and Weston railway station was a former British railway station to serve the village of Ingestre in Staffordshire.Jones P (1981) ''The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway,'' Salisbury: The Oakwood Press
It was opened by the Stafford and ...
.
The village, and civil parish, of
Tixall
Tixall is a small village and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford. The populat ...
is nearby. The civil parishes of Tixall and Ingestre have shared a single parish council of Ingestre with Tixall since 1979.
Etymology
The place-name is first attested in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086, where it appears as ''In Gestreon''.
Ekwall proposed a meaning of "hill property", from Old English *''ing'', a hill, and ''gestreon'', wealth or property. More recent scholarship, however, has suggested "the narrows of the
Trent
Trent may refer to:
Places Italy
* Trento in northern Italy, site of the Council of Trent United Kingdom
* Trent, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Germany
* Trent, Germany, a municipality on the island of Rügen United States
* Trent, California, ...
", on the assumption that the first element is a vernacular form (*''engyst'') of Latin ''angustiae'', narrows.
Ingestre church
![St Mary the Virgin, Ingestre - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/St_Mary_the_Virgin%2C_Ingestre_-_geograph.org.uk_-_60604.jpg)
Ingestre parish church of
St Mary the Virgin, is positioned very close by "near the SE corner of the Hall, a small handsome fabric in the
Grecian
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, other ...
style, built in 1676, by
Walter Chetwynd
Walter Chetwynd FRS (1 May 1633 – 21 March 1693), of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire was an English antiquary and politician.
Life
He was the only child of Walter Chetwynd (1598–1669), the eldest son of Walter Chetwynd (died 1638), who buil ...
, Esq, at a short distance from the old one, which was taken down, after the bones and memorials of the dead had been removed from it to the new edifice."
rom William White, ''History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire,'' Sheffield, 1851
The church is widely reputed to have been designed by
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
, and is "the only church outside
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to be attributed to
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
." This notion is strengthened when we consider that "
Walter Chetwynd
Walter Chetwynd FRS (1 May 1633 – 21 March 1693), of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire was an English antiquary and politician.
Life
He was the only child of Walter Chetwynd (1598–1669), the eldest son of Walter Chetwynd (died 1638), who buil ...
was a friend of
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
and both were members of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
."
"A drawing by Wren annotated 'Mr Chetwynd's Tower' exists...Wren worked almost exclusively for the King...but in the case of St Mary('s Church, Ingestre) the exquisite quality speaks unequivocally."
"Ingestre (Staffs). Dating from the rebuilding of the church in 1676. The screen including the Royal Arms was designed by Wren. In his own words: "an elegant skreen of Flanders Oak garnisht with the Kings Armes". See Our Christian Heritage by
Warwick Rodwell
Warwick James Rodwell (born 24 October 1946) is an archaeologist, architectural historian and academic. He was lately Visiting Professor in the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, and is Consultant Archaeologist to Westminster Abbey ...
and James Bentley (London, 1984), pp. 207–8."
"Dr. Palliser, perhaps over-defensively at times, correctly asserts that Staffordshire has much to offer in its own right - some fine medieval parish churches, such as
Clifton Campville
Clifton Campville is a village, former manor and civil parish in Staffordshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It lies on the River Mease, about east of the City of Lichfield, west of Measham and north of Ta ...
(near
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...
), a notable group of
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 ...
survival churches, Wren’s Ingestre,
Broughton Hall, Staffordshire
Broughton Hall near Eccleshall, Staffordshire, is a privately owned 16th-century Elizabethan-style manor house. It is a Grade I listed building.
The manor of Broughton was owned by the eponymous Broughton family from the 13th century. The pres ...
and much of first importance from the post industrial period of the county’s history."
"The church of St Mary the Virgin in Ingestre, has the distinction of being the sole Wren church outside London. Although the stone is duller than the city churches, the building that stands next to Ingestre's
Carolean hall is recognisably of the same design (particularly to St Mary Somerset). The interior is decorated with plaster carvings,
Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other ...
woodwork and
Burne-Jones
The Burne-Jones Baronetcy, of Rottingdean in the County of Sussex, and of The Grange in the Parish of Fulham in the County of London, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 May 1894 for the artist and designer ...
stained glass, showing blood dripping from a pelican onto
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
, who bear crimson halos and wings. Unusually, the marble monuments have been painted and gilded."
The church was consecrated in August 1677 with a full day of services with "the Bishop baptizing a child, churching a woman, joining a couple in matrimony and burying another, all on the same day...the idea was to emphasize that this was a Parish Church, and not a private Chapel for the Chetwynd family."
From the 19th century it became a burying place for the later Chetwynd-Talbot family, the
Earls of Shrewsbury & Waterford. The grave, in the churchyard south of the building, of Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, Viscount Ingestre, son of the
20th Earl, who died in 1915 serving as Captain in the
Royal Horse Guards
The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry.
Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cr ...
, is the only one here that is registered by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
.
CWGC casualty record, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, Viscount Ingestre.
The Ingestre Festival
In 1957 and 1958 the Earl of Shrewsbury held a Festival of Opera at Ingestre Hall, with the ambition of turning it into a 'centre of music'.
In August 2008 and 2013 a modern Ingestre Festival was held in the grounds of Ingestre Hall.
See also
*Listed buildings in Ingestre
Ingestre is a civil parish in the Borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. It contains nine 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, ...
References
External links
National Register of Archives, holdings relating to Ingestre
Ingestre Parish Church
{{authority control
Villages in Staffordshire
Civil parishes in Staffordshire
Borough of Stafford