St Stephen's Church is in the village of
Moulton,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, England. The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II
listed building.
and is an active
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
parish church in the
diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Middlewich.
History
The village developed with the growth of the salt industry in nearby
Winsford and it was decided to have a church in the village. The church was designed by
John Douglas and the
foundation stone was laid in 1876. In 1877 St Stephen's was established as a separate parish and the church was
consecrated
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
on 16 January 1877 by
Dr William Jacobson,
Bishop of Chester.
Architecture and fittings
The church is built in yellow
sandstone with red sandstone
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
dressings and has a green
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
roof with a lead spire. Its style is
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
. The plan of the church consists of a
nave and
chancel with a north-eastern
transept, a south-eastern
vestry and a southwest porch.
[ While the exterior is in stone, the interior is built in two kinds of brick. In the church is a plain sedilia. The stained glass in the east window is by J. C. Bewsey. Elsewhere there is a millennium window by R. N. Bradley. The organ was built in 1876 by Henry Bevington and Sons.
]
External features
The vicarage in Jack Lane was also designed by John Douglas and is listed Grade II.
Present day
Anglican services are held regularly on Sundays, and baptisms, weddings and funerals are performed in the church. Regular children's and youth activities are also organised.[
]
See also
* Listed buildings in Moulton, Cheshire
*List of new churches by John Douglas
John Douglas (1830–1911) was an English architect based in Chester, Cheshire. His output included new churches, alterations to and restoration of existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a var ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moulton, Saint Stephens Church
Churches completed in 1877
19th-century Church of England church buildings
Church of England church buildings in Cheshire
Grade II listed churches in Cheshire
Gothic Revival church buildings in England
Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire
John Douglas buildings
Diocese of Chester
1877 establishments in England