The Church of St Andrew,

Weston-under-Lizard Weston-under-Lizard is a village in the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. It constitutes a civil parish with Blymhill, called Blymhill and Weston-under-Lizard. It is known as Weston-under-Lizard (the name of a hill in near ...

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 ...

is a

Grade I listed 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 ...

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 ...

church. Its origins are

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, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

, but it was largely rebuilt in the very early 18th century by

Elizabeth Wilbraham Elizabeth, Lady Wilbraham (née Mytton; 14 February 1632 – 27 July 1705) was a member of the English aristocracy, who traditionally has been identified as an important architectural patron. It has been suggested that she was the first woman ar ...

Weston Park Weston Park is a country house in Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, England, set in more than of park landscaped by Capability Brown. The park is located north-west of Wolverhampton, and north-east of Telford, close to the border with Shrop ...

, and restored in the 19th century, firstly by

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccle ...

and then by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...

. It remains a functioning parish church in the

Diocese of Lichfield The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...

History

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

records the foundation of the church as

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

describes the church as "an enterprise of Lady Wilbraham... f1700–1". This was Elizabeth Mytton, heiress of the Weston estate, who married Sir Thomas Wilbraham in 1651. A 2010 article in the ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was kn ...

'' by the historian John Millar, describes Elizabeth Wilbraham as "the first woman architect", and suggests that she may have undertaken designs for over 350 buildings, as well as tutoring and collaborating with

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 ...

. Prevented by the conventions of the time for identifying as an architect, and from taking any public role in construction, Millar suggests that buildings attributed to architects such as

Hugh May Hugh May (1621 – 21 February 1684) was an English architect in the period after the Restoration of King Charles II. He worked in the era which fell between the first introduction of Palladianism into England by Inigo Jones, and the full flowerin ...

, Roger Pratt and

William Winde Captain William Winde (c.1645–1722) was an English gentleman architect, whose Royalist military career, resulting in fortifications and topographical surveys but lack of preferment, and his later career, following the Glorious Revolution, as ...

, were in fact designed by Wilbraham, with the named architects acting as surveyors to carry out her plans. Millar's views are not universally accepted, and his planned book on Wilbraham has yet to be published. It is generally accepted that Wilbraham undertook designs for a number of buildings for family and friends, including her own home,

, and the estate Church of St Andrew. St Andrew's continues as a functioning church in the

Architecture and description

Pevsner records that "only the east wall with a 14th century window" remained of the medieval church when Elizabeth Wilbraham begun her reconstruction in 1700. The tower and nave are her work. The tower is of five stages, with a

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

final stage.

describes the nave as "provincial

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

undertook a restoration in around 1869, and the font is his. Further work, including the construction of a family chapel, was done by

in 1876–1877. The chapel, and the church, contain monuments to the Earls of Bradford and their families, who owned Weston Park until 1986.

History

Architecture and description

Footnotes

References

Sources

See also