Holy Trinity Church in

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 ...

, Staffordshire, England, is a Grade I listed Anglican church. The building dates mostly from the 13th century, and there was restoration in the 19th century. The church contains the tombs of four Bishops of Lichfield.

Anglo-Saxon period

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 manus ...

of 1086 recorded that St Chad held the estate of Eccleshall, meaning that before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

the estate belonged to St Chad's Cathedral in Lichfield. It may have been granted originally to

Saint Chad Chad of Mercia (died 2 March 672) was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Catholic monk who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised ...

, the first

Bishop of Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Wes ...

in the 7th century, or to a successor. The first part of the name "Eccleshall" is the Celtic word for church, suggesting that the estate was based on a Celtic Christian community.D. M. Palliser, ''The Staffordshire Landscape''. Hodder and Stoughton, 1976. Pages 44–45.

The building

The oldest parts of the church, the foundations and pillars, date from around 1189, when

Hugh Nonant Hugh Nonant (sometimes Hugh de Nonant; died 27 March 1198) was a medieval Bishop of Coventry in England. A great-nephew and nephew of two Bishops of Lisieux, he held the office of archdeacon in that diocese before serving successively Thomas Be ...

was bishop of Lichfield. It is thought that the building of this time replaced a small Norman church. The

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 ...

and arcades are largely 13th-century. The clerestory was built in the 15th century. The height of the church, to the top edges of the tower battlements, is . The tower shows two phases of

English Gothic architecture English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

, being in 13th-century Early English style for most of its height, with an extension of 15th-century Perpendicular style. The stone pinnacles on the tower were added in recognition of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The sandstone font in the church dates from the 13th century.

Restorations and alterations

In 1866–9 the church was restored 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 eccl ...

. The roofs of the north and south aisles were replaced, and the north wall was rebuilt, making the north aisle four feet wider. The ceiling of the nave was removed and the roof above was panelled. In the chancel, the east window was replaced by a five-light window in Early English style; a pointed chancel arch was built, and the chancel roof was raised. The box pews were replaced by oak seating. At the west end, a baptistry and choir vestry were built on either side of the tower.''Holy Trinity Church Eccleshall: a history & guide''. Obtained at the church in July 2015. The reredos was created in 1898 as a memorial to Colonel Francis Chambers; it was designed by

Basil Champneys Basil Champneys (17 September 1842 – 5 April 1935) was an English architect and author whose most notable buildings include Manchester's John Rylands Library, Somerville College Library (Oxford), Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hal ...

and made by Bridgemans of Lichfield. A raised dais at the east end of the nave was introduced in 2011. Approval for this (a faculty) had originally been refused by Chancellor Martyn Coates in a Lichfield Consistory Court judgment dated 5 November 2009; but in a judgment dated 31 July 2010 the Arches Court of Canterbury overturned Chancellor Coates' judgment on grounds both of substance and procedure (Re Holy Trinity, Eccleshall

010 010 may refer to: * 10 (number) * 8 (number) in octal numeral notation * Motorola 68010, a microprocessor released by Motorola in 1982 * 010, the telephone area code of Beijing * 010, the Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the R ...

Organ

The organ was installed in 1827; it was rebuilt in 1913, and in 1930 by

Hill, Norman and Beard William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Limited (commonly known as Hill, Norman and Beard) were a major pipe organ manufacturer originally based in Norfolk. History They were founded in 1916 by the merger of Norman and Beard and William Hill & Sons ...

. The organ case, of 1931, was designed by

W. D. Caroe W. may refer to: * SoHo (Australian TV channel) (previously W.), an Australian pay television channel * ''W.'' (film), a 2008 American biographical drama film based on the life of George W. Bush * "W.", the fifth track from Codeine's 1992 EP ''Bar ...

and made by Bridgemans of Lichfield. The last work on the organ was in 2017, when it was repaired and enhanced at a cost of approximately £60,000.

Clergy

Bishops_at_Eccleshall.jpg, Bishops at Eccleshall Vicars_of_Holy_Trinity_Church_Eccleshall.jpg, Vicars of Holy Trinity Church Eccleshall

Tombs of bishops and churchyard

The church contains the tombs of four Bishops of Lichfield.

Richard Sampson Richard Sampson (died 25 September 1554) was an English clergyman and composer of sacred music, who was Anglican bishop of Chichester and subsequently of Coventry and Lichfield. Biography He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, the Paris S ...

, who earlier in his career was an agent of Henry VIII concerning his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, died in 1554 and was buried on the north side of the altar; the tomb-stone was moved to the Old Baptistry (located in the south-west of the church) in the nineteenth century. Thomas Bentham, who became bishop soon after the accession of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

, died in 1578 and was buried in the chancel; his tomb-stone was also moved in the nineteenth century, to the choir vestry (located in the north-west of the church). The tomb of William Overton, bishop from 1579 until 1609, is in the chancel. It has a recumbent effigy of the bishop, and effigies of his two wives kneeling. The tomb of James Bowstead, who became bishop in 1840, is in the north-east corner of the chancel, near the altar. He died aged 42, after a fall from a horse. Bishop

John Lonsdale John Lonsdale (17 January 1788 – 19 October 1867) was an English clergyman, who was the third Principal of King's College, London, and later served as Bishop of Lichfield. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, an ...

, who died in 1867, is buried in the north-east corner of the churchyard. The churchyard also contains five Commonwealth war graves, of three British Army soldiers 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 a British Army officer and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

sailor 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 ...

.Eccleshall (Holy Trinity) churchyard
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, accessed 13 June 2019.

Bells

Four bells were hung in 1547. In 1710, these were replaced by six bells, cast by Abraham Rudhall I. The lightest of these was recast in 1873 by Taylor's Bell Foundry of Loughborough. In the 1950s a steel frame for eight bells was installed, two new bells being added, which were the gift of the Lowe family of Sugnall. There is also a small "sanctus" bell, made in 1735 by Abel Rudhall, grandson of Abraham I, and added in recent years.Bell tower
Eccleshall Parish. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

References

External links

Holy Trinity Church, Eccleshall
thepotteries.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Eccleshall, Holy Trinity Church Grade I listed churches in Staffordshire Church of England church buildings in Staffordshire Diocese of Lichfield Holy Trinity Church