St Catherine's Church, Over Alderley, also known as St Catherine's Church, Birtles, stands in an isolated position in Birtles Lane, near to Birtles Hall, in 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 ...

of Over Alderley, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building 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 ...

. It was originally a private chapel for the Hibbert family and is now a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

. It is unusual in that its tower is octagonal. It contains furnishings and stained glass from Germany and the Netherlands. The church is listed in ''England's Thousand Best Churches''. It is an active Anglican church in the

diocese of Chester The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Knutsford. Its benefice has been combined with that of St Philip & St James, Alderley Edge since 2022.

History

St Catherine's was built as a private chapel by Thomas Hibbert of Birtles Hall in 1840. It became the

of Birtles and Over Alderley in 1890.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in red brick with buff

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

dressings. It has a

Kerridge Kerridge is a village in Cheshire, England, part of the parish of Bollington. Kerridge borders the neighbouring parish of Rainow. It gives its name to Kerridge Ridge – one of the western foothills of the Pennines – by which it stan ...

stone-slate roof with a stone ridge. At its southwest corner is an octagonal tower. The plan of the body of the church consists of a five- bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a short

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 ...

, a south porch, and a baptistry in a corresponding position on the north side. The tower has three stages with stone bands at each stage, single-light windows, and is surmounted by an openwork stone lattice balustrade with plain pinnacles.

Interior

The stained glass and furnishings were collected by the Hibbert family from Germany and the Netherlands. The stained glass came from the Netherlands and dates from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, The furnishings include a pulpit dated 1686 containing carved panels including one of the Annunciation on the front, and of images including dolphins,

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

, and lions on the back, a manorial pew made from 17th-century carved

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

oak, and a medieval

eagle lectern An eagle lectern is a lectern in the shape of an eagle on whose outstretched wings the Bible rests. They are most common in Anglican churches and cathedrals, but their use predates the Reformation, and is also found in Catholic churches. Hist ...

, which may be the earliest of English origin in the county. There is a second lectern, carved by Mrs Hibbert in about 1894. The reredos is decorated with panels, lion masks, and flowers. The two large brass chandeliers are copies of chandeliers in Milan Cathedral. The tower contains eight bells giving a full octave. The bells were donated in 1895 by the three Hibbert sisters. The stained glass consists of "an expertly mixed assemblage", with dates ranging from 1541 to 1628. The internal walls were formerly covered in frescoes by Colonel Hugh Robert Hibbert, son of Thomas, who also built an organ for the chapel. The organ was replaced in 1909 by Peter Conacher of Huddersfield. Improvements and renovations were carried out in 1949, 1951 and 1983. The frescoes were painted over in 1950. In 1999 two etched glass memorials to Major Hugh and Mrs Susan Hibbert by Simon Whistler were installed.

References

External links