St Chad's Chapel (often referred to as Old St Chad's) is an isolated church in the scattered community of Tushingham 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 ...

Tushingham-cum-Grindley, Macefen and Bradley Tushingham-cum-Grindley, Macefen and Bradley is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was created in 2015, under the terms of the Local Government and Public Invo ...

, Cheshire, England. The only approach to the chapel is on footpaths across fields from the

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. It is recorded in the

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as a designated Grade I

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 ...

History

Deeds dated 1349 refer to a chapel on this site which was a chapel of ease to St Oswald's Church, Malpas. A document dated 1621 refers to it as Chadwick Chapel, although by 1636 another document called it Chad Chapel. It was rebuilt in 1689–91 and has been little changed since. The principal financial donations for the chapel were from John Dod, a London

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who had been born in Tushingham. The chapel is now referred to as Old Chad because its functions have been replaced by St Chad's Church built in 1863 on the

Architecture

Exterior

The chapel is built in brown brick with a grey slate roof. Its plan consists of a tower at the west end with an external staircase leading to an internal west gallery. The body of the chapel is in three bays without

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

s; it is furnished as a

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 ...

and a

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

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

projects south from the west bay of the nave. The tower is small with a pyramid-roof. It has a west door with a loophole above it, a plain band at the belfry floor level, paired camber-headed bell-openings and a

weathercock A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

Interior

The roof is unusual in that the sections between the principal beams are filled with carvings making a star-like pattern. All the chapel furnishings are made from Cheshire oak. The holy table dates from the 17th century, and on each side of it are panelled family

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...

s. On the wall above the south pew are three

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

memorials to the Vernon and Murhall families, and above the north pew is a marble memorial to the Stephens family. Above the two east windows is the royal coat of arms of George III. A low screen divides the chancel from the nave. The seating in the nave consists of plain seats and backs without any decoration. At the west end is a gallery which is reached by the external staircase. The font is Jacobean in style, and the pulpit is a three-decker.

External features

Adjacent to the church is a small building containing a horse-drawn

hearse A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately a ...

. It is built of brown brick with a pyramidal roof of grey slates and is dated 1822. The hearse-house is a Grade II listed building.

References