St Mary's and All Saints' Church is an
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 in the village of
Checkley
Checkley is a village and civil parish in the district of Staffordshire Moorlands in the England, English county of Staffordshire.OS Explorer Map 259: Derby, Ashbourne and Cheadle: (1:25 000) :[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 ...]
. The oldest parts of the building are
12th-century, with later medieval and 17th-century work.
Description
The lower storey of the tower is 12th-century, the later upper part being in
Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
style. The south door, protected by a porch, is of about 1300.
[St Mary, Checkley, Staffordshire]
CRSBI. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
The
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 ...
has four bays, and the
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
windows above are 17th-century. The north arcade is 13th-century, and the round-arched north aisle windows are 17th-century. The south arcade is taller than the north arcade; although parts are of the 12th century, it was later remodelled. The pointed chancel arch is early 13th-century.
[
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.
Ove ...
, of four bays, is late 13th-century; the pointed five-light east window and three-light side windows have intersecting tracery
Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...
. The glass in the chancel is 14th-century.[
The chancel, showing the east and north windows
The font is a cylindrical bowl on a shaft, both 12th-century. The bowl is decorated with low relief carvings: there is a ]Lamb of God
Lamb of God ( el, Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Amnòs toû Theoû; la, Agnus Dei, ) is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God wh ...
on an altar, with panels around the bowl containing irregular patterns of triangles.[
]
Anglo-Scandinavian stone crosses
In the churchyard, south of the church, are three early medieval stone crosses; they are close together and are thought to be standing in or near their original positions. There is a tradition that the crosses were erected in memory of three bishops killed in a battle near the village. They are regarded as among the finest Anglo-Scandinavian crosses in Staffordshire.[
]
See also
* Grade I listed churches in Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. In 1974 the historical county of Staffordshire was combined with the unitary authority of Stoke-on-Trent to form the ceremonial county of Staffordshire.
In England, buildings a ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Checkley, St Mary's and All Saints' Church
Church of England church buildings in Staffordshire
Grade I listed churches in Staffordshire
Diocese of Lichfield
