St George's Church is in Buxton Road, Heaviley, an area of

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It is an active

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

in the deanery of Stockport, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the diocese of Chester. Its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

is united with that of St Gabriel, Adswood. The church 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, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The authors of the '' Buildings of England'' series express the opinion that it is "by far the grandest church of Stockport", and state "St George is a church on a splendid scale". According to the visitors' guide to the church, the Rt Revd Geoffrey Fisher, former

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, said that it is "the finest church built in England since the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

History

The foundation stone was laid in 1893, and the church was consecrated on 25 February 1897. It was designed by Hubert Austin of the Lancaster architectural practice of Paley, Austin and Paley. The church forms part of a group of buildings, also including the vicarage and schools, that were paid for by George Fearn, a local brewer. The total cost of the church and its associated buildings is said to have been nearly £80,000 ().

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. Its architectural style is

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

, with "traces of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

". Its plan consists of a six- 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 ...

with a clerestory, north and south

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

s, north and south porches, a tower at the crossing, and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and sanctuary with a Lady Chapel to the north, an organ chamber to the south, and a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

to the southeast. The tower has an embattled

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

with corner pinnacles linked by flying buttresses to the spire. At the east end, flanking the windows, are large buttresses. The east and west windows have seven lights, and the windows along the sides of the nave have four lights. The church is long and wide, the tower is high, and with the spire raises to .

Interior

The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

is made from Derbyshire alabaster. It contains three carved panels, the central one depicting the Crucifixion, and the others the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and Saint John. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

is also of Derbyshire alabaster, and is carved with foliage. Both were carved by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

contains six niches containing the figures of Saint Paul, Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, Saint John, and Saint Peter. The lectern consists of a brass eagle standing on a pedestal supported by lions. The Lady Chapel is separated from the chancel by a carved oak screen, and contains a carved oak reredos including the figures of Saint John the Divine and Saint John the Baptist. There is stained glass only in the east and west windows, and in one window in the south aisle; it is all by Shrigley and Hunt. The east window includes a depiction of Saint George and the Dragon. The three- manual organ was built in 1897 by Forster and Andrews at a cost of £1,710 (). It was rebuilt in 1936 by the John Compton Organ Company. Further work was carried out on the organ in 1981 by Rushworth and Dreaper. The organ case was designed by Austin. There is a ring of ten bells, all of which were cast in 1896 by Mears and Stainbank at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. File:Nave.jpg, Nave and roof detail File:Ceiling Features.jpg, Ceiling features File:Organ Case and Pipes.jpg, Organ case and pipes

External features

In the churchyard is a sandstone memorial to the First World War dating from about 1920. It includes panels inscribed with the names of 137 men, a tall cross, and a statue of Saint George standing under a gabled, crocketed canopy. It is listed at Grade II. The churchyard wall, its gate piers, and the gate piers to the adjacent church school are also listed at Grade II. In addition, the former vicarage to the church is listed in 1975 at Grade II. It was built in about 1920 in

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

style. It is constructed in red brick with red roof tiles, and has two storeys. It has since been described as being "ruinous". image:St George's Church, Stockport 01.jpg, St George's Church, Stockport image:St George's Church, Stockport 02.jpg, West window of St George's Church, Stockport image:St George's Church, Stockport 03.jpg, East window of St George's Church, Stockport image:St George's Church, Stockport 04.jpg, The Great War Cross, St George's Church, Stockport

References