St Mary's Church is in the town of

Sandbach Sandbach (pronounced ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire East borough of Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach, Elworth, Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, Cheshire, Wheelock. At the 2021 United Kingd ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. 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 II*

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 ...

. 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 diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Congleton.

History

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(c. 1086) records the presence of a priest and a church on the site of the present church, and it is shown on an 1840 map of the town centre of Sandbach. This was replaced by another church erected about the time of Henry VII. This church was built in

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 ...

which became badly weathered. The present church dates largely from the considerable degree of rebuilding by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1847–49. Much of the existing fabric was replaced and the remaining fabric was encased in new stone. The east end of the church was extended by some and the tower was rebuilt as a copy of the former tower. The builders were Cooper and Son of Derby. The stone, which came from quarries in the Mow Cop area, was given by Sir Philip Grey Egerton M.P. Part of the west end had to be repaired in 1894–95 following a fire. In 1930 Austin and Paley added a choir

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 ...

, and a north porch, at a cost of £1,331. The parish registers date from 1562 and are complete. The churchwardens' accounts prior to 1888 are lost.

Architecture

Exterior

The plan of the church consists of a clerestoried

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 choir of five bays, with

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, side chapels, and a tower at the west end. The choir vestry projects from the northwest. The tower is unusual in that it stands on three open arches through which passes a public footpath. The style is mainly

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'', � ...

and some

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

masonry is still present in the arcades.

Interior

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 ...

dates from 1859; it is made of

Caen stone Caen stone () is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ...

and was constructed by Thomas Stringer. It has a Greek

Palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

inscription, that reads "NIYON ANOMHMA MH MONAN OYINE". This translated means "Wash my sin not my countenance only".Sandbach Guide 1970 page 9 The old octagonal font dated 1669 and decorated with acanthus leaves, was returned to the church in 1938. Scott arranged the memorials around the walls of the aisles. One of these is a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

to the memory of Rev. John Armistead, who was vicar from 1828 to 1865. It was designed by G. F. Watts and sculpted by George Nelson in 1876. Another is to John Ford, who died in 1839, which includes a life-size

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

female figure by an altar. The roofs are dated 1661. The roof over the north aisle includes a large

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

in a wreath. In the chapels and chancels is stained glass by William Wailes, and in the north aisle is a window by Kempe.

Bells

There is a

ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

of eight bells. Four of the bells were cast by Abraham II Rudhall in 1719, and a bell dated 1782 is attributed to Thomas Rudhall. Three later bells by John Warner and Sons are dated 1857, 1858 and 1868.

External features

The churchyard walls, gateways and railings to south-east and north of the church are listed at Grade II. The churchyard contains the war graves of fourteen service personnel, eleven of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and three of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Rectors, vicars and curates

Rectors c.1100–1256

*before 1128: Steinulf the Priest *before 1153: Roger de Lech *c.1230: Thomas

Vicars c.1300–1887

*Before 1327: Richard Burgillion (d.1327) *7 April 1327: Philip de Goodrich Castle (de Castro Godrici) *15 January 1344: William de Mere *23 June 1348: Thomas Chaumpain *7 September 1349: William de Upton (alias Welton) *15 October 1349: John de Tydrynton *7 March 1371: Randle del Ford *18 October 1401: Thomas de Hassall *21 September 1418: Thomas Hassall *7 May 1455: James Whiteacres *September 1465: Randle Penketh *7 March 1481: Roger Clifton *c.1517: Hugh Brereton *15 September 1535: Thomas Smyth *27 September 1548: Richard Smyth *19 May 1554: Peter Prestland *1565: Richard Smyth *23 May 1576: John Shaw *1616: Laurence Wood *16 November 1630: Thomas Tudman *1644: Joseph Cope (1622–1704) *c.1662: Thomas Tudman *15 May 1674: William Hayes *19 Mar 1695 Thomas Welles, M.A. *13 May 1729: Hugh Mee, M.A. *13 April 1733: Samuel Allon, B.A. *25 September 1736: Blayney Baldwyn, M.A. *13 May 1739: Henry Baldwyn, M.A. *21 April 1773: Peter Haddon, M.A. *13 January 1787: Richard Lowndes Salmon, M.A. *20 February 1828: John Armitstead, M.A. *20 October 1865: John Richard Armitstead, M.A. *1919: John Hornby Armitstead, M.A. *1941: Reginald Norton Betts, M.A. *1964: Geoffrey Thomas Wykes, B.A. *1972: John Basil Rigby (d.2001) *9 September 1983: David W.G. Stocker, B.A. *2001: Rex Buckley *2008: Thomas Shepherd, B.A. *2020: Bee Boyde Sources c.1100–1865. Sources: 1919–1983.John Minshull, ''A Short History and Description of St. Mary's Church Sandbach, Cheshire'', 1974, Publ. St Mary's Parochial Church Council. pp.10
Online here
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Curates

*1548: Ricardus Rudiarte *1565: Johannes Shawe *13 January 1573: unknown *20 May 1701: Galfridus Williams *1708: Gulielmus Repton *21 June – 7 July 1725, Ranulphus Hazlehurst *5 June 1733: Joseph Twemlowe *19 December 1737 – 13 July 1742: William Dickens *10 June 1745 – 6 August 1754: George Penlington *1 June 1760: John Sibson

References

Sources

External links

Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandbach, St Mary's Church Church of England church buildings in Cheshire Grade II* listed churches in Cheshire Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire Churches in Sandbach George Gilbert Scott buildings Sandbach Diocese of Chester Austin and Paley buildings English Gothic architecture in Cheshire