St Werburgh's Church is the name of two separate churches in the village of Warburton,

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. The older church is located to the west of the village, and may date back as far as the middle of the 13th century. It is now a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...

but services are held in the summer months. 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 The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

'' series call this church "a lovable muddle". The newer church was built in 1883–85 and is located to the southeast of the village on the A6144 road. It is a Grade II listed building. 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 Bowdon. 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 combined with that of St Peter, Oughtrington. The dedication is an unusual one, ordinarily local to Chester, where

Werburgh Werburgh (also ''Wærburh'', ''Werburh'', ''Werburga'', meaning "true city"; ; c. AD 650 – 3 February 700) was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is the 3rd of February. Life W ...

is the patron saint. Werburgh, an Anglo-Saxon saint who has given her name to ''Warburgtune'', as Warburton was called in the

Domesday survey 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 ...

(1086), was the daughter of

Wulfhere Wulfhere or Wulfar (died 675) was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Nort ...

, the first Christian king of Mercia. She died around AD 700 as

Abbess of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with ...

, with the care of several nunneries. Her relics were moved to the abbey of St Peter and St Paul in Chester, which was later rededicated to St Werburgh.

Old church

History

There is evidence of a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church on the site before the Norman Conquest. In 1187–90 Adam de Dutton founded a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

on the site for

Norbertine The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Church ...

canons but this was short-lived and there is now no trace of the priory. It is likely that the building of the present church began in the middle of the 13th century. Towards the end of the 16th century, the

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 ...

area was remodelled and a pulpit, altar rails and communion table were installed. In 1645 the church was extensively altered and extended. The south and west walls of the nave were rebuilt and the roof of the nave was lowered. A small chapel and vestry with a stone foundation and

timber framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

wall were added to the south side of the chancel, while a stone extension was added to the north side. In 1711 the east end of the chancel was rebuilt and a brick tower was added at the east end of the church. In 1722 a gallery was built. Wooden floors were installed in 1813, the vestry was incorporated into the church and a new vestry was built onto the south side of the tower. In 1857 the chancel floor was tiled, the walls were painted with medieval designs and the timber supports and the chancel ceiling were plastered. Stained glass was added to windows and the gallery was removed. By 1880 the church needed major repairs, and because of this the new church was built and the old church ceased to be the

. Repairs were undertaken in 1894 for

dry rot Dry rot is wood decay caused by one of several species of fungi that digest parts of wood which give it strength and stiffness. It was previously used to describe any decay of cured wood in ships and buildings by a fungus which resulted in a ...

, in 1927 for death watch beetle and in 1958, again for death watch beetle. In 1971 the church passed into the care of the Redundant Churches Fund, the predecessor of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. In October 2021, the church was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's Culture Recovery Fund. Warburton Old 6

Exterior

The church is built around a timber frame and some

timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

with

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite material, composite building method in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called "wattle (construction), wattle" is "daubed" with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, and ...

infilling is retained in the north wall. The rest of the north wall and the south and west walls are 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 ...

. The chancel, south transept and vestry are brick, as is the tower which is placed, unusually, at the east end. It is roofed in Kerridge stone slabs. The roof of the chancel is some lower than that of the nave. The tower has a pairs of semicircular-headed

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

windows on each face, a stone

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and six sugar loaf

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

Interior

The chancel is surrounded on three sides by a wooden half-screen. This screen, the altar table and 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 ...

date from the 17th century. The pews date from 1813. 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 octagonal, the base being inscribed 1603 and the pyramidal cover 1595. In the church is a stone

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:σάρξ, σάρξ ...

dating possibly from the early 12th century. One bell is present which is dated 1575. Parish registers start in 1611 but are complete only from 1634. The stained glass in the east window is by Wailes and the sanctuary floor has Minton tiles; both date from 1857.

External features

In the churchyard is a stone

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

dated 1765 with a copper dial and

gnomon A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields, typically to measure directions, position, or time. History A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was ...

. This is listed Grade II, as is the lych gate. This is dated 1887 and consists of a timber frame with a slate roof.

New church

This church was built between 1883 and 1885 to a design by the

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

architect John Douglas for Rowland Egerton-Warburton. It is built in red sandstone with a tile roof. The plan consists of a four-bay nave with a north aisle, a south porch, a three-bay chancel and a northeast tower. The tower is in three stages with diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es. It has two two-light belfry openings in each face, castellations and corner pinnacles with

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the Old French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of a crocket to a bishop's Shepherd's crook, ...

s. It contains a font cover dated 1595 and an oak chest which was removed from the old church. 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 cast in 1884 by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

References

External links

Normy's Photography: Warburton – with several photographs of the old church, also of its interior