Church of All Saints

Details

ODD RODE C.P. CHURCH LANE SJ 85 NW Scholar Green

7/72 Church of All Saints 14.2.67 GV II*

Church, 1863, by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Squared rubble with ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof. Nave with south aisle, chancel, south western porch and north eastern vestry. Nave, western front: slightly projecting plinth common to whole building and string course at level of the window sills. To the left are three projecting symmetrically disposed bays; at right, recessed, is the end of the aisle under a separate gabled roof. The projecting portion at left has a central doorway with moulded ashlar surround and pillarettes to either side of the double doors and a hood mould with male and female figurehead label stops. Gablet above with roundel enclosing a flower. Above is a 3-light window with trefoil heads to the lights and hollow-chamfered relieving arch with trefoils above the lateral lights. Above this is a canopied niche containing a figure of Christ and above that a bellcote with two lancet openings which have gadrooned corbels to their sides and colonettes to the corners, and a trefoil to the gablet which is surmounted by a weathercock. Buttresses with offsets to either side of this central bay and beyond these lancets with buttresses to the corners. The recessed southern aisle at right has a central 3-light window with trefoil heads to the lights and an octofoil to the apex and a hood mould with figurehead label stops; cross-shaped finial to the gable. The south face has 4 bays to the aisle with two pointed lights and a cinquefoil to each window, the bays divided by buttresses with offsets. To the second bay from left is a gabled porch with chamfered pointed arch with semi-octagonal colonettes to either side, a hood mould and figurehead label stops. To the corners are heavy clasping buttresses with a frieze of foliage ornament below a terminating offset. Trefoil to gable and cross to summit. To the side walls are paired trefoil-headed lancets. The north side has 4 bays with similar buttresses and fenestration and a blank half-bay at right. Chancel: south face has a chantry chapel connected to, but of less width than, the south aisle. This has a doorway at left with, at right, two trefoil-headed lancets with hood moulds and figurehead label stops. To right of this is one recessed chancel window of two lights with central and lateral pillarettes and deeply undercut and moulded tracery with a cinquefoil to the apex. The northern face has a gabled vestry projecting at right with a 2-light window and a cinquefoil over, and 2-flue chimney stack to the gable. To the left of this are two windows similar to that seen on the southern side. The eastern end has a chancel window of five lights on a raised string with 3 lights deeply moulded and undercut and with pillarettes to the mullions, as to the north and south sides. To the apex are 2 quatrefoils with a cinquefoil hood mould over and label stops showing a bishop and queen. The eastern end of the chantry chapel, recessed and at left has paired trefoil-headed lancets dissected and flanked by colonettes. To the gable is a cinquefoil in a richly moulded circular surround showing foliage. Interior: Chamfered window reveals to nave and chancel. The piers of the south aisle are of quatrefoil section with hood moulds and figurehead label stops. Barrel vault to the aisle. The nave has arched braces with cusping springing from decoratively carved corbels and has arched wind bracing. The chancel arch has grey marble columns to either side and richly moulded foliate capitals. There is a double column of grey marble dividing the chancel from the chantry chapel and further columns of grey and green marble with lushly carved capitals at either side of the eastern window. The Wilbraham chantry chapel is divided from the south aisle by a richly wrought iron screen which has three arched openings and quartered circles to the lower body. To the left of the eastern window is a trefoil-headed niche with a gablet above and colonettes to either side holding a terra-cotta bust by A Carrier, 1854, of Randle Wilbraham. Octagonal alabaster pulpit to left of chancel arch with arcade openings divided by marble colonettes and with mosaic inlay. Similarly inlayed alabaster font in the form of a chalice of quatrefoil section on a stepped base.

Goodhart-Rendel noted of the church "Taking things all round, I like this best of any Scott church I have seen.....Everything seems to me a triumph of the academic type of good Gothic design....there is nothing but safety first - but it is safety".

Not only the design but the craftsmanship is of high quality.

Source:- Nikolaus Pevsner & The Buildings of England : Cheshire Edward Hubbard

Listing NGR: SJ8240257481

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

56542

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Hubbard, E, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, (1971)

End of official list entry