Details
STAFFORD
SJ9223SW GREENGATE STREET
590-1/10/50 (East side)
16/01/51 Church of St Chad
GV II*
Church. C12; chancel east end C14; tower C14 with rebuilding
of c1500; restored by Henry Ward of Stafford, c1864 and Sir
Gilbert Scott, c1870ff, who rebuilt west front 1873-4; south
aisle walls, 1874-5; work completed by Robert Griffiths of
Stafford, 1880-6, who rebuilt south aisle walls, 1880, north
transept, 1886; south vestry, 1955. Ashlar with tile roofs,
slate to north aisle. Norman style with Perpendicular tower.
PLAN: cruciform.
EXTERIOR: 3-bay chancel, crossing tower with north transept
and south vestry; 4-bay nave with lean-to aisles.
Chancel has 3-light east window with Geometrical tracery, hood
with head stops, large offset angle buttresses and coped
gable; returns have shallow buttresses and corbel table to 2
western bays, 2 small round-headed windows with nook shafts,
sill course with cable mould and imposts bands.
Tower has offset angle buttresses; 2-light triangular-headed
traceried bell-openings with sill course, hoods with head
stops and louvreing; top traceried frieze, cornice with
gargoyles and embattled parapet. North parapet has similar
details to chancel returns; round-headed north entrance has 5
round-headed lights over, 2 blind, wheel window and Celtic
gable cross; windows to return.
Nave west end has shallow angle buttresses, round-headed
entrance of 2 orders with rich moulding including beak head,
paired doors with rich iron strapwork; impost course; blind
arcade above has 3 lights and sill course; top niche with
statue of St Chad and coped gable; clerestory has small
round-headed windows with deep splays; aisles have offset
buttresses, and round-headed windows.
INTERIOR: chancel has intersecting blind arcading with rich
capitals; piscina with sharp pointed arch; arch-braced collar
trusses to roof; east crossing arch has Norman responds with
rich capitals, one with fox and birds and inscription: ORM
VOCATUR QUI ME CONDIDIT, C13 double-chamfered arch; similar
arch to north transept, and to south transept now blocked,
with smaller arch with organ and stair entrance to right; nave
has 4-bay arcades on round piers with simply moulded capitals,
the 2 bays to east richer, with wall shafts and zig-zag
moulding; crossing arch of 2 orders with rich mouldings to
shafts and arch including much beak head, double-chamfered
arch immediately behind; deeply splayed clerestory windows on
sill course; C17 roof has moulded beams and purlins.
FITTINGS: chancel has encaustic tiles, timber altar rail and
altar with painted triptych reredos; north transept has
screened-off vestry and early C20 open screen and altar with
canopy on posts; crossing has stalls with tracery fronts;
timber pulpit and rood beam with figures, 1922, by Sir Charles
Nicholson; font, 1856, round, of Norman style with beast heads
influenced by C11 Manuscripts, cover, 1922, by Sir C
Nicholson, tall octagonal tower with recessed traceried
finial; inner porch also by Sir C Nicholson, timber, enriched
frieze and brattishing, canted traceried upper part.
A good example of Norman work, possibly with Byzantine
influence.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Nairn J: Staffordshire:
London: 1974-: 243; Victoria County History of Staffordshire:
Greenslade MW: A History of Stafford, taken from V.C.H.:
London: 1979-: 245-8; Shell Guides: Thorold H: Staffordshire:
London: 1978-: 152).
Listing NGR: SJ9225523185
