Details
SK11SW
1094-1/1/250
LICHFIELD
Stowe
ST CHAD'S ROAD (north side)
Church of St Chad
(Formerly Listed as: STOWE HILL Church of St Chad)
05/02/52
GV
II*
Church. C12, C13 arcades and alterations to gabled south aisle, late C13 tower and east window, 1660s clerestory, 1840 lean-to north aisle, and 1862 porch, chancel roof and vestry. Ashlar with brick clerestory; tile roofs, slate aisle roofs. Plain plinth and coped gables.
PLAN: three bay chancel and five bay nave with aisles; west tower.
EXTERIOR: chancel has offset angle buttresses, gable cross; five-light east window has intersecting tracery; south side has C19 ball flower cornice and two offset buttresses between three-light window with Perpendicular tracery, single-chamfered lancet with hood and two-light window with Decorated tracery; north side similar, gabled vestry with fishscale tiles, quatrefoil above two-light east window and gable cross, diagonal buttress and plain north door. Clerestory, originally continued over chancel, has ashlar cornice and coping to parapet; two-light Y-tracery windows.
North aisle has offset and diagonal buttresses, cornice with heads; two-light windows with Decorated tracery and three-light west window over basement entrance; north door with continuous moulding. South aisle has offset buttress and angle buttresses, cornice and embattled parapet; two-light windows with Y-tracery and signs of original C12 round-headed windows and their gables; three-light east and west windows; gabled porch has diagonal buttresses and entrance of one order, small ogee-headed niche above has statue of St Chad, three-panel door with rail, old fittings and studs; inner entrance of three orders has boldly cusped moulded arch.
Tower has offset angle buttresses, south east turret rising higher than tower; three-light west window with flowing tracery and hood; two-light bell-openings with single-light openings on sill courses above, all louvred; cornice and embattled parapet, rich scrolled wrought-iron wind vane dated 1886.
INTERIOR: chancel has arch-braced collar roof and collar purlin, chancel arch has half-octagonal responds with foliate capitals and hood with head stops; nave has arcades with double-chamfered arches on piers with simple capitals, hexagonal to south, octagonal to north; plaster groin vault on corbels; triple-chamfered tower arch with blocked C12 window above; south aisle has flat timber ceiling.
Fittings: chancel has C19 ogee-headed over linen-fold panelling; altar with three figures in arches on paired columns with cherubs over; reredos has high relief of the Good Shepherd with ogee arches and brattishing to cornice; C17 altar rail has turned balusters and strapwork panels with friezes of scrolls and grapes; plain stalls with tracery panels; nave has pulpit sunk into floor with canted angles and tracery and linen-fold panels; tower arch has screen with reliefs and statue of St Chad; north aisle has organ and vestry to east end; south aisle has C15 font with panelled stem and shields in quatrefoils.
Memorials: many good C18 and C19 wall tablets; chancel north monument to John and Mary Alden, d.1655 and 1664, panel divided by armorial bearing, Doric columns and broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron and pendants; south side has monument to Elizabeth and Michael Biddulph, d.1657, slate panel with scrolled sides and broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron with skull and swags; also monuments to Lucy Porter, d.1786, Samuel Johnson's step-daughter and Catherine Chambers, d.1767, the Johnson family servant, erected 1910. South aisle has monument in form of cartouche with cherubs, armorial bearing and drops, T Hinton, d.1757, in form of apron panel;1654 painted charity board.
Stained glass: good east window by two different hands, central lights possibly Clayton and Bell; some Arts and Crafts glass to south aisle and other C19 and C20 stained glass.
The church marks the site of burial of St Chad, Bishop of Lichfield 669-672.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974, p.190; St Chad's Church Lichfield: Lichfield: 1972; Victoria History of the County of Stafford: Greenslade M W: Lichfield: Oxford: 1990: p.143-47).
Listing NGR: SK1220410209