Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/01/2020

SJ 87 NW
4/115

NETHER ALDERLEY C.P.
CHURCH LANE
Church of St Mary

(Formerly listed under CHURCH DRIVE)

14/4/1967

GV
I
Church: C14 core, early C16 tower, early C17 additions, chancel of 1856 by Cuffley and Starkey, vestry dated 1860, general restoration 1877-78 by Austin and Paley. Ashlar buff and red sandstone. Kerridge stone-slate roof, four-bay nave and aisles, three-bay chancel, massive four-stage tower and south porch.

Porch has diagonal buttresses, crocketted pinnacles on the gable and a segmentally arched entrance. Studded oak door with iron strap hinges in pointed arch behind. South aisle has a three-light window with trefoil cusped heads and the two-storey exterior of the Stanley pew (approached by a flight of stone steps to the right) with rectangular windows of five round-headed lights. Clerestorey with simple two-light windows. Chancel in Decorated style, the east window with reticulated tracery. North aisle has an inserted Jacobean dormer probably to light three-decker pulpit. Tower has diagonal buttresses and bands at each stage. Pointed arched doorcase with Victorian Decorated west window. Simple two-light window in third stage and a pair of louvred two-light Y-traceried bell openings above. Gorgoyles support an embattled parapet.

Interior: four-bay arcades on octagonal piers and with weakly pointed arches. South aisle contains the Stanley flying pew. Jacobean arcaded panelling to front with painted heraldry and a C18 Gothick hood. Inside is further panelling containing some medieval carving and a coved pyramidal Jacobean strapwork ceiling with a pendant. C18 musician's gallery has arms of Stanleys and other local landowners and now contains an organ of 1875 In chancel two Victorian recumbant effigies, the first Lord Stanley by Richard Westmacott jnr, the second Lord Stanley by George Nelson with cosmatiesque work and a brass panel showing Lady Stanley and her ten children.

C14 font with plain circular bowl with carved head bosses on a cluster of four columns is very similar to Prestbury. Nave has a panelled barrel roof with cambered moulded tiebeams and the aisles have moulded panelled lean-to roofs (Pevsner and Hubbard).

The flying pew is unique in Cheshire, and the similarity of the tower with that in Mobberley suggests it is also by Richard Platt.

Listing NGR: SJ8417076141

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Mary's Church, Nether Alderley at Wikipedia
• St Mary's Church, Nether Alderley official website
• Wikidata Q7594390

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)