Description

STAFFORD

SJ92SW CASTLE BANK, Castle Church
590-1/2/118 (North side)
16/01/51 Church of St Mary
(Formerly Listed as:
NEWPORT ROAD
(North side)
Church of St Mary, Castle Church)

GV II*

Church. C15 tower; nave and chancel 1844-5, by Scott and
Moffatt; north aisle 1898 using 1844 windows, by JO Scott.
Norman style, with Early English-style chancel and
Perpendicular tower.
MATERIALS: ashlar with tile roofs.
EXTERIOR: 2-bay chancel and gabled north vestry, 4-bay nave
and north aisle, west tower and gabled south porch. Coped
gables with crosses.
Chancel has east triplet of lancets with head stops to hood,
south single-chamfered lancets flanking pointed entrance with
offset buttress to left; vestry has 2-light east window with
Decorated tracery and entrance, north side has 2 lights and
basement entrance. Nave has shallow buttresses and clasping
buttresses, and Lombard frieze to cornice, round-headed
windows have nook shafts, zig-zag moulding to arches, and
hoods. Porch has clasping buttresses and coped gable with
cross, entrance of single order with rich moulding, door with
strap hinges; boot scraper; aisle has similar details, pair of
lancets to west and C19 rainwater head.
Tower has 2 diagonal buttresses, plinth, south 2-light
straight-headed window with sundial to right: incised inverted
semi-circle with gnomon and inscription: J 1624 L; 2-light
west window has hood stops with arms of Humphrey Stafford,
Duke of Buckingham and Ann Neville (married 1423); 2-light
triangular-headed bell openings on sill course are louvred,
hoods with stops; top cornice with gargoyles and embattled
parapet.
INTERIOR: chancel has ashlared roof trusses; south sedilia in
window recess with cusped splay arches and arm rest; north
pointed vestry entrance, encaustic tiles, and wall tiles;
chancel arch has foliate capitals and zig-zag; nave has
deep-arch-braced roof, 4-bay arcades with moulded arches on
round piers with plinths; tall C15 tower arch with brattished
capitals; corbelled arch between aisle and vestry.
FITTINGS: chancel has plain stalls and arcaded altar rail;
ashlar south pulpit has 2 quatrefoils, dog-tooth moulding and
angel corbel to book rest, timber lectern with swivel head;
square font has pier and 4 small shafts, and early Christian
style carving; 1929 timber screen to vestry arch has tracery
and brattishing; ?C11 or C12 slab built into aisle west wall
has foliate carving in triangular panels, possibly from altar
or cross.
MEMORIALS: some early C19 wall memorials from previous church,
alabaster war memorial tablet in north aisle, 1628 and 1702
poor grant tablets.
STAINED GLASS: C19 glass to windows, good east window with
groups of figures in vesicas.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Nairn J: Staffordshire:
London: 1974-: 249; Horne JS: The Story of Castle Church,
Stafford: Stafford: 1961-).

Listing NGR: SJ9058922156

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545178

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)