Description

ELLESMERE RURAL C.P. DUDLESTON
SJ 33 NW
3/110 Church of St Mary
-
27.5.53
GV II
Chapel-of-ease, now parish church. Medieval fabric enlarged 1819,
chancel rebuilt 1877 and whole extensively restored 1884-90. Uncoursed
sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings; machine tile roofs with coped
verges (several stepped) and ornamental cresting. Nave; south aisle
and transept; north aisle and transept; west tower; chancel and north
vestry/organ chamber. Tower. 1819 in 2 stages with diagonal buttresses
to bottom stage at north-west and south-west corners. 4-centred 3-light
window with spheric triangles to heads to first stage on west above 4-centred
doorway with label. Octagonal top stage, rendered to resemble ashlar,
has trefoil-headed rectangular louvred openings to cardinal faces. 4
slender buttresses with crocketed finials. Moulded cornice and embattled
parapet with pyramidal slate cap surmounted by ball finial with weathervane.
South aisle. Buttressed in 4 bays has 3 square-headed Perpendicular-
style 2-light windows of 1819 to west bays and square-headed doorway with
4-centred arch to narrower east bay. Perpendicular-style 2-light window
of 1819 with 4-centred head to west wall and identical window to south wall
of transept. This is earlier than aisle, with alternating angle quoins,
but of uncertain date. North aisle and transept: identical fenestration
to south and transept again earlier than aisle. Chancel. 1877 in
memory of Georgiana Fleming Morall incorporating earlier short sanctuary
(see straight joint on south side). South side has paired cusped lancets
with elongated quatrefoil above. Stepped cill band and chamfered plinth
continued to east wall, which has stepped angle buttresses and pointed
window of 3 broad cinquefoil-headed lights with trefoils flanking head of
centre light. Head-stops to hoodmould and foliated cross to gable.
North side has paired cusped lancets with quatrefoil above. Organ chamber
has square-headed 2-light cusped window to east wall: vestry, projecting
at right-angles, has 4-centred window with 2 cusped lights and spheric
triangle above; doorway in west wall. Interior. Principal feature is
late C15 arch-braced collar beam roof in 6 bays to nave with cusped struts,
to cusped principal rafters forming quatrefoil and trefoil patterns; 2
tiers of purlins and cusped windbraces. 5-bay nave arcades of 1888 have
octagonal piers with pointed double-chamfered arches. Pointed doorway
with 4-centred window above in infilled narrow segmental-headed arch
also late C19. Late C19 pointed chancel arch with contemporary low stone
screen and scissor-braced roof. Late C19 piscina and sedile and pointed
single-chamfered doorway from north transept to vestry. Fittings and
furnishings including benches, choir stalls, encaustic tiles in chancel
and pulpit made up from Jacobean panelling, all late C19 except panelled
octagonal font (1826) and medieval oak dug-out chest at west end of nave.
Stained glass: painted armorial glass of 1819 in window above doorway
to tower and mixed with early C20 glass in aisles and transepts. East
window (1894) by Kempe in memory of Cicely Caroline Mary Chapman (died
1893). Monuments. Late C18 and early C19 wall tablets and memorials
to local families in chancel and aisle and 2 small brass plates of 1756
and 1763 on east wall of south transept. Late C18 hatchment on south wall
of south transept and late C18 royal coat-of-arms over west doorway. Early
C19 benefactors' boards in tower. Dudleston was formerly a dependent chapelry
of Ellesmere. B.O.E. p. 123; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire,
Part 9 (1908), pp. 783-4; appendix, p. 990.

Listing NGR: SJ3460438432

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26471047

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

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)