British Listed Buildings

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Listing Text

SK 0043-0143 CHEADLE C.P. BANK STREET (south side)

11/27 Roman Catholic Church
of St. Giies
3.1.67

GV I

Roman Catholic Church. 1841-6 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin for the Earl of Shrewsbury. Red Hollington sandstone ashlar and carved dressings; lead roofs of steep pitch with cast iron, fretted, crested ridge; verge parapets with
corbelled kneelers and crested pinnacled at apices. High Decorated style;
the plan consists of west tower and spire, nave, aisles, vestry, chapel
and chancel; the layout virtually abandons the ritual axis in favour of
capitalising on the compact urban site. Tower and steeple: square of
four tall stages set on a triple drip-moulded plinth; four-stage angle
buttresses with figures in niches to the west facing bottom stages,
string around first stage; paired, two-light, pointed, bell-chamber
openings set in deep reveals; labelled, pointed 3-light west window
set over west door; pointed with low relief carving in spandrels, deeply
moulded reveals with a band of ball flower; double doors have applique
brass rampant lions. Spire on a corbelled band, octagonal with crocketed
ridges; a rather extenuated lower section has slim diagonal pinnacles
clasped to its sides; two-light lucarnes to base and tiny'single light
placed further up. Aisles consciously divided from nave by a change in
roof pitch, both on a fleuron eaves band, lower pitch to aisles and a
tiny (unlit) clerestory band. Both aisles are of five bays on plinth
divided by bulky two-stage buttresses gableted at the head; the south
aisle has labelled, pointed 3-light windows all with different (but
authentically Decorated) tracery; the north aisle has similar 2-light
windows with a 3 light at the east side only. Both aisles have similar
gabled, single-storey porches but the detail on the south is finer with
squat two-stage diagonal buttresses, solid stone, ribbed roof, a niche
in the apex bearing an effigy of the Virgin, flanked by two low relief
medallions set over a deeply moulded pointed entrance reveal with
two bands of ball flower and crested extrados on 3 clustered pinnacles;
the interior has a ribbed vault; both aisles stop just short of the nave
to the east, their pent roofs divided by a verge parapet revert into
smaller pitched roofs clasped against chancel sides (presenting a
triptych of gables to the ritual east) to the south. There is a chapel
of two bays, similar but smaller in pace than the aisles with single-light
windows, the east has three lights; its partner on the north the vestry
breaks the line of aisle roof by an additional storey reached by an
external staircase on the west of pure medieval derivation; a triple-
shafted castellated chimney breaks the eaves on the north, set
assymetrically over a gabled single-storey projection lit by two lancets
and a trefoil in the apex; the Tudor arched vestry entrance, reached by
steps, is packed into the space between stair turret and gable; the vestry
composition almost aedicular, stands on its own, more domestic than
ecclesiastical but of exceptional balance. Chancel of approximately
two bays part screen by chapel and vestry; only marginally lower than nave;
diagonal buttresses clasp the angles; the north and south lit by small
two-light pointed windows; the east gable has three sculpture niches to
apex and alongside buttresses. Three low relief medallions lie below,
large five-light pointed east window with curvilinear tracery. Interior:
the entire interior of the church is painted from the floor up with gold, blue
and red predominating in an intensely patterned scheme. Nave of 5 bays;
octagonal columns painted in chevron pattern; pointed moulded arches, with
carved lions in spandrels; large studs on corbels carry scissor-brace
collared trusses, fretwork in apices, single purlins and large curved
windbraces; aisles have painted plaques of Life of Christ (16 in all);
purlin lean-to roofs; pointed chancel arch with Last Supper painting over;
pointed covered barrel vault to chancel; reredos depicts coronation of the
Virgin with 6 angles; sedilia and piscina with spire finials over and Easter
sepulchre to north; ogee-headed opening with poppyhead finial and pinnacles
at sides. Font octagonal on corbelled vase with fretwork spire cover
all set in an ornate brass railed enclosure. Pulpit: large and octagonal
on stand with religious scenes cut deep into panel-recesses. Screens crested
arcaded screen to chancel and brass screen to tower. Glass by Wailes.
W. G. Short: Pugin's Gem: A History of St. Giles Catholic Church, Cheadle,
Staffordshire, 1981. B.O.E., p. 97.


Listing NGR: SK0083843186

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.