St Mary's Church, Lymm

St Mary's Church, Lymm

St Mary's Church, Lymm, from the south
St Mary's Church, Lymm
Location in Cheshire
Coordinates: 53°22′38″N 2°28′42″W / 53.3771°N 2.4784°W / 53.3771; -2.4784
OS grid reference SJ 683 868
Location Lymm, Cheshire
Country England
Denomination Anglican
Website St Mary's Lymm
Architecture
Status Parish church
Functional status Active
Heritage designation Grade II
Designated 24 January 1950
Architect(s) John Dobson,
John Douglas
J. S. Crowther
Architectural type Church
Style Gothic Revival
Completed 1890
Specifications
Materials Buff sandstone
Administration
Parish Lymm
Deanery Great Budworth
Archdeaconry Chester
Diocese Chester
Province York
Clergy
Rector Rev Keith Maudsley
Laity
Reader(s) Ian Bundey,
Derek Buckthorpe,
Heulwen Smith
Churchwarden(s) Liz France,
George (Mark) Bainton
Parish administrator Carol Roberts

St Mary's Church is in the village of Lymm, Cheshire, England, standing on a bank overlooking Lymm Dam. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[1] It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Great Budworth.[2]

History

The Domesday Book shows that a church was on the site in the 11th century. Since then it has been rebuilt a number of times.[3] The present church was built in 1850–52 to a design by John Dobson of Newcastle.[1] The nave and aisles from an older church dating from the 15th century were blown up with gunpowder prior to the rebuilding.[4] Alterations and additions were made to the church in 1870–72 by the Chester architect John Douglas, including an organ chamber and the reredos.[5] The tower was replaced in 1888–90 by J. S. Crowther.[1]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in buff sandstone. Its plan consists of a west tower, a five-bay nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a north porch, transepts, a chancel, and a vestry. The tower is in three stages with diagonal buttresses and an embattled top. Its west window is in Perpendicular style, and the bell-openings are paired with panel tracery.[1]

Interior

The chancel has a panelled ceiling, and the transepts contain galleries.[1] The plain pulpit is dated 1623. The stone sedilia and piscina are in Decorated style, date from 1871–72, and were designed by John Douglas. The font is octagonal and dates probably from the 1660s. The church contains an ogee-headed tomb recess dating from about 1322 that has been moved from the older church. It contains a "supposed" Roman altar. On the walls are two sgraffiti, one in the south aisle dated 1883, and the other in the north aisle, dated 1906. The stained glass in the west window is dated 1853, and is possibly by David Evans; the glass in the east window is from 1865. Three windows in the south aisle, dated 1851, are by Wailes. One window in the north aisle, dating from 1897 is by Kempe, and another, dating from about 1899, is probably by Shrigley and Hunt.[6]

Memorials in the church include one to John Leigh, of Oughtrington Hall, who died in 1806, and his wife who died in 1819, and two tablets by E. H. Baily in the south transept to members of the Fox family who died between 1830 and 1845.[6] There is also a wooden memorial to William Domvylle (of Lymm Hall) who died in 1686. Lymm's parish registers, now housed at Cheshire Record Office, provide records of the inhabitants of Lymm since the Reformation, including notable local families such as the Booths. Also in the church are 18th-century hatchments, and two churchwardens' staves dating from the early 19th century.[7] The previous pipe organ was built in 1858 by Forster and Andrews, and rebuilt in 1944 by Jardine.[8] The present electronic organ, built by the local organ-builder Hugh Banton, was installed in 2005.[9] There is a ring of eight bells which were cast in 1891 by John Taylor and Company.[10]

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of twelve service personnel, nine of World War I and three of World War II.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Historic England, "Church of St Mary the Virgin, Lymm (1226650)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 5 August 2012
  2. ↑ St Mary the Virgin, Lymm, Church of England, retrieved 13 January 2011
  3. ↑ History of Lymm Dam: St Mary's Church, Warrington Borough Council, retrieved 18 January 2008
  4. ↑ Salter, Mark (1995), The Old Parish Churches of Cheshire, Malvern: Folly Publications, p. 45, ISBN 1-871731-23-2
  5. ↑ Hubbard, Edward (1991), The Work of John Douglas, London: The Victorian Society, pp. 242–243, ISBN 0-901657-16-6
  6. 1 2 Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 447, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
  7. ↑ Morant, Roland W. (1989), Cheshire Churches, Birkenhead: Countyvise, p. 148, ISBN 0-907768-18-0
  8. ↑ Lymm St. Mary, British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 14 August 2008
  9. ↑ Kingsnorth, Stephen (28 April 2005), "By the Rev. Stephen Kingsnorth", Knutsford Guardian
  10. ↑ Lymm S Mary, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, retrieved 14 August 2008
  11. ↑ LYMM (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 3 February 2013
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