By the Rev. Dr. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
Although in any survey of timber-work in the old churches of England,
Essex in one sense stands out clearly first in the number and
importance of the fabrics wherein wood is more or less freely used,
in another sense Cheshire, so justly celebrated for the beauty and
frequency of its half-timbered houses, both small and great, has a
claim to the first position. One or two other counties can point to
a single old church or chapel almost entirely of timber framing, but
Cheshire is the only county which still possesses several.
By far the best known example of such Cheshire churches is that of
Nether or Lower Peover, which was formerly a chapel of the large parish
of Great Budworth. It was probably always a timber building, as it
still remains, save for a substantial western tower of stone which
dates from Elizabethan days. There was certainly a chapel there prior
to 1269, for in that year it was agreed between the prior and convent
of Norton (who held the church of Budworth and lands in Peover) and
Richard Grosvenor and other parishioners of Nether Peover, that the
priory should find them a secular chaplain to say mass in their chapel
every Sunday and Wednesday throughout the year, and on Christmas Day
and all the leading festivals, as well as on St. Oswald’s Day, in
whose honour the chapel had been founded. The parishioners were also
to have liberty of baptism in their chapel, provided they could obtain
leave from the mother church of Budworth. The parishioners were to
find books, vestments, vessels, and other ornaments of the church at
their own cost. Baptismal rights for this parochial chapelry were not,
however, gained until the year 1331, when Bishop Roger de Norbury
granted to the inhabitants of the hamlet of Peover the use of a font
(Lichfield Diocesan Registers, ii. f. 25).
In the original edition of Ormerod’s _Cheshire_ (1819) it is stated
that it appears from the register book of Peover that the tower was
built of stone in 1582, “John Bowden being then master of the work.”
It is added that “the two out-isles on either side of the chappel have
been enlarged by the parishioners in late ages.”
The present church is usually spoken of as the best example of a timber
church now extant; but this is scarcely the case, for it underwent a
vigorous restoration, accompanied by a considerable rebuilding of the
outer walls, at the hands of Mr. Salvin in 1851-52. An account of this
building, written shortly before the restoration, states that “The
church is divided from the side aisles by four wooden arches on each
side, formed by rude beams of wood springing from wooden pillars, from
which, again, spring other spars, forming an obtuse arch over the nave.
The principal part of the exterior is formed of timber and plaster,
which presents a most picturesque appearance.” Although the substantial
timber framing, stained black, with the filling-up of white plaster,
is almost entirely new, Mr. Salvin found the inner arcade work, just
described, for the most part sound, and little more was done to it than
the clearing away of several coats of whitewash. In an interesting
account of the unrestored church by Rev. W. H. Massie, written about
1850, which appeared in the first volume of the Cheshire Archæological
and Historical Society, it is stated that the mouldings of some of
the window mullions, and more especially the ogee heads of doorways,
pointed unmistakably to the erection of the timber church, as it then
stood, in the fourteenth century.
The restoration under Mr. Salvin included the removal of a western
gallery and certain eighteenth-century sash windows and brick walling
on the south side. Prior, too, to this restoration, the church was
roofed with a flat debased ceiling covering the whole of the area.
This ceiling was removed, and the church was again supplied with three
high-pitched, gabled, and open roofs, of the original existence of
which there was abundant evidence. The eastern ends of the aisles
form chapels, known of old as the Hulme and Holford Chapels, and
appropriated to the families of Shakerley of Hulme and Brooke of Mere.
Both chapels are separated from the chancel and from the rest of the
aisles by massive parclose screens of early Jacobean date.
[Illustration: Marton Church.]
Notwithstanding two somewhat severe restorations during the Victorian
period, the church of Marton, which stands out prominently close to the
roadside, with its somewhat imposing tower and spire, is certainly the
most notable of the extant timber churches of Cheshire. In this case
the exact date of much of the present fabric is known. The chapel of
St. Paul’s at Marton (for it remained a chapel of the widespread parish
of Prestbury until comparatively modern days) was founded by Sir John
Davenport in the year 1343. He endowed it with 60 acres of land, and
the chaplain was to celebrate masses for himself, his ancestors, and
his posterity. When Randle Holme visited this church in 1597, he noted
that “In the Chapell yard lyeth there two monuments (of which rough
drawings were given); it is said by ancient people that they were Sir
John Davenport and Vivian, his son, who founded the chapell of Merton,
17 Edward III., and they lie buried there, obiit 31 Edward III., 1357.”
These monuments, or rather stone effigies, have rested under the tower
since 1871. They are both much more mutilated, through their long
sojourn in the churchyard, than they were in Randle Holme’s days. It is
said, though scarcely credible, that they were ejected from the church
by ignorant Elizabethan Puritans under the supposition that the two
knights were popish images! The one on the north side, said to be Sir
John Davenport, has lost both legs, but the feet rest on a lion; the
head rests on a great helm crested with a man’s head couped. The figure
on the south side is very similar; one leg is missing. Both of them are
undoubtedly of fourteenth-century date.
The church underwent some repairs in 1804, when the old roof was
taken off and lowered. In 1850 there was a considerable and unhappy
restoration, when the old two-light wooden-framed traceried windows
of fourteenth-century date (one of them is drawn or described in Mr.
Massie’s paper just cited) were removed and plainer three-light windows
substituted. A yet more considerable restoration took place, under Mr.
Butterfield, in 1871, when the old north door was closed, the south
porch rebuilt, and much new work introduced into the outer woodwork of
the tower. Fortunately Mr. Massie’s paper on the timber churches of
the county is illustrated by drawings of the exterior and interior of
Marton church, as well as of the inner timber framework of the tower,
taken before Mr. Derrick, the architect of 1850-51, had begun his
doubtless well-intentioned but sadly destructive work. From these it
can be gathered that at that time the body of the fabric was much the
same as when originally built by Sir John Davenport.
The substantial pointed wooden entrance on the west side of the tower
basement, as well as the doorway within the south porch, appears to
be fourteenth century. In the interior there are two substantial oak
pillars on each side of the nave supporting arcades of three arches.
These pillars are octagonal, with projecting moulded capitals, and
from these capitals spring timbers forming an arch across the nave,
as at Nether Peover. The dimensions of the nave are 37 ft. 9 in. in
length, with a complete width of 33 ft. The church evidently underwent
considerable alteration and improvement in the fifteenth century,
at which time a substantial wooden tower was added at the west end,
surmounted by a broached spire. The massive timber framework to
support the belfry and spire is carried out after the same fashion as
the best of the wooden towers of Essex. It has a projecting course of
buttressing timbers to the lower stage, which is covered with lean-to
roofs. The interior measurements of the ground-plan of the tower
are 23 ft. 9 in. north and south by 17 ft. 1 in. east and west. The
outer uprights of the framework of this lower stage have an effective
quatrefoil pattern at the head of each division just below the eaves.
The last restoration was done on somewhat meagre lines, for several
of these quatrefoils and other parts of the outer timbers are of
black-painted deal. The roofing of this part is in stone slates, and
the octagonal spire is shingled.
At the time of the restoration of the church in 1871, the chancel,
which had been rebuilt in brick about 1800, was restored externally
in woodwork. The whole of the outer black-and-white framework of the
church now consists of uprights of timber, at a short distance apart,
banded together by a horizontal transom, the intervals being filled up
with plaster.
The pulpit seems to date from about 1625. The font is remarkable,
consisting of a square leaden bowl or basin, enclosed in a square frame
of oak. We suppose that this extraordinary font (which has more than
once been ignorantly added to the list of old lead fonts) can only date
from the restoration of 1871, for Sir Stephen Glynne’s notes of 1853
name the font as “a plain octagonal bowl.” There is a plain oak chest,
5 ft. 8 in. long by 1 ft. 9 in. broad and 1 ft. 10 in. high, with three
hinges and three square lock plates; its date is _circa_ 1550. At
the west end are two eighteenth-century pictures of Moses and Aaron,
painted on panels, with the Ten Commandments.
[Illustration: Siddington Church.]
A short distance to the west of Marton lies the church of All Saints,
Siddington, which was also a former chapel of Prestbury. It is usually
stated that it was erected in 1474, but this statement is merely based
on the fact that there was a bequest in that year by Robert Sydyngton
to that chapel. It is said that this church or chapel was originally
entirely of timber and plaster, which may very probably have been
the case; but at present it is only the chancel which is of that
construction, together with the south porch and the belfry or square
turret over the west end of the nave. The fabric was much restored in
1853-54, and again in 1895-96. At first sight the west front appears
to be of an elaborate black-and-white half-timbered design, but it is
in reality merely painted to produce this effect. The south porch has
a wide arched entrance of old timber, formed of three pieces, and the
inner doorway is of like construction and apparently _temp._ Henry
VII. The interior of the plastered nave walls are painted to imitate
half-timber work. The upright timbers of the chancel are about a foot
apart. The east end has an interesting projecting piece of cored
work over the three-light wooden-framed window. There is some old
screen-work, and the pulpit is dated 1633.
[Illustration: Old Warburton Church.]
At Warburton, on the northern confines of the county, close to the
great Ship Canal, stands the old church of St. Werburgh, which was
at one time entirely of timber; but there were some outer stonework
repairs done to the west end of the nave in 1645, and a brick tower
was added to the north-east of the church in 1711. The interior of the
church and chancel afford remarkable examples of timber construction.
The two bays of the nave are supported on each side by two great
timber pillars, which have bevelled edges but no capitals. There is a
space of 15 feet between them. A single high-pitch roof covers both
nave and aisles. The timber details of the chancel, with its chapel
on the north, are also somewhat exceptional, as appears in the plate
and seem to be of somewhat later date than the nave. Among other
quaint details of this interesting church, it may be mentioned that
deer-horns are attached to the nave pillars to serve as hat-pegs. The
large octagonal font is inscribed, “William Drinkwater, the Keeper,
1603”; it bears a wooden pyramidal cover, which has the date 1595 at
the apex. The altar table, altar rails, and pulpit are all Jacobean.
There is a simply-formed iron hour-glass stand near the pulpit. In the
north chapel or small aisle of the chancel is a large stone coffin,
over 7 feet long, also a much smaller one, about 3 feet long, a fine
thirteenth-century grave cover, and some other remains which were found
in the churchyard and placed here in 1819.
At Chadkirk, near Romiley, in the north-east of the county, there
is an ancient chapel of very early foundation, as its name implies,
which was doubtless at one time, as tradition has it, wholly of
timber construction. It came in 1548 into the evil hands of Edward
VI.’s commissioners, when its small endowment was confiscated to the
Crown and the building itself dismantled under the plea of being a
superstitious chantry. It was “raised out of its ruins” in 1747,
“repaired, beautified, and a loft erected” in 1761; again repaired in
1860, and finally restored in 1876, as is stated on tablets within the
walls. The nave is now of stone, after a Georgian fashion; but the
small chancel, which has brick walling on the south, has interesting
ancient oak and plaster work at the east end and on the north side,
which is at least as old as the beginning of the fifteenth century.
It remains to say a word or two as to another ancient Cheshire chapel
which up to about a century ago was described as being “wholly of
oak and plaster.” This was the chapel of High Leigh (West Hall), to
the north-west of Knutsford. This chapel was pulled down in 1814,
when a pretentious, classical substitute was erected on the site. A
peculiarity of the old chapel was that it had no bell turret, but a
single bell swung from the boughs of a great sycamore tree near its
west end. The classical chapel was destroyed by fire in 1891, and in
1893 the church of St. John’s, built on the same site, and chiefly
constructed in black-and-white half-timber, was opened for worship.
In Ormerod’s _Cheshire_, early in the last century, the church of
Baddiley is described as “standing on a small green within the same
enclosure with the barns and other domestic buildings. It consists of a
small nave and chancel, originally composed of timber. Another nave has
been recently underbuilt with brick.” The writer of these notes has not
had the opportunity of seeing this small church, but it has apparently
not changed during the century, for it is described in the _Little
Guide to Cheshire_ (1905) as consisting of “brick and timber,” whilst
in the introduction it is named as one of the half-timbered churches.
There are many traditions up and down the county as to various other
parish churches or chapels having been originally timber-framed or of
black-and-white work. In some cases these traditions are known to have
been true. Thus Goostrey church was half-timber up to 1790 (probably
from its foundation in 1230), when it was pulled down to make room for
a brick successor; and Eccleston church was half-timbered up to 1808.
[Illustration: Bruera Church, near Chester.]
In several of the southern counties many of the stone or flint churches
have timber belfries over the western gable of the nave,[5] but such a
construction seems to have never been common in Cheshire. The church
of Bruera, formerly a chapelry of St. Oswald’s, Chester, a building of
much interest, with traces of Saxon work, has a somewhat remarkable
wooden belfry at the west end; it has been restored, but the older part
of the timbers are of fourteenth-century date.
[5] Such towers are to be seen at Warndon, Dornston, Kington, and
Pirton in Worcestershire.--Editor.
There was much timber-work in the smaller parish churches of Chester in
the old days, as is shown by the pen-and-ink drawings of Randle Holme
III. in the latter part of the seventeenth century (Harl. MS. 2073).
The elaborate drawing of St. Peter’s church shows that considerable
civic building, known as the Pentice or pent-house, a great timber
lean-to on the south side, rebuilt about 1500, but extant in another
form as early as 1311; it was not pulled down until 1808. St.
Martin’s had a wooden belfry on the west gable and a timber porch on
the south side, approached by a flight of steps of the like material.
St. Olave’s had also an elaborate wooden belfry on the west gable,
which was taken down in 1693. St. Michael’s had a considerable tower
of timber at the west end, as well as a curious raised portico or room
resting on wooden pillars over the west entrance. St. Bridget’s is
shown with a timber parapet, resting on projecting beams, encircling
the base of the spire; all this was taken down in 1690.
Cheshire used to be a remarkably well-wooded county, and this is
still the case in several districts. The area occupied by woods and
plantations, according to the last woodland return of 1905, is 24,655
acres, and this takes no account of hedgerow timber or detached trees,
for which the vale of Chester is so celebrated. The two chief royal
forests of Cheshire were those of Mara and Moudrem, afterwards known
as Delamere, about the centre of the county, and Macclesfield, on the
south-east. The two parishes which have now the largest acreage of
woodland are those of Delamere, 2596, and Taxal (below Macclesfield),
1285. There was a third forest district, namely, that of the Hundred
of Wirral, that big projecting peninsula which juts out to the north
between the Mersey and the Dee. The old term forest did not, however,
imply a big wood, but simply a district reserved for royal hunting; and
Wirral Forest was singularly destitute of timber, according to the old
records, as it is at the present day. The parish of Woodchurch, not far
to the south of Birkenhead, probably obtained its name in early days
from being the only place within many miles which had a church of logs
or timber framing.