Description

SK11SW
1094-1/1/250

LICHFIELD
Stowe
ST CHAD'S ROAD (north side)
Church of St Chad

(Formerly Listed as: STOWE HILL Church of St Chad)

05/02/52

GV
II*
Church. C12, C13 arcades and alterations to gabled south aisle, late C13 tower and east window, 1660s clerestory, 1840 lean-to north aisle, and 1862 porch, chancel roof and vestry. Ashlar with brick clerestory; tile roofs, slate aisle roofs. Plain plinth and coped gables.

PLAN: three bay chancel and five bay nave with aisles; west tower.

EXTERIOR: chancel has offset angle buttresses, gable cross; five-light east window has intersecting tracery; south side has C19 ball flower cornice and two offset buttresses between three-light window with Perpendicular tracery, single-chamfered lancet with hood and two-light window with Decorated tracery; north side similar, gabled vestry with fishscale tiles, quatrefoil above two-light east window and gable cross, diagonal buttress and plain north door. Clerestory, originally continued over chancel, has ashlar cornice and coping to parapet; two-light Y-tracery windows.

North aisle has offset and diagonal buttresses, cornice with heads; two-light windows with Decorated tracery and three-light west window over basement entrance; north door with continuous moulding. South aisle has offset buttress and angle buttresses, cornice and embattled parapet; two-light windows with Y-tracery and signs of original C12 round-headed windows and their gables; three-light east and west windows; gabled porch has diagonal buttresses and entrance of one order, small ogee-headed niche above has statue of St Chad, three-panel door with rail, old fittings and studs; inner entrance of three orders has boldly cusped moulded arch.

Tower has offset angle buttresses, south east turret rising higher than tower; three-light west window with flowing tracery and hood; two-light bell-openings with single-light openings on sill courses above, all louvred; cornice and embattled parapet, rich scrolled wrought-iron wind vane dated 1886.

INTERIOR: chancel has arch-braced collar roof and collar purlin, chancel arch has half-octagonal responds with foliate capitals and hood with head stops; nave has arcades with double-chamfered arches on piers with simple capitals, hexagonal to south, octagonal to north; plaster groin vault on corbels; triple-chamfered tower arch with blocked C12 window above; south aisle has flat timber ceiling.

Fittings: chancel has C19 ogee-headed over linen-fold panelling; altar with three figures in arches on paired columns with cherubs over; reredos has high relief of the Good Shepherd with ogee arches and brattishing to cornice; C17 altar rail has turned balusters and strapwork panels with friezes of scrolls and grapes; plain stalls with tracery panels; nave has pulpit sunk into floor with canted angles and tracery and linen-fold panels; tower arch has screen with reliefs and statue of St Chad; north aisle has organ and vestry to east end; south aisle has C15 font with panelled stem and shields in quatrefoils.

Memorials: many good C18 and C19 wall tablets; chancel north monument to John and Mary Alden, d.1655 and 1664, panel divided by armorial bearing, Doric columns and broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron and pendants; south side has monument to Elizabeth and Michael Biddulph, d.1657, slate panel with scrolled sides and broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron with skull and swags; also monuments to Lucy Porter, d.1786, Samuel Johnson's step-daughter and Catherine Chambers, d.1767, the Johnson family servant, erected 1910. South aisle has monument in form of cartouche with cherubs, armorial bearing and drops, T Hinton, d.1757, in form of apron panel;1654 painted charity board.

Stained glass: good east window by two different hands, central lights possibly Clayton and Bell; some Arts and Crafts glass to south aisle and other C19 and C20 stained glass.

The church marks the site of burial of St Chad, Bishop of Lichfield 669-672.

(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974, p.190; St Chad's Church Lichfield: Lichfield: 1972; Victoria History of the County of Stafford: Greenslade M W: Lichfield: Oxford: 1990: p.143-47).

Listing NGR: SK1220410209

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Chad, Lichfield at Wikipedia
• Church of St Chad, Lichfield official website
• Wikidata Q3791309

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House