Description

SK 0043-0143
11/27

CHEADLE C.P.
BANK STREET (south side)
Roman Catholic Church of St. Giles

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 three-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 three-light windows all with different (but authentically Decorated) tracery; the north aisle has similar two-light windows with a three 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 three 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 five 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 six 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.

Listing NGR: SK0083843186

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St. Giles' Catholic Church, Cheadle at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7588254

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: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)