Description

SPO5SE SALFORD PRIORS STATION ROAD
(South side)
Church of St. Matthew.
5/113
01/02/67

- I

Church. Nave and tower C12. Chancel and addition to nave C13. South aisle
enlarged c.1340. Tower heightened and enlarged either in C15, or C17: dated
1633 on south wall. Nave north wall rebuilt, porch added and restoration
c.1874. Organ chamber 1894. Lias with some limestone and limestone dressings.
Chancel and aisle coursed rubble, tower regular coursed with ashlar buttresses,
nave north wall rough ashlar with quoins. Tile roofs. Nave, chancel, south
aisle and west tower. Mid C12 Romanesque north doorway: decorated shafts, left
capital of ribbed bands, right of 2 decorated scallops. Chevron arch and
tympanum with bands of stars, scales and rossettes. C19 door. Porch with coped
gable, buttresses and hood mould. Nave has re-set windows. Three C13 lancets,
and fine 3-light Decorated window with flowing tracery. Lower, wider
chancel also has Early English lancets: one to south, 3 to north, with
small rectangular low side window below westernmost. String course below
windows, inside also, carried over 2-centred arched door as hood mould. East
wall has 3-stopped individual lancets, with irregular relieving arch of thin
voussoirs. South aisle has Decorated doorway of 2-orders and hood mould
with carved heads. Three 2-light Decorated windows, the westernmost square
headed with pierced spandrels, and C19 door below. Parapet on moulded cornice,
and 3 fine original carved gargoyles. Projecting octagonal turret rising
above roof: niche on south side has canopied head with trefoiled ogee arch and
ribbed soffit; C19 statue brought from elsewhere. Aisle west wall has tall 2-
light straight-headed Decorated blank windows with receses behind, possibly re-
set. Tower in 2 stages. First stage with clasping buttresses, Romanesque west
window with chevron arch, and 2 small C12 windows high up on north and west.
2nd stage has 2-light Perpendicular bell openings, with string courses at sill
and springing of arches. Embattled parapet and pinnacles. Interior: plastered
walls. Rere arches to all lancets. Chancel east lancets have detached shafts
with rings. Chancel has C19 panelled wagon roof with carved angels below. Late
C19 reredos and encaustic tile paving. Fine C17 wall monuments of the Clarke
family. Dame Margaret, Thomas and Walter, erected c.1631: big tablet with 18-
coats of arms and small figure. Margaret Clarke c.1640: kneeling figure in
niche. Lady Dorothea c.1669: coloured semi-reclining figure, steep pediment
and black columns. 3 other C17 wall monuments in nave, and aisle, stone coffin
lid of Sir Simon Clarke, died 1637. Early English chancel arch. Nave has wagon
roof and clerestory of 4 cusped curvilinear triangles. 4-bay arcade. 3-bays
later C12: narrow 2-centred arches with heads at apex, wide stretches of wall
between, and responds of multi-scalloped capitals. Easternmost C13 arch wider.
Aisle has lean-to roof, panelled with moulded beams on corbels, Some
fragments of carved woodwork from pulpit. Turret is noted as having newel
staircase with C14 moulded capital at top and extra shaft above. Fittings: nave
and aisle have west screens of c.1874, originally open, but with panels of good
C19 stained galss re-used and fixed behind the openings, and others set into a
glazed screen in the tower arch. C19 and C20 stained glass in many windows. The
south turret may have been a beacon to guide travellers using the ford across
the Avon. (Buildings of England). The north window is said to be ' one of the
major Decorated windows of Warwickshire.' (Buildings of England).
V.C.H. Warwickshire III pp.161-4: Buildings of England: Warwickshire pp.392-393
[Kelly's Directory ofBirmingham, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire
1884 p.851.)

Listing NGR: SP0773251000

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528378

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)