Description

DAVENHAM C.P. CHURCH STREET
SJ 67 SE
2/26 Church of St Wilfred
3.1.67
G.V. II*
Church. 1844-1870. Edmund Sharpe (probably in conjunction with
E.G.Paley). Red sandstone ashlar with slate roof. Gothic. West tower.
Nave with aisles and transepts. Chancel. South western porch and North
eastern vestry. South eastern chantry chapel. Tower (of 1844):
western front has angle buttresses and moulded plinth. Central double
doors in pointed arch with moulded surround and hood mould with
figurehead label stops and keystone with winged angel in high relief.
String course above rising to accommodate arch. Further string course
above immediately below sill of four-light traceried window with
cusped lights and 3 quatrefoils. Later circular painted clock face
above this with string courses above and below. Two-light louvred
traceried belfry opening above. Plain parapet above this with two
animal gargoyles. Octagonal spire above set back with three tiers of
lucarnes to the North, South, East and West faces. South face has a
semi-octagonal staircase turret at left in place of angle buttress.
Store room before lower stage having two 2-light cusped windows with
trefoils at apexes, hood moulds with label stops, gables above
wrought-iron open clock face set over window with shallow 2-centred
arch and flamboyant tracery. Two-light belfry opening and parapet
with gargoyles as at west. North face. Lean-to outshut to lower wall
with double door at left and single door to right. Shallow-arched
window above with flamboyant tracery as to south face although without
clock face. Belfry opening, parapet and gargoyles as on other fronts.
Nave: South face, 5 bays with gabled later C19 porch at left having
moulded arch and hood mould with label stops. Two-light unglazed
windows to side walls of porch, cusped and with trefoils to apexes.
To right of the porch are two aisle windows each of 3 cusped lights
with cusped trefoils above and with buttresses between. Transept to
right of this with two similar windows with buttress between and rose
window to gable with glass at summit. Two-light windows to right and
left hand transept reveals. Clerestory windows each of two lights
with trefoils over and plain parapet with moulded chamfered coping.
North front is similar save for absence of porch. Chancel: South
front: three bays of 3-light traceried windows. Its right hand
(eastern) return has a door and two-light traceried window. Three and
2-light chancel windows to left and right respectively with buttresses
between and at angles North face similar save for vestry in re-entrant
angle between chancel and transept being of two heights. Two-light
northern window with gable over. Eastern front: left hand earlier
portion has 2-light window at left at mezzanine level with door to
right and 2-flue chimney stack to right hand gable. Lower portion
flush with this to right and having two-light window. East end:
five-light traceried window to centre with cusped lights, hood mould
and label stops. Cross to apex.
Interior: Vaulted ceiling to tower which has three deeply chamfered
reveals and is uninterrupted from its base to apex. Nave arcade of
hexagonal shafts with moulded bases and capitals. Ovolo mouldings to
arches with fillet to centre of intrados. Hood moulds over with
shared label stops carved as angels bearing musical instruments or
praying. Clerestory windows have pillars to sides. Nave roof trusses
of alternating arched braces and trusses formed of arched braces
rising to a thin, turned tie beam supporting further arched braces.
Boarded roof beyond. The transepts have similar roofs. Moulded
chancel arch with colonettes and moulded vine-trail decoration. Two
arched sedilia to Eastern end of right hand wall connecting with blind
arcade to Eastern wall of 6 arches, three to either side of the
projecting reredos which contains an alabaster relief of the Last
Supper. Boarded ceiling. Stained glass of c.1870. War memorial in
South nave aisle by Sir Robert Lorimer of C.1919 has tall
spiral-moulded wooden corner posts carrying figures of praying angels.
Low Screens dividing the memorial from the aisle seating with
linen-fold moulding and open vine-trail moulding to top. Alabaster
tablet to southern wall inscribed with the names of the dead below
which are six panels, the central two glazed and containing a book of
remembrance, the two on either side holding relief carvings of figures
of COURAGE, GENTLENESS, CHARITY and JUSTICE under moulded ogee
canopies.
Source: Nikolaus Pevsner and Edward Hubbard - The Buildings of
England, Cheshire.

Listing NGR: SJ6632371249

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 20 March 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Wilfrid's Church, Davenham at Wikipedia
• St Wilfrid's Church, Davenham official website
• Wikidata Q7595641

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)