A SHORT HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S CHURCH SANDBACH, CHESHIRE JOHN MINSHULL PUBLISHED BY ST. MARY'S PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL SANDBACH, CHESHIRE FIRST PUBLISHED IN JUNE 1974 REPRINTED IN AUGUST 1978 REVISED IN JUNE 1990 © ST. MARY'S PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author acknowledges the valuable assistance given by: L. MASSEY, ARIBA, AMTPI, by way of old documents and in checking the proofs ; a large number of parishioners of long standing for information about characters and special events ; the Church Officials for putting up with continual requests for old documents and ledgers. The photographs on pages 20 and 22 were taken by R. P. Lewis, Sandbach. The artist of the etching on page 5 is unknown. Other photographs taken by the author. Any profits from the sale of this booklet, after paying printing expenses, will be passed into the Church funds. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY JOHNSONS OF NANTWICH LTD. NANTWICH, CHESHIRE. FOREWORD Dear Friends I was glad when they said to me "Let us go to the house of the Lord". So wrote the psalmist as he approached the Temple of Jerusalem almost 3000 years ago. The words express the joy and anticipation he felt as he drew near to that great building that witnessed in his day to the existence and reality of God. A Church on the site of St. Mary's has witnessed silently to the same reality of God for over 1000 years. The tower pointing majestically upwards challenges us to believe that life means more than the ordinary and often sad events of everyday. It encourages us to believe in God and his love; it challenges us to live on a higher and nobler level; it persuades us to reach out to God in living prayer and worship. Words of W.E. Gladstone come to mind, "Life is not a mean and grovelling thing which we can muddle through anyhow, but an elevated and lofty destiny." May St. Mary's witness to these realities for centuries to come. Men and women will need the Christian message of hope, joy, love and faith as long as they live on this earth. Thank you John for the book about our lovely Church - first published in 1974 and now revised in 1990. Thank you to our forebears who built, beautified, loved and worshipped in it through the centuries. Thank you to all who continue to do so today. May we and our successors continue to find joy and hope as we come to worship in the house of the Lord. Yours sincerely, DAVID STOCKER, Vicar (iii) PREFACE OUR HISTORICAL HERITAGE, through the medium of the parish church, has long been the object of interest as well as veneration. In the humblest village or the proudest city may be found the House of God representing architecture of many ages and packed with monuments of past and present glories. To the parishior.ers, the church is a hallowed shrine of their history where their ancestors were brought to be baptised, married and buried, and to the nation the parish church is a record of the country's childhood, adolescence and eventual maturity. Halls, houses and the simplest cottages disappear under the ravages of time but the parish church is repaired and enlarged over the years to be passed down the centuries. For over eight centuries a church dedicated to St. Mary has stood on the tame site to the east of the market square in Sandbach, and succeeding Church Elders have seen to it that our church was one to be proud of - one where the parishioner or the traveller may find an atmosphere of reverence and utter tranquillity and be given the opportunity to wander round the ancient walls viewing the statues, memorial carvings and plaques of a Sandbach past. To enable the latter to be undertaken with more interest this booklet has been produced, and it is hoped that it will succeed in helping the visitor appreciate the efforts of our forefathers in preserving and handing down to us a church of such varied beauty and interest. JOHN MINSHULL Manor Road, Sandbach June 1974 (iv) THE HISTORY OF ST. MARY'S THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY stands to the east of the town centre, its high square tower being visible for many miles. Surrounding the church are many fine examples of Elizabethan architecture, and below the church, two streets of these beautiful buildings lead eastwards to a stream which feeds the River Wheelock and from which it is reputed that Sandbach originally got its name - a "sandy beck" - or stream. Sandbach was originally a Saxon village in the Kingdom of Mercia. Its inhabitants were converted to the Christian Faith by four priests from Northumberland about the year 653. These priests travelled about in the manner of the Apostles, on foot, and preached in the towns and villages or wherever they came across a small group of people. Their arrival at Sandbach coincided with that of Peada, son of Penda, King of Mercia, who was returning home from a visit to Oswy, King of Northumbria. He had fallen in love with Alchfleda, Oswy's daughter and was allowed to marry her on condition that he embraced the Christian Faith. This he agreed to do and his con- jectured conversion took place on the market square and probable' baptism down at the brook. Peada is subsequently said to have financed the erection of the crosses to commemorate his conversion to Christianity, the larger obelisk picturing some of the principal events in Christ's life whilst the smaller pillar probably depicts Peada's conversion and some historical events of the period. The actual history of the village, however, commences with the Norman Conquest. William the Conquerer appointed commissioners to categorise all towns and villages in England and so the Domesday Survey of about 1086 was undertaken. All was written in Latin of course, beautifully neat and little larger than the size print you are reading now and the two entries for Sandbach under the Middlewich Hundred, when translated, read : (a) The Earl (of Chester) himself holds Sanbec for 2 virgates and a half, rateable according to the gelt-tax. (b) The same Bygot holds Sandbacd. Dunning held it, a Freeman. There is one hide rateable by the gelt-tax and a virgate and a half similarly rateable. The land measures two carucates. There is a foreigner with half a carucate, and 3 serfs, and there are 2 villiens with half a carucate. There is a priest and a church ; also a wood half a league - 1+ miles - long and 40 perches broad. In the time of King Edward (the Confessor) it was valued at 4s. The first paragraph probably means that the Earl of Chester provided two vicarages with fixed stipends and had half shares in another somewhere else. Of the priest and his church we have no further information, the earliest record of a priest by name being Steinulf, who was presented to the church by Randle, Earl of Chester, and who died in 1128. THE FIRST CHURCH There is evidence of a stone church in Sandbach since 1200, before which a timber and thatch building would probably have existed, this being preceded by open air meetings around the Saxon Crosses in the market square. This stone church would probably have been of the two-section (nave and sanctuary) or three-section (nave, chancel and sanctuary) type, being Norman in style. The accent would have been on dignity and simplicity, with tall narrow windows ad- mitting comparatively little light. We have little factual evidence of this thirteenth century church although some remains are incorp- orated in the present building, about which more later. During the fourteenth century it might be presumed that ex- tensions would have been carried out entailing north and south aisle extension, the addition of sacristy, the reroofing with clerestory windows and the tower being increased in height to receive a peal of four bells. The church was rebuilt during the early part of the reign of King Henry VII (about 1490) which would have given us a roomy, light and serviceable building typical of the intention of church architects throughout the Middle Ages. An interesting aside at this point: when the old church was demolished to make way for this building, re- mains of a very early church were uncovered, which all goes to substantiate the little knowledge that we have. For the only sorrow is the lack of real evidence or documentation of all these advances - 2 we can only surmise in most cases and visualise the growth as this was the general pattern of the period. The earliest description we have of St. Mary's appears in Ormerod's "History of Cheshire" 1817 edition. The church was then described as having : .. a handsome tower, nave, chancel and side aisles which terminate in two smaller chancels belonging to the Manor of Wheelock and the Hall of Bradwall, the whole is built of red (sand) stone, and handsomely finished in the obtusely pointed style (late perpendicular). The nave and side aisles have richly carved roofs of oak, erected in 1661". Following this description dated 1817, we are fortunate in being able to trace most future developments with the aid of the Church- wardens' Minute Book which records items of importance from 1818 onwards. For instance, a town meeting passed a resolution in the October of 1828 to instal a stove or stoves in the church "for the purpose of airing the same, with proper pipes and upon the best principle that can be obtained".