page_title: William Baker of Audlem
section_title: Churches
hierarchical_section_title: William Baker of Audlem / List of architectural works / Churches
caption_attribution_description: English: St Mary's Church, Monks Lane, Acton, near Nantwich, Cheshire: view from west View from Chester Road of St Mary's Church. For the view from Monks Lane, see 700416. The 17th-century sundial in the churchyard is visible on the right; see also 700584
context_page_description: William Baker of Audlem was an architect, surveyor and building contractor, working in Shropshire and the adjacent counties in the middle years of the 18th century.
context_section_description: St Peter's Church, Congleton, Cheshire. A church here since the 15th century (The Higher Chapel). The present church was built by William Baker in 1740–1742 for £2,000.
  Stone, Staffordshire, Gothic revival 1754–1758 designed by William Robinson, Clerk to the Board of Works, who produced the first designs for Strawberry Hill for Horace Walpole
  St John's Church, Wolverhampton, 1756–1759. A very grand ashlar faced church which is based on James Gibbs' St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Built as a chapel of St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton by a private Act of Parliament in 1755. There is some uncertainty as to whom the architect was, but there is no doubt that the main contractor was William Baker, who was helped by the local builder and architect, Roger Eykyn. Traditionally the design of the church has been credited to the Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, but it could be that he supervised the construction for Baker.
  Seighford, Staffordshire. Tower and Nave rebuilt. Metal framed gothic windows. Brick pilasters with ?mock artillery slits, which also appear on the crenellations of the tower; which is surmounted by four corner pinnacles. Looks like a very early attempt to re-create German Brick Gothic
  Ellenhall, Staffordshire 1757. £1023 estimated for the repair of the Church.
  St Mary's Church, Acton, near Nantwich, Cheshire. Upper part of the tower was blown into Nave, March 1757. Sandstone. The church must have been extensively re-built and the Medieval entrance has been altered and embellished. Remarkable ornamented west gable to Chancel. Ornamentation to tower below parapet, which has ‘gun slits’ in the crenulations (cf Seigford). Four crocketed corner pinnacles with lower mid-ball pinnacles on tower. Sundial surmounted with Baker's typical ball pinnacle.
  St Chad's Church, Wybunbury, Cheshire. Tower leaning as the result of subsidence. Baker appears to have solved the problem, but the Nave and Chancel had to be demolished in 1970.
  Plans for a Kirk in Gothic style at Kenmore Perthshire 1760.
  Upper Penn church, nr Wolverhampton.1765. Baker cased the tower in brickwork. Crenulations to the parapet of tower with four crocketed corner pinnacles. Ornamented gothic tower window.
caption: Acton church (west view), Cheshire. Rebuilt by Baker 1758
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