page_title: St Mary's Church, Astbury
section_title: Exterior
hierarchical_section_title: St Mary's Church, Astbury / Architecture / Exterior
caption_attribution_description: English: Astbury Church, near to Astbury, Cheshire, Great Britain. This was taken by myself from the bottom of the churchyard, looking north onto the main building.
context_page_description: St Mary's Church is an Anglican parish church in the village of Newbold Astbury, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and its architecture has been praised by a number of writers.
  It is possible that a church was present on the site in the Saxon era, although the earliest fabric in the church is Norman. The present ground plan was established in the 13th and 14th centuries, from which time the church's external appearance dates, apart from a major rebuilding in the later part of the 15th century, when the range of high windows or clerestory was added. All styles of English Gothic architecture, are represented in the church: Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. During the civil war, a group of Roundheads stabled their horses in the church. In the 19th century the interior of the church was restored by George Gilbert Scott; some wall paintings were revealed, and stained glass was added.
  The church has a number of special features. These include its exceptionally wide nave for a village church, and its trapezoidal shape.
context_section_description: The body of the church is constructed in yellow sandstone ashlar, and the tower in millstone grit, an unusual material for churches in Cheshire. The architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor draws attention to the crispness of the details of the stonework in the tower 500 years after it was carved, compared to the sandstone, which is prone to weathering. The roof is metal. The church incorporates elements of Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular architecture. The overall plan is that of a trapezium; the west end is 8 feet (2.4 m) wider than the east. The body of the church consists of a seven-bay nave and chancel with no structural division, and north and south aisles. The aisles are rectangular, thus the narrowing takes place entirely within the nave and chancel. The west end of the nave, between the piers (columns) of the arcades, is 40 feet (12.2 m) wide. This is exceptionally wide for a parish church, and slightly wider than the nave of Chester Cathedral. The aisles extend along the sides of the chancel, forming north and south chapels. The tower stands to the north of the west bay of the body of the church, and is joined to it by a short passage with a porch on its east side. There are also porches on the west and south sides of the church.
  The tower is in three stages and is supported by buttresses. In the lowest stage, on the west side, is a doorway in Romanesque style, on the north side is an ogee-headed lancet window. On the left of the east side is a Perpendicular-style porch. The middle stage has a two-light window on the west side, above which is a circular clock face, and on the north and east sides are lancet windows. The top stage contains a two-light louvred bell opening on each side. The parapet is plain, and projecting from it on the west side is a gargoyle. The spire is octagonal, with two tiers of lucarnes (dormer windows). The north side of the church is divided by buttresses into four bays. The second bay from the east contains a priest's door, above which is a lancet window. To the right of the door is a small trefoil-headed window. The other bays contain two-light windows with Early English tracery. Battlemented parapets run around the walls of the aisle walls and the clerestory. The clerestory has seven bays on either side, each containing a four-light Perpendicular window. At the east end are three windows. The central window, at the end of the chancel, is Perpendicular with seven lights. This is flanked by two aisle windows with plate tracery, the one to the right having four lights, and that to the left five lights.
  The southern side of the church has nine bays, again divided by buttresses. In the third bay from the west is a porch. The other bays each contain a two-light window with trefoil heads. The porch is in two storeys, with angle buttresses and a battlemented parapet with gargoyles. The lower storey contains a doorway with a pointed arch, and the upper storey has a two-light window. The doorway and window are set slightly to the west of the centre, as the east wall contains a stairway. Inside the porch are stone seats and the remains of two stoups (holy water fonts). The staircase leading to the upper storey is composed of old gravestones. On the outer wall of the upper storey is a sundial. The west end of the church is in Perpendicular style, and has five bays. At its centre is another porch, this one with three storeys. At the west front are diagonal buttresses, and in the bottom storey is a double doorway, over which is a canopied niche containing the weathered image of a saint. In the middle storey is a three-light window, in the top storey a two-light window, and at the summit is a battlemented parapet. There are windows in the north and south faces of the top stage, and on the north side is an octagonal stair turret. Inside the porch are four corbels (supporting brackets) carved with musicians. On each side of the porch is a four-light window. At the west end of the north aisle is a four-light window, and a five-light window is at the end of the south aisle.
caption: St Mary's Church from the south
exif: {}