Gentleshaw
| Gentleshaw | |
| Staffordshire | |
|---|---|
 Christ Church, Gentleshaw | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK051119 |
| Location: | 52°42’18"N, 1°55’32"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | WS15 |
| Local Government | |
Gentleshaw is a hamlet in Staffordshire, located about midway between Cannock and Lichfield, and about a mile north of Burntwood.
Small as it is, it has a parish church and a primary school, but its population is less than 100.
Gentleshaw Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the south-west side of the church, and forms the south westerly part of Cannock Chase 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'.
The Beacon Way footpath runs through the village and the common.
Parish church
The parish church, Christ Church, stands in the heart of the village. It is an unusual building, created over many generations in a variety of styles, each according to the taste of the each succeeding vicar who planned its expansion. The original building was a small, red brick chapel, built as a chapel-of-ease within the Parish of Longdon, serving Gentleshaw, Cannock Wood and the residents and staff of the Beaudesert Estate. A new church was built when Gentleshaw was elevated to becaome a parish in its own right, consecrated in 1837. The gallery at the west end of the church (which once contained a clock from which vicars timed their sermons), supported by four ornate iron posts, is part of the 1937 church. In the late 1850s the crenelated tower was added, though its bell is older; it hung in the old belfry. A major extension was built in 1877, with a vestry and a five sided apsidal chancel with three stained glass windows.[1] A new vicar appointed in 1901 expanded the chancel to accommodate a large choir, in accordance with his own Welsh tradition, and the generosity of gifts from the fund-raising provided more than this, which continued during later years to produce the church seen today, organically grown.
Picturesc
Gentleshaw Common information board
Gentleshaw Church
Gentleshaw school
Gentleshaw Church
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Gentleshaw) |
