St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury
| St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury | |
|
Shrewsbury, Shropshire | |
|---|---|
 St Chad's Church from The Quarry | |
| Church of England | |
| Diocese of Lichfield | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SJ48811246 |
| Location: | 52°42’27"N, 2°45’33"W |
| Address: | St Chad's Terrace |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Website: | stchadschurchshrewsbury.com |
St Chad's Church is a remarkable round church in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire.
The church is of ancient foundation, but the church of today is Georgian. The first St Chad's church here is traditionally understood to be founded in Anglo-Saxon times, by King Offa of the Mercians,[1] though it is possible it has an earlier foundation even than that: today's Shrewsbury may have been ancient Pengwern, once capital of the Kingdom of Powys and so it has been asserted that King Offa built the original church within the king's precincts, established in 500s AD.[2]
Today's St Chad's however is not on the ancient site: the earlier church was on College Hill, while today's church was built in 1792.
The distinctive round shape and high tower of the new building is a well-known landmark in the town, near The Quarry, and area of parkland. The church is a Grade I listed building.[3]
Charles Darwin was baptised in St Chad's church in 1809, and as a young boy attended the church with his mother Susannah.[4]
History
Old St Chads on the earlier site
The present building replaced an earlier church, dedicated to St Chad, situated near College Hill.
It was already possessed of a large endowment and was ancient institution at the time of the Domesday Book.[5] The ancient parish included the greater part of Shrewsbury within the walls, and it had a number of manors in Shropshire.
Mediæval Welsh literary evidence suggests that the Bishops of Lichfield may have obtained possession of the endowments of a Celtic church at Shrewsbury. The earliest piece of Welsh evidence for this is the Lament for Cynddylan incorporated in the poems of Llywarch Hen, which date in their written form to c. 850. Historia Monacellae identifies Pengwern with Shrewsbury, puts the palace of Brochwel Ysgithrog, Prince of Powys, on the site of the College of St. Chad, and records a tradition that Brochwel granted his estates to pious uses.[5] Another Welsh source attributes the foundation of the church of Pengwern to Brochwel's son Tysilio'[6]
The collegiate establishment of St. Chad consisted of a dean, ten secular canons, and two vicars choral, and was founded soon after the subjugation of Pengwern, in the 8th century, by King Offa; tradition states that he converted the palace of the kings of Powys into his first church.[7] It is not improbable that the precinct originally extended as far west as Swan Hill, and include College Court on College Hill.[8]
A crypt or baptistry is partly exposed within the site, which was excavated in 1889. The reports from that time say this work was "undoubtedly Saxon...[placing reliance upon among other things] the slender pillars were worked with the axe; and... other things peculiar to early Saxon work";[9] there are remaining pillar bases in the floor.[10] The current Historic Environment Record for this scheduled feature says it is "[c]urrently in a disgraceful condition".[11]
Remains of the college of St Chad can be traced in the land adjoining the south-western extremity of the church on the old site with portions of the wall tracible to a considerable distance in the neighbouring gardens).[7] It is possible that, in Clive House, in the drawing room an alcove with an inset oak frameworks remains of the buttery of St Chad's College and is in situ. More structural fabric may remain in small section of mediæval worked and coursed sandstone towards the south east end of the east wall of No 1 College Court, and the remains of at least three timber buildings have been identified within No 3 College Court [12]
There was a "Great Fire of Shrewsbury" in 1394 and the St Chad's Church building extant at that time was consumed in that event; the damage was so considerable that Richard II remitted the town's taxes for three years towards the repairs.[7]
In 1407, William Thorpe, a priest, came to the town and at St. Chad's church condemned important tenets of the Catholic Church. Thorpe was in consequence thrown into prison. He was later taken to Lambeth Palace, and subsequently complained about by "the bailives and worshipful cominalte". He admitted the charges laid against him. What happened to him then is not recorded.[7]
King Henry VII visited Shrewsbury in 1490, and observed the feast of St George in the collegiate church of St. Chad, along with his queen and Prince Arthur.[13] The party:
proceeding from the Guild Hall with a great company was stalled upon the right side of the chancel near unto the Queen's Majesty's place prepared in the choir[14]
The college was closed by the dissolutions.[15]
In 1581, Sir Henry Sidney, celebrated the feast of St George, in Old St Chads on April 23, with great splendour: a solemn procession went from the Council House to St. Chad’s Church, the choir of which was fitted up in imitation of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and the stalls decorated with the arms of the Knights of the Garter.[7]
The lost building contained the monument to John Weaver, 'father of pantomime'.[16] It also had a peal of ten bells, and on the south was the church-yard, which owing to the " accumulated remains of successive generations, during more than eleven centuries, had been raised to the level of the window sills," making the Church damp. This crypt was the oldest portion of the building, with he lower portion of the walls rudely built and possibly dating from the 9th century. By tradition, the Jesse window that is now in St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury was put in Old St Chad’s at the dissolution, having been allegedly made for the Franciscan church in Shrewsbury.[17]
The building on the previous site was largely destroyed when the central tower collapsed in 1788, what existed of the building when this collapse happened was a largely 13th-century building. All that remains of the earlier building is a side chapel surrounded by a disused churchyard which also contains an exposed crypt.
The current church building
George Steuart was commissioned to build a new church. He submitted four design proposals, three of which followed a circular plan.[18] Round or oval churches were briefly in vogue during the latter decades of the 18th century, due to the influence of French neo-classicism.[19] Steuart "strenuously recommended" one of his round designs in particular, but the local planning committee insisted on an oblong church.[18]
This having been decided, the committee's next task was to find a site for the new church, and Steuart was asked to provide a sketch of his design to help fix the location. He provided a sketch of a round church, a fact which went unnoticed or unmentioned by the committee. After a site had been chosen in The Quarry, Steuart submitted his working drawings, which also exhibited a round design. When the committee objected, he told them that he had assumed from their silence that they approved of the plan, and that he required to be paid for the work done before he would submit a new set of drawings. By this time, the planning process had been so hampered by argument and delay that the committee thought it preferable to simply go ahead with the round design.[18][20]
The foundation stone was laid on St Chad's day, 2 March 1790.[20] The church was built of white Grinshill stone.[21] The building work was supervised by John Simpson (who later worked on several projects with Thomas Telford, including the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct). Internally, the gallery was supported by slender cast iron pillars, an early example of cast iron used for this purpose; they were made by William Hazledine, a pioneering ironmaster who had a foundry in Shrewsbury.[22] (There are memorials to Simpson and Hazledine on either side of the sanctuary arch of the church.)[20]
The sanctuary window is a copy in stained glass of a triptych by Rubens in Antwerp Cathedral;[20] it was made in the 1840s by David Evans, a local stained glass artist. The original pulpit, which obscured the altar, was removed in 1888; it was replaced by a copper and brass pulpit in Arts and Crafts style, placed to one side and giving a clearer view of the Sanctuary.
The entrance hall has many memorials relating to the 53rd Regiment of Foot, and its successor regiment the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.
After the First World War, the church's main sanctuary was refitted with a light oak reredos, designed by Cecil Lightwood Hare, new altar and wainscot as a memorial to the parish fallen of the war, repainted in gold leaf and cobalt in 1951.[23]
Churchyard
Still present in the now-disused churchyard is the headstone prop of Ebenezer Scrooge (played by George C. Scott) that was used in the 1984 film A Christmas Carol for the scene where Scrooge finds his own grave.[24] According to the Shrewsbury Town Crier, Martin Wood, the headstone is not a "prop" but an actual period headstone, on which the original inscription had deteriorated to the point that the production team asked the church if they could use it and inscribe the "Ebenezer Scrooge" words on it. Some of the original inscription can still be seen on the bottom part of the stone. Among those actually buried in the churchyard was Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock, Sr.[25]
Outside links
References
- ↑ https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/ChildrensTrailSHREWSBURYStChad%28TheArtsSociety%29.pdf
- ↑ "Montgomeryshire collections relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders. | Vol. 82 | 1994 | Welsh Journals - The National Library of Wales" (in en). https://journals.library.wales/view/1264487/1271085/33.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1344941: St Chad's Terrace, Church of St Chad (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Historic England Research Records: Church of St Chad". https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=ced95ff4-a96b-4f5e-98b1-2e28394a7f5e&resourceID=19191.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A History of the County of Shropshire - Volume 2 pp 114-123: Colleges of secular canons: Shrewsbury (Victoria County History)
- ↑ "Lives of the British Saints by Baring Gould - AbeBooks" (in en-GB). https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/lives-of-the-british-saints/author/baring-gould/.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Leighton, W. A. (William Allport) (1850). "A guide, descriptive and historical, through the Town of Shrewsbury" (in en). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62688/pg62688-images.html.utf8. Template:PD-notice
- ↑ A History of the County of Shropshire - Volume 2 pp 114-123#fnn18: Colleges of secular canons: Shrewsbury (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Fletcher, W G D: 'The Excavations at St. Chad's, Shrewsbury' (The Antiquary, Volume 21 - April 1890, page 184
- ↑ Stuff, Good. "Remains of the crypt or undercroft to the Old Church of St Chad, Shrewsbury, Shropshire". https://ancientmonuments.uk/101965-remains-of-the-crypt-or-undercroft-to-the-old-church-of-st-chad-shrewsbury.
- ↑ "Heritage Gateway - Results". https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MSA4796&resourceID=1015.
- ↑ "Heritage Gateway - Results". https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MSA1169&resourceID=1015.
- ↑ "Memorials of Shrewsbury, by Henry Pidgeon". https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62621/62621-h/62621-h.htm.
- ↑ "Memorials of Shrewsbury, by Henry Pidgeon". https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62621/62621-h/62621-h.htm.
- ↑ Fisher, George William; Hill, John Spencer (1899). Annals of Shrewsbury School. University of California Libraries. London : Methuen. http://archive.org/details/annalsofshrewsbu00fishrich.
- ↑ "Dance Showcase" (in en-GB). https://originalshrewsbury.co.uk/events/dance-showcase.
- ↑ "StChadsPart1". https://www.melocki.org.uk/salop/StChadShrewsburyPart1.html.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Owen, Hugh (1825). A History of Shrewsbury. 2. Harding, Lepard and Co. pp. 248–250. https://archive.org/details/historyofshrewsb02owen/page/248/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater.
- ↑ Cruickshank, Dan (1985). A Guide to the Georgian Buildings of Britain & Ireland. Rizzoli International Publications. p. 118. ISBN 0-8478-0669-3. https://archive.org/details/guidetogeorgianb0000crui/page/118/mode/1up?view=theater.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 "Official website: History of St Chad's with St Mary's, Shrewsbury". http://www.stchadschurchshrewsbury.com/building-for-the-future/history/.
- ↑ Watkin, David (23 September 2004). "Steuart, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38500?rskey=Vn5N6K.
- ↑ "Graces Guide to British Industrial History: William Hazledine". http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Hazledine.
- ↑ Shropshire War Memorials, Sites of Remembrance. pp. 190–191.
- ↑ Famous Grave Tour - no.4 : YouTube
- ↑ "The Late Edward Haycock, Esq.". Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal: p. 5. 28 December 1870.Obituary of Haycock.