OS grid reference SJ 663,713 Country England Website St Wilfrid's, Davenham Opened 1870 Parish Davenham | Location Davenham, Cheshire Denomination Anglican Dedication St Wilfrid Phone +44 1606 42963 | |
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Address 57 Church St, Davenham, Northwich CW9 8NF, UK Architects Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Edmund Sharpe Similar St John the Evangelist's Church, St Mary's Church - Widnes, Holy Trinity Church - Northwich, All Saints Church - Harthill, St Mark's Church - Antrobus | ||
St Wilfrid's Church is in the village of Davenham, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Middlewich.
Contents
History
A church on the site was recorded in the Domesday Book. A later church was built in the 14th century and its chancel was rebuilt in 1680 and again in 1795. The present church dates from 1842–44 when the body of the church was replaced, and the tower and spire were repaired, the architect being Edmund Sharpe of Lancaster. The nave was lengthened by one bay, heightened and widened, and galleries were inserted on three sides. The tower was damaged when it was struck by lightning on 16 July 1850. A new tower was designed by Sharpe and his partner at the time, E. G. Paley. The chancel and transepts date from 1870 by the later partners in the practice, Paley and Austin.
Exterior
The church is built in red sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. Its plan consists of a west tower, a five-bay nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a chancel with a north vestry and a south chantry chapel, and a southwest porch. The tower has an octagonal spire with three tiers of lucarnes.
Interior
In the chancel is a two-arched sedilia. The reredos contains an alabaster relief depicting The Last Supper. The monuments in the church include ones to William Tomkinson who died in 1770 by Benjamin Bromfield, to Mrs France who died in 1814 by S. and F. Franceys of Liverpool, to Mrs Harper dated 1833 by Francesco Pozzi of Florence with a relief of a mother and child, and to Frederick and Cecil France-Hayhurst who died in 1915, by Underwood. In the south aisle is a war memorial chapel designed by Sir Robert Lorimer. It contains a reredos with carvings of personifications of virtues, framed by carved friezes, and posts surmounted by angels. There are stained glass windows by David Evans of Shrewsbury dating from the early 19th century, and by J. C. Bewsey dated 1932. There is a ring of six bells. Four of these, dated 1757, 1761 (2), and 1765 are by Rudhall of Gloucester and a bell dated 1826 is by Thomas Mears II of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The sixth bell, which is undated, is by William Noone.