Holy Cross, Ilam

The Church of the Holy Cross stands in Ilam Park in the Peak District, a Grade I parish church of eleventh-century origin restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott, in the Diocese of Lichfield.

Overview

Neither settlement nor church appears in Domesday, though a church here is likely by the eleventh century. The south nave wall retains a blocked eleventh-century doorway; the font is Romanesque (often called twelfth-century) with figures from the life of St Bertram. The south chapel of 1618, built by the Meverells of Throwley, houses a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century altar tomb with foramina, locally the shrine of Beorhthelm of Stafford (St Bertram or Bertelin). Jesse Watts-Russell added the large octagonal north chapel in 1831 as a memorial to his father-in-law David Pike Watts, with a group by Sir Francis Chantrey. Scott’s restoration of 1855–56 inserted lancets, a north arcade and chancel arch, a saddleback to the tower, and fittings including a Skidmore rood screen. Two Anglo-Saxon cross shafts stand in the churchyard (separately listed Grade I). The church was listed Grade I on 1 February 1967 (NHLE 1038155). The parish is Ilam, in the Alstonefield, Ilam and Wetton benefice; the park is National Trust.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1038155
• Wikipedia
• Gilbert Scott archive