St Mary, Nether Alderley

St Mary is a Grade I parish church on Church Lane, Nether Alderley, Cheshire, in the Diocese of Chester. Historic England records a fourteenth-century core, an early sixteenth-century tower, early seventeenth-century additions, a chancel of 1856 by Cuffley and Starkey, a vestry dated 1860, and a general restoration of 1877–78 by Austin and Paley.

Overview

The listing describes ashlar buff and red sandstone with Kerridge stone-slate roofs: a four-bay nave and aisles, a three-bay Decorated chancel, a massive four-stage tower and a south porch with crocketed pinnacles. The two-storey Stanley pew on the south aisle is reached by an external flight of stone steps and has rectangular windows of five round-headed lights. A Jacobean dormer on the north aisle is thought to have lit a three-decker pulpit. The tower has diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet and gargoyles.

The original dedication is recorded as St Lawrence, later changed to St Mary. The Stanley family of Alderley were principal patrons; their pew is often compared to a gallery box. The churchyard includes a medieval cross, a seventeenth-century former schoolhouse and the Stanley Mausoleum. Parish accounts note a long-lived yew in the churchyard.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1138849
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary
• Alderley Church