St Mary's Church, Lymm facts for kids

Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Lymm
St Mary's Church, Lymm, from the south
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OS grid reference	SJ 683 868
Location	Lymm, Borough of Warrington, Cheshire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St Mary's Lymm
History
Status	Parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	24 January 1950
Architect(s)	John Dobson, John Douglas J. S. Crowther
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1890
Specifications
Materials	Buff sandstone
Administration
Parish	Lymm
Deanery	Great Budworth
Archdeaconry	Chester
Diocese	Chester
Province	York

St Mary's Church is a Church of England church in Lymm, Warrington, Cheshire, England. It stands on a hill overlooking Lymm Dam. This church is a Grade II Listed building, which means it's an important historic building. It is still an active church today.

History of St Mary's Church

A church has stood on this spot since the 11th century, as recorded in the Domesday Book. Over the years, it has been rebuilt many times. The church you see today was mainly built between 1850 and 1852. John Dobson, an architect from Newcastle, designed it. Before this, parts of the older 15th-century church were carefully taken down to make way for the new building.

Later, between 1870 and 1872, John Douglas from Chester made some changes and added new parts. These included a special room for the organ and a decorative screen behind the altar called a reredos. The church tower was also replaced between 1888 and 1890 by J. S. Crowther.

Church Design and Features

Outside the Church

The church is built from a light brown stone called buff sandstone. It has a tall tower on the west side. The main part of the church, called the nave, has five sections and windows high up to let in light (a clerestory). There are also side sections called aisles on the north and south.

You'll find a porch on the north side, and two side wings called transepts. At the east end is the chancel, where the altar is, and a vestry, which is a room for the clergy. The tower has three levels with strong supports called buttresses and a decorative top that looks like castle walls. Its west window has a design called Perpendicular Gothic, and the bell openings are in pairs.

Inside the Church

The chancel has a ceiling with wooden panels. The transepts have special viewing areas called galleries. The simple wooden pulpit, where sermons are given, dates back to 1623. The stone seats (sedilia) and a basin for washing sacred vessels (piscina) near the altar were designed by John Douglas in 1871–1872. They are in a style called Decorated Gothic.

The baptismal font, used for baptisms, is shaped like an octagon and is probably from the 1660s. Inside the church, there's also an arched tomb space from around 1322 that was moved from the older church. It contains what people believe is an ancient Roman altar.

On the walls, you can see two special drawings called sgraffiti. One in the south aisle is from 1883, and another in the north aisle is from 1906. The beautiful stained glass windows add lots of color. The west window's glass is from 1853, and the east window's is from 1865. Some windows in the south aisle were made by William Wailes in 1851. In the north aisle, one window from 1897 is by Charles Eamer Kempe, and another from around 1899 is likely by Shrigley and Hunt.

The church also has memorials to local families. These include one for John Leigh (died 1806) and his wife, and two stone tablets by Edward Hodges Baily for members of the Fox family. There's also a wooden memorial for William Domvylle, who died in 1686. The church has old records, called parish registers, that tell us about the people of Lymm since the Protestant Reformation. You can also see 18th-century funerary hatchments (painted shields) and two staffs carried by churchwardens from the early 1800s.

The church has an electronic organ built by local organ-builder Hugh Banton in 2005. Before that, there was a pipe organ built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1944. The church also has a set of eight bells, which were made in 1891 by John Taylor and Company.

Churchyard and War Graves

The churchyard, which is the burial ground around the church, contains the graves of twelve service personnel who died in wars. Nine of these are from World War I and three are from World War II.

More to Explore

• Listed buildings in Lymm
• List of works by J. S. Crowther
• List of church restorations, amendments and furniture by John Douglas