WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



a 

 same 



to show that tlie letters are merely ornamental. It 

 must also be noted that the floor beneath the benches 

 is modern, so that they may not be in their original 

 positions. In various places the emblems of the 

 Passion occur, and several devices whose meaning is 

 obscure, and at the west end of the south aisle is 

 churchwardens' pew containing work of the 

 period, with a linen-pattern panelled front. 



At the west end of the north aisle are the seats 

 once occupied by the members of the mock cor- 

 poration of Sefton, the mayor's seat being in front of 

 the west respond of the north arcade. 



The pulpit, which formerly stood against the middle 

 pier of the north arcade of the nave, is now set 

 against the rood screen on the north side of the en- 

 trance to the chancel, displacing the Sefton pew, now 

 in the south aisle. It is octagonal, with pilasters at 

 the angles and two tiers of moulded panels, the 

 whole surface being worked with arabesques in low 

 relief. It stands on a tall octagonal stem and has 

 over it an octagonal tester with pendants at the angles 

 and a panelled soffit. It is dated 1635, and has two 

 inscriptions, one round the tester : — 



My soane feare thou the Lorde and the Kinge and medle 

 not with them that are given to change, 



and another round the cornice of the body of the 

 pulpit : — 



He that covereth his sinne shall not prosper. 

 confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercie 

 is the m[an] — 



but whoso 

 happy 



the end of the inscription being lost. 



There are a few pieces of old stained glass. In the 

 east window of the south aisle are several symbols of 

 the Passion, and part of a rood, with an inscription 

 recording the gift of a window by Sir William 

 Molyneux, 15+2. In the window near Margaret 

 Bulkeley's brass in the south aisle, is a partly modern 

 inscription recording the making of a window in her 

 memory in 1543, and in the next window is a third 

 inscription naming ' William ' Ireland of Lydiate and 

 Ellen his wife, 1540. The word William is a 

 modern insertion ; the original was Lawrence. 



The traces of ritual arrangements, apart from those 

 already described, are not many. There are three 

 sedilia on the south side of the chancel, and a recess for 

 a piscina to the east of them, while in the north wall 

 of the chancel is a large arched recess with an ogee 

 head, now fitted with a door. It may be modern, 

 but the position is a normal one. 



The north chapel as already noted belongs to the 

 early part of the fourteenth century, and the tomb 

 recess in its north wall is contemporary. In the east 

 wall, near the south end, is a double piscina of 

 c. 1330, with a flowing quatrefoil in the head over 

 two trefoiled arches. It may have been moved to its 

 present position at the building of the arcades in the 

 sixteenth century. 



The font stands under the west tower, and is of 

 red sandstone, octagonal, with blank shields in sixfoils 

 on each face and raised fillets on the angles of bowl, 

 stem and base. It probably belongs to the end of 

 the fifteenth century, and has a pyramidal oak cover 

 inscribed rr : hm : cw. 1688. In the north, south, 

 and west walls of the tower are rectangular recesses, 

 those on the north and south extending eastward 

 beyond the line of their openings in the thickness of 

 the wall, and bearing marks of the fitting of shelves. 

 One such recess in this position would serve as a font- 



61 



SEFTON 



locker to keep the chrismatory, &c., but the presence 

 of three points to some additional use, and this part 

 of the church may have been used as a vestry. 



When the whitewash was taken oiF the arcades in 

 1 89 1, black-letter texts of Jacobean date were found 

 in the spandrels of the arches. The panelling on 

 the east wall of the chancel was given by will by 

 Mrs. Anne Molyneux, c. 1730,' and the three brass 

 chandeliers hanging in the church were given in 1773. 



There are six bells, the first four by Henry Old- 

 field of Nottingham, and the fifth and tenor of 1 8 1 5 

 by Dobson of Downham. The inscriptions on the 

 first four are : — 



Treble. — God bles the founder heareof. 1601. 



Second. — Nos sumus construct! ad laudum {sic) Domini. 

 1 60 1. 



Third. — Hec campana beata Trinitate sacra fiat. Fere 

 God. Henri Oldfelde made thys Beyl. 



Fourth as Third, omitting the word ' beata.' 



The Latin inscriptions on the third and fourth 

 bells are a version of the mediaeval hexameter, 



Trinitate sacra fiat haec campana beata, 



and one or both of the bells may have been so 

 inscribed before their recasting by Oldfield. 



The very interesting series of monuments begins 

 with the mailed effigy in the recess on the north of 

 the north-east chapel. The figure has knee-caps 

 which may be of leather, but is otherwise entirely in 

 mail, and wears a short surcoat and a sword-belt, 

 from which hangs a sword which he is drawing from 

 its sheath. On the left arm is a shield with the cross 

 moline of Molyneux. The date of the effigy is 

 may represent William de 

 1289. Near it is a second 

 bascinet with raised vizor, a 

 mail hauberk and short surcoat, and plate (or leather) 

 knee-caps and jambes, the feet being in mail. He is 

 bearded, and has a blank shield on the left arm, and 

 draws his sword like the other effigy. The date is 

 c. 1330, but there is nothing to show who is the 

 person represented. A curious detail is the crouching 

 human figure in a long gown on whom the feet of 

 the effigy rest. In the same chapel is a panelled altar 

 tomb with an alabaster slab and a damaged inscription 

 to Lady Joan Molyneux, 1440. 



'In the south aisle, and now enclosed by the Sefton 

 pew, is the fine brass of Margaret Bulkeley, 1528, 

 with a figure under a double canopy between four 

 shields, bearing the arms of Molyneux, Bulkeley, 

 Button, and Molyneux. At the feet is a long in- 

 scription recording her foundation of a chantry in 

 the church. 



On the south side of the chancel is a floor-slab 

 with the brass figures of Sir William Molyneux and 

 his two wives, Jane (Rudge) and Elizabeth (Clifton), 

 1 548. The inscription records his feat of capturing 

 two standards at Flodden, and over his head is the 

 Molyneux shield with the standards above it — only 

 one being now perfect, that of Huntly, with its 

 motto or cry ' Clanc tout.' Above each of the wives 

 was a lozenge with heraldry, one only being now left, 

 and below the inscription a shield with Molyneux 

 with ten alliances, and the motto ' En droit devant.' 

 The figure of Sir William is in armour of the time, 

 with the curious exception that the head is covered 

 with a coif of mail, and the lower part of a hauberk 

 1 Trans. Hut. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 83. 



c. 1 280-1 300, and it 

 Molyneux, who died c. 

 effigy wearing a peaked 



