WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



total height being 2 8 1 ft. The former central tower 

 is recorded to have been built in 1698 in place of an 

 older one damaged in the Civil Wars, but it is not 

 clear whether the older tower was taken down to the 

 ground or not. Sir Stephen Glynne," describing the 

 church in 1843, says that the tower arches are part 

 of the original structure, and have continuous mould- 

 ings of great depth, and that there is stone groining 

 under the tower with strong ribs. This points to 

 the fact that the upper part only of the tower was 

 rebuilt in 1698, and extant views seem to confirm 

 this. It had an embattled parapet with pinnacles, 

 and large belfry windows, in poor Gothic style, with 

 labels and large dripstones, four of which, representing 

 a lion, a griffin, a dog, and a swan, are preserved in 

 the Warrington Museum. 



The north transept, or Boteler chapel, in which was 

 the Lady altar, was rebuilt in 1 860. It contained work 

 of the fourteenth century, as the two arched tomb- 

 recesses in its north walls appear to be copied from 

 former recesses of this date, and retain carved corbels 

 off. 1320. The windows were of fifteenth-century 

 style, that in the east wall having five lights. 



The south transept, or Mascy chapel, was perhaps 

 originally of the same date as the north transept, but 

 underwent several alterations before the final rebuild- 

 ing in i860. It seems to have had an altar of 

 St. Anne, and a chantry was founded in it by 

 Richard Delves, rector, in i486. In 1723 the 

 Patten chapel was built, adjoining it on the west, 

 and this, after being rebuilt in 1 773, was pulled down 

 together with the transept in i860, and rebuilt in its 

 present form. 



The nave and north aisle date from i860, and 

 replace a nave built in 1770, which had no arcades, 

 and being designed for galleries, had two tiers of 

 windows on north and south. A south aisle was 

 added in 1835, of the width of the south transept, 

 apparently by the process of removing the south wall 

 of the nave of 1770 to its present position, and re- 

 facing the south end of the Patten chapel to corre- 

 spond with it. The upper tier of windows is in a 

 pseudo-Gothic style, evidently intended to harmonize 

 with the fourteenth-century windows of the chancel, 

 and the south doorway has a clumsy ogee head, on 

 which is cut 'Rebuilt 1770.' 



The present west front of the church has three 

 gables flanked by pinnacles, with a large tracery 

 window of seven lights in the central gable. 



The earlier history of the development ot the 

 church is difficult to read on account of the rebuild- 

 ings of the last few centuries, but something may be 

 deduced from old illustrations and the copy of a 

 small plan of 1628, unfortunately not drawn to scale, 

 which was formerly among the church papers. From 

 these it may be seen that the old tower was narrower 

 than the transepts, the line of its west wall being 

 eastward of that of the transepts. The mediaeval 

 nave certainly had arcades, and consequently aisles, as 

 foundations of the former were discovered in i860, 

 not being in line with the north and south arches of 

 the tower, but further to the north and south, like 

 the present arcades. The tower arches appear to 

 have been of the fourteenth century, and perhaps 



coeval with the chancel, which is of the same width 

 north to south as the tower. 



These irregularities, and the evidence of the exist- 

 ence of work in the north transept of earlier date than 

 the rebuilding of the chancel, 1354, go '° show that 

 the church was not completely rebuilt at the latter 

 date, but followed a gradual process of development, 

 after the usual fashion, having originally consisted of 

 an aisleless nave and chancel, which was afterwards 

 made into a cross church, the tower being built on 

 the west part of the chancel. 



The traces of ritual arrangements in the church are 

 naturally scanty. In the south wall of the chancel 

 are three sedilia and a piscina, with ogee arched heads 

 and trefoiled spandrels under a horizontal string, poor 

 modern work of wood and plaster, but in the old 

 position. Parts of the old masonry remain at the 

 backs of the recesses, which have been altered since 

 Sir Stephen Glynne's visit in 1843, and do not 

 at all correspond to his description. There is no 

 ancient woodwork in the church, but the altar table 

 in the Boteler chapel was given to the church in 

 1720. In this chapel is a fine alabaster altar tomb, 

 on which are the effigies of Sir John Boteler, 

 ob. 1463, and his wife Margaret. The tomb was 

 taken to pieces in 1847, and when it was reset 

 the east end was made up in plaster. On the other 

 three sides are a row of canopies alternating with 

 shields now blank, and under the canopies are 

 alabaster figures or groups : on the north side, St. 

 James, St. Michael, St. Christopher, St. George, 

 St. John Baptist, and the Holy Trinity ; on the west 

 a Crucifixion with our Lady and St. John, an angel 

 holding a shield, and an Assumption ; and on the 

 south St. Faith, our Lord's Pity, . St. Barbara, 

 St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and our Lady and 

 Child. The figure of Sir John Boteler is armed in 

 plate, but the arm defences, except the elbow-cops and 

 gauntlets, appear to be of leather. He wears a collar of 

 St. George, and holds his right gauntlet in the left hand, 

 while his bare right hand clasps that of his wife. She 

 wears a collar of St. Agnes, and has a lamb at her feet.' 

 In one of the arched recesses in the north wall of 

 this chapel is the sandstone effigy of a lady of late 

 fourteenth-century date. In the floor of the Patten 

 chapel is a cross slab formerly covering the grave of 

 Thomas Mascy, rector, who died in 1464, and close 

 to it is a modern altar tomb with the white marble 

 effigy of the late Lord Winmarleigh. 



On the north side of the chancel, opposite the 

 south doorway, formerly stood the tomb of Richard 

 Delves, rector, 1527. 

 The font is modern. 



There are eight bells, all cast by Henry Bagley of 

 Ecton in 1698.' 



The church possesses a fine secular standing cup 

 and cover, silver-gilt, with the London date letter for 

 1615. 



The registers begin in 1591. 



Before the Conquest the church of 

 ADVOWSON St. Elphin had a plough-land in War- 

 rington free from all imposts except 

 the geld.* The patronage, except for a grant to 

 Thurgarton Priory about 1 1 60, which was a century 



^ Churches of Lanes, (Chet. Soc). 70. 



"^ For a full description of the Boteler 

 monument with drawings, see Lords of 

 ^arr. 298. Armorial notes taken in 1582 

 and later are printed in Trans. Hist. Soc. 



(New Ser.), vi, 269 ; others made in 1572 

 and 1640 are given in Beamont and 

 Rylands' Attempt to identify the Arms in 

 Warr. Ch. (1878). 

 ' For inscriptions see Warr. Ch. p. ix. 



■1 V.CH. Lanes, i, 2 8 64. 



Elphin was in course of time modified 

 to Ellen, but the old name was restored 

 at the rebuilding of the church in 1859- 

 60. 



