Programme:-

Please inform Paul Kenneth beforehand if you wish to come on any visit.  We need to provide both church & pub with an indication of numbers.

Churches and Pubs Provisional Visits for 2014
 
Click on the date link for the report

April 2nd    St Helen, Sefton village.

May 7th     St Mary, Nether Alderley

June 4th     All Saints, Bakewell

July 2nd     Clitheroe area to be confirmed

Aug            None

Sept 3rd     St Bartholomew, Ripponden

Oct 1st       St Leonard, Middleton

Nov 5th     St Mary, Rostherne


Paul Kenneth, Churches and Pubs.

Reports on Visits:

May 7th     St Mary, Nether Alderley
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Hidden from the main A34 road, yet only a few yards down a lane opposite Nether Alderley Mill, lies the 14th. century Church of St. Mary.
Passing old cottages and under spreading beech trees you discover the hidden treasure.  Through the Church gates is the Elizabethan school, built in 1628, for the basic education of boys of the Parish  and used until 1908.  Then you  see the Stanley Mausoleum, built in 1909 by and for the 4th. Lord Stanley and his wife.  Then in front of you is the treasure that is the Church of St. Mary, Alderley.
Beautiful Victorian stained glass windows catch the eye.  Look upward to the barrel-shaped ceiling in the Nave, built in the 16th. century, but covered with a false ceiling and uncovered in 1877.  The 14th. century Font shows signs of having been abused, it was buried under the yew tree in the grave yard, possibly for its own protection at some point.  It remained hidden until 1821 and was finally reinstated in its present position in 1924.
 In the 1600's the Stanley family built their own pew, high up and looking down on the south aisle and only accessible from outside the Church.  It both looks and feels inside like a Royal box at the Opera House-such comfort.
 Altogether the Church and its history are real gems and well worth a visit.
 We all went on to the Davenport Arms in Marton for a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.
 A good day was had by all. - Thank you, Paul.

April 2nd     St. Helen’s Church, Sefton.

 The first trip of 2014 took 43 of us to Sefton village to visit St. Helen’s Church.  We were greeted by Gordon Corbett the churchwarden and two helpers who supplied us with a cup of coffee and a biscuit each—excellent.  Gordon then took us all on a guided and interesting tour of this magnificent church.  Described as the “Cathedral of the fields” the church stands among flat meadows.  The large 14^th century spire rises from a buttressed tower, the outlines unified by spirelets.  All but the tower and steeple and the north aisle was taken down in 1500 and rebuilt in brown-grey stone.  The church was built as a perpendicular church with a south aisle.  The only things added since then were the choir vestry in 1915 and the kitchen and toilet added to the vestry in1990.

A fine Tudor interior contains glorious early 16^th century woodwork, including the canopied rood and chancel screens, the screens to the North and South chapels, and to the South the Sefton pew.  The chancel stalls of 1500 are complete and there is a canopied pulpit of 1635.  The Molyneux monuments commemorate the family’s courage in battle and range from a mailed effigy of 1296 to a table tomb with brasses of 1568.  Many thanks to Gordon for an excellent and interesting tour of the church.

Lunch was taken next door to the church in The Punchbowl Pub.  Good food and very good service.  When we came out of the pub most of us walked two minutes up the road to have a look at St. Helen’s well which was said to have healing properties in former times.                                            

Paul Kenneth.