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FREE E-BOOK: St Mary's Church, Nantwich - (The Unofficial) Guide Book "OUT NOW"
'PLEASE CLICK HERE OR PICTURE TO DOWNLOAD'
I often visit churches to investigate their history, but also to explore the myriad of mysterious and unusual features within. These can show you much more profound wisdom in life, and you can certainly find the greatest of things, in the slightest of details.
Often I revisit churches I’ve visited years previously, or even more regularly than that, and each time, I learn something new, or spot something I haven’t seen before.
This was the same at St Mary’s Church in Nantwich. For many years I wondered who the bearded face on a keystone to an arch (or vault springer), above the Crossing was, and I would look at it and wonder. Until one night, something from above, just asked me, “Is it a Royal?”, and so I checked on my mobile, and wow, I found that it was the same portrait of King Edward III as on his Westminster tomb effigy!
This led me to write about Nantwich St Mary’s, in my 2023 publication 'The Priory and Medieval Hospitals of Nantwich and Wybunbury: including: the Royal Benefactors of Nantwich Church; the Knights Hospitaller; and the Guild of the Holy Cross, Charles E. S. Fairey, 2023', and include Edward III, his Queen Philippa, his son Prince Edward the Black Prince, and his son, Richard II, as likely Royal benefactors of St Mary’s Church.
With this unofficial Guide Book, I wished to write it differently than others. Like readers of this, often do not want to read lots of text, to find their way around a church. I’d rather be shown some text, but where things are, and especially unusual things, not often included in usual guide books.
I have also tried to make it as comprehensive in detail as possible, with lots of features shown, with as many plans as would fit in, with annotations and keys to show you where things are, and photographs of them. This way you can read or look for, or find, as little or as much as you wish. You may also use this guide on your Smart Phone or Tablet whilst exploring the church.
This Guide Book includes:
Many Plans to find your way around: with annotations
A Plan of the Church: with dated parts and colour coded
Many Photographs of interesting features: with short annotations / descriptions
Historic Images of the Church: In and Out
All of the Carvings to the Choir Stalls
All of the Chancel Roof Vault Bosses
And much much more...
The Rector Revd Dr Mark Hart says:-
"No matter how often you come to St Mary’s Nantwich there is something new to see. You may notice a feature for the first time, or you may give a new level of attention to what is familiar. Like any great work of art, the church never goes stale as long as our eyes are open. The building is ready to give itself to be read by any searching, enquiring mind.
As with a poem, the church is best read first without having heard anyone else’s interpretation. Then we may turn to helpful background and insight, before coming back to our own reading, in a new light.
At St Mary’s our stewards are always available to give some of that background, along with the simple guide book and leaflet. The “Stewards’ Folder” is an additional miscellany of fascinating detail for those who wish to go further.
Now, with this new guide by Charles E S Fairey we have the most comprehensive and detailed inventory and interpretation of the architecture and artistry of St Mary’s. It is a remarkable work including historical description and images, location and date plans, and exhaustive coverage of the windows, chancel carvings, green men, lion masks, memorial brasses and tablets, roof boards, external carvings, and more.
I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the building, whether a first-time visitor or a lifetime attender. It is inevitably a mixture of indisputable facts and less certain interpretation, not least regarding the history, and the author very fairly makes that distinction clear. If we don’t come away with all the answers, we will at least have been provoked to think, and above all to look.
Many thanks and congratulations to Charles for his service to St Mary’s and to all who come seeking its beauty. May they find it, and be led to its source.
I thought this Biblical quote would sum up the Truth of this eGuidebook, associated with Scripture, in one short verse:-
Psalm 27:4 (KJV)
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.”
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