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© Mr Bob Manekshaw LRPS

IoE Number: 218304
Location: CHURCH OF SAINT ALPHEGE, THE SQUARE
  SOLIHULL, SOLIHULL, WEST MIDLANDS
Photographer: Mr Bob Manekshaw LRPS
Date Photographed: 25 September 2007
Date listed: 05 December 1949
Date of last amendment: 04 November 1991
Grade I

In the entry for; SOLIHULL THE SQUARE SP 1579 (south side) 1/1 Church of Saint Alphege 5.12.49 A The entry shall be amended to read; SP 1579 SOLIHULL THE SQUARE 1/1 Church of Saint alphege 5.12.49 I Church. Late C13 and early C14 rebuilding of aisleless Norman church; 1ate C13 chancel and N chapel; C15 top and recessed spire to tower; W front and S aisle of 1535; aisle arcades probably rebuilt 1535. Red sandstone in a mixture of rubble and dressed masonry; gabled plain tile roofs. Cruciform plan with crossing tower, aisled nave and N chantry chapel of Saint Alphege over undercroft. Chancel has late C13 five-light window with cusped intersecting tracery and 4-bay S elevation with pointed arched doorway and linked hood moulds over late C13 two-light windows with cusping. N chapel has late C13 three- light E window of similar intersecting tracery and 2-bay N elevation with trefoiled lancets to undercroft and 2-light windows with similar tracery as to S of chancel. Similar late C13 tracery to transepts, except mostly C19 intersecting tracery to N transept window. 3-stage crossing tower with offset corner buttresses and SE stair tower; second stage has late C13 two-light windows with blank spandrels; C15 third stage has linked hood moulds over- two-light belfry windows; crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles, then ashlar spire. 5-bay nave has N aisle with late C13 two-light recticulated windows and S aisle with perpendicular 2-Light and 5-light windows. Interior: linked hood moulds over chancel windows continue as trefoil arches to blank walling with foliate corbels. Roll-moulded surround to pointed arched doorway to chantry chapel of Saint Alphege which has E altar table, two 2-light windows (of similar tracery to S chancel wall) to chancel, similar blank arcading and trefoiled piscina. Roll- moulded hood mould with stylised head stops to 2-bay undercroft with hollow-chamfered ribs to rib vault, W fireplace and E altar table. Late C13 double-chamfered crossing arches. Nave, which has steeply- pitched line of former nave roof, has double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers to perpendicular arcades, probably of 1535. Late C13 piscina to chancel with crocketed hood over cusped arch on colonettes with foliate apron. Late C13 piscina to N aisle. S aisle has C15 stone reredos with a row of cusped panels. Aisles strengthened internally by flying buttresses. Fittings include C15 perpendicular N transept screen; gate dated 1746 in N porch; Jacobean pulpit with blank arches, pedimented wooden reredos in N aisle of C1700; fine late C17 communion rail; late C16 richly carved coffer forming altar to N aisle; late medieval casket and brass chandelier given in 1706. Monuments include brass to William Gill, d.1549, and family; incised slabs of 1537 and 1577 in S aisle; fine C18 Holbech family monument in N transept with busts on cornice over twin inscription tablets; many C18 and C19 tablets. Stained glass includes 5 aisle SE window by Kempe, C1901, and E window by Wailes. Subsidiary features: Ruins approx 50m to s of probable former rectory or possible baptistery. C14 with later alterations. Coursed dressed and rubble limestone; C17 and C18 brick repairs. Ruins form an L-plan, with the south wall having a projecting stack and a C14 arched doorway which is chamfered to north and rebated to south; the west wall has a projection to the east of its northern end which, has a one-light window chamfered to south. These ruins are all that is left of the former vicarage; the north wall had a pair of pointed-arched doorways, now gone. The original function of this ruin is uncertain, but it may have formed part of a medieval rectory or a baptistery connected with the holy well of Saint Alphege. (Birmingham and Midland Institute Archaeological Section Transactions, 1891, pp.72-3; Buildings of England: Warwickshire, pp. 400-401; National Monuments Record). ------------------------------------ SOLIHULL THE SQUARE 1. 5108 (South Side) Church of Saint Alphege SP 1579 1/1 5.12.49. A 2. C13-16 large stone church with crossing tower and spire, chancel, transepts, north chapel and crypt, nave, aisles with internal flying buttresses, north porch. Crossing, chancel and chapel late C13. Nave arcades and west front 1535. C15 or early C16 south aisle stone reredos. C17 pulpit and altar rails. C16 brass, C18 wall tablets. Wrought iron gate to porch, 1746.