Wollaston Church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. The list of incumbents goes back to 1219 when William was vicar of "Wilavestone". But the remains of Saxon burials suggests a church existed as far back as 1050.
The earliest part of the present Church is the tower and spire together with the north transept. These date back to c.1300. The medieval church was about the same size as the present.
On the 13th November 1735 the body of the Church which is supported by six pillars suddenly and quite unexpectedly fell down — the noise of which is said to have made "horses run wildly about in Farndish, some 2 miles away". The nave was rebuilt, and Feast Sunday on 8th July 1739 celebrated the opening of the new Church.
There are many historical memorials in the Church, one of the most fascinating being in memory of two Wollaston men who went down with the Titanic in 1912.
Central to the nave is a chandelier donated by Ambrose Dickens in 1777. It was made in the workshops of Thomas Mist who had offices in Long Acre, in the Covent Garden area of London.
The Chancel has undergone some alteration since the Georgian re-building and now has a square east end instead of an apse. The stained glass window was added in 1961 and was executed by the then Vicar, Richard Cummings, sister, Miss Jane Cummings. The funeral hatchment on the North East wall is probably for one of the Dickens family.
The Tower holds a ring of six bells. The heaviest, the tenor weighs about 17cwt. The treble, the lightest bell was recast in 1910. The ringing floor in the tower was removed in the 1886 renovations and the bells are now rung from the floor. A clock has been present in the tower since 1637 and is still wound regularly by hand. The four piers at the base supporting the tower show bands of ironstone set in. It has been suggested that these date the building of the tower 1- 3- 5- 7, but the style of the tower suggests an earlier date.
The North Transept, now the Vestry was also renovated in 1886 and a medieval stone coffin was found during this work. The coffin dates to the fourteenth century. The stained glass window is a memorial to the Hill family who used to live at Wollaston Hall.
The South Transept now houses the organ which was installed in 1895. Adjacent to the south door in the nave is the remains of the Squire's pew which was cut down to form a cupboard.
Strixton Church is dedicated to St. Romwald, a little known Saxon Saint who is said to have preached the Gospel after his baptism as an infant. There was an attempt in the 19th Century to rename the Church as "John the Baptist" — but this has since been reversed. The Church was built c.1200, and is substantially the same now as originally built. A 19th Century restoration took great care to rebuild the Church exactly as it was before.
The screen is 15th Century, the only late Gothic feature of the Church. |
