Rector:     Rev Adrian Stone  Tel: 01785 253493
Curate:    Ann Kelly, The Vicarage  Tel: 01785 224634
Local Lay Minister: Keith Eaton    Tel: 01785 602482
Churchwardens: Dr Anne Andrews
                                              Tel: 01785 246101
                      and Mr Robert Collier 
                                                                                              Tel: 01785 664025

Church Services:    
            1st Sunday 11.15am Holy Communion, 3rd Sunday 11.15am Morning Prayer. See Church News.
                Services are based on the Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Please come along and join our worship in these historic country churches.

The joint Church Magazine is available at the back of Ingestre & Tixall Churches. It has been replaced by a monthly newsheet delivered to every household.

St John's Church at Tixall is part of the Lichfield Diocese. and the United Benefice with St John's, Littleworth and St Mary's, Ingestre.

HISTORY:-

      There has been a church at Tixall since at least the 12th century, when it was a free chapel under the jurisdiction of the Dean of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Stafford.

      Simon Wakelin provides the earliest physical link with the present church, although 
in fact the building he knew was two rebuilds before the present one. Fifty pounds was left in his will for the white marble, oval memorial  in the north aisle, although he had asked to be buried near the altar. Simon Wakelin was the only son of William & Dorothy Wakelin of Uttoxeter, and was Rector of Tixall from 1680 until his death, aged 38 in 1697. He left a paten and a chalice of silver to the Church. 

     In 1817, Clifford records “Against one side of the chancel is an oval monument of white marble ...” The memorial was probably moved to the north aisle when the Church was rebuilt in 1848.
     The small Communion Cup given to Simon by his mother in 1689 is still used. The large paten and chalice donated at his death are kept at the Lichfield Heritage Centre. 

 

       In 1772 an earlier small stone church was rebuilt “in a very plain style, and of less than its former dimensions.” The new Church was “a small neat edifice calculated to contain about 80.” It had box pews.
 
 

    The present church was built in 1848 by the Hon. John Chetwynd Talbot, 3rd son of Charles Chetwynd, 2nd Earl Talbot of Ingestre, as an act of piety and to be his mausoleum, and was consecrated on Whit-Tuesday 1849. The architects were T.H.Wyatt and David Brandon of London, and “the Church has a little altered Victorian Interior in the Early English style.”  It is built of local keuper sandstone with a roof of Staffordshire blue tiles.

      The floor tiles are by Minton and include an interesting motive at the nave crossing commemorating the consecration of the new Church in 1849: 

      John Chetwynd Talbot:  JCT ; The Date: MDCCCXLIX, ie.AD1849; James Tyrer, Churchwarden: JT; Victoria Regina: VR Crowned; 2nd Earl Talbot: T & Peers Coronet;
William Webb, Rector: WW
 
 

      The Rood Beam with its central figure of Christ Crucified, was erected in 1921 in memory of the five local men killed in the 1914-18 war. This is recorded on an alabaster tablet. The oak beam came from Ingestre, and the two additional limewood figures of Our Lady and St John, were added in 1952 in memory of Frederick John Nesbitt, his wife Marion Eleanor, and their son Humphrey John Stuart.¸
 
 

     John Chetwynd Talbot died on May 26th, 1852, and on Whit-Tuesday 1852 his mortal remains “ found an appropriate resting place in a vault, which” “he had caused to be constructed underneath the Chancel.” This is recorded on a bronze plaque on the right of the sanctuary in a special stone niche, and adjacent to a similar memorial to his wife.  Unfortunately when she died in 1876, she left instructions that she and her husband were both to be buried at their home in Markbeech, Kent, as recorded on another plaque in  the sanctuary.

     The stained glass windows in the Chancel are by Bennett & Son of York. All the windows were restored in 1992. The East window, shows scenes from the life of St John, and the smaller windows on the south side of the Chancel show a Priest of 1849 at Holy Communion and at Baptism. The South Window nearest the east end commemorates the Rev. Ralph Turner who was Rector from 1742 until his death in 1760. The West Nave window, is in memory of the two young wives of George Woodward, who both died at Tixall Hall in childbirth, Anne Jane in 1845 and Anne Deaville in 1851.

     Graves outside include various servants of the Aston and Clifford families of Tixall Hall, including the oldest gravestone in the Churchyard belonging to Richard Biddulph who died in 1627 aged 82 having served four members of the Aston family from Sir Edward Aston to Walter , Lord Aston.
 

      Several Catholic Chaplains from the Hall are also buried in the churchyard. All graves, burials, baptisms and marriages have been recorded and information relating to any surname can be supplied in return for a donation towards the Church, from Anne Andrews, Tel: 01785 246101 or Email: Tixandrews@hotmail.com.

     A 132 page book on Tixall's Churches is available from Dr A.Andrews, 2, The Hanyards, Tixall, Stafford ST18 0XY for £5 including Post & Packing in the UK. This also covers the Catholic Chapel, St Thomas's Church at Castlechurch and Francis William Webb.