Local Lay Minister: Isobel
Wakerell, Tel:
07857700143 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 Monthly
Newsheet
Services are based on the Book of Common Prayer
(1662)
Please come along and join our worship in this
historic country church.
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 It has been
replaced by a monthly newsheet delivered to every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.