St Wilfrid's Church, Davenham

St Wilfrid’s Church stands in the village of Davenham, Cheshire, beside the River Dane. A Grade II* listed building, it is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester. The first church on this site appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. A 14th-century church once occupied the spot, its chancel rebuilt in 1680 and again in 1795. The present building was constructed between 1842 and 1844 by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe, who repaired the tower and spire and widened the nave. The church’s exterior is of red sandstone ashlar under a slate roof, with a west tower topped by an octagonal spire and three tiers of lucarnes. Inside, the chancel holds a two-arched sedilia and an alabaster reredos carved with The Last Supper. Among the monuments are works by Benjamin Bromfield, the Franceys of Liverpool, Francesco Pozzi and Underwood. A war memorial chapel in the south aisle was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer and features carved virtues and angels. The churchyard contains a table tomb to William Worthington and a late-19th-century lych gate by E. G. Paley. Eighteen war graves lie among the graves, thirteen from the First World War and five from the Second. Stained glass by David Evans and J. C. Bewsey fills the windows, and a ring of six bells spans three centuries of foundry work.