St Chad's Church, Tushingham

St Chad’s Church stands beside the A41 in the rural parish of Tushingham-cum-Grindley, Macefen and Bradley. It is an active Anglican church and a Grade II listed building in the diocese of Chester. The benefice also includes St Michael’s in Marbury and St Mary’s in Whitewell. The present church replaced an earlier chapel known as Old St Chad’s, which still stands in a field half a kilometre to the south-west. Old St Chad’s keeps the only burial ground for the former parish. The church was built between 1860 and 1863 to designs by Robert Jennings of Atherstone. In 1897 Hodgson Fowler added the west tower in Perpendicular style. The building is of red sandstone with grey slate roofs and a cruciform plan. Inside, the tower serves as a baptistry and holds an octagonal font. The stained glass includes a west window of 1897 and a north transept window of 1904, both by Kempe. There is also a ring of six bells cast by John Taylor & Co in 1897. Visitors find a nave of three bays with a south porch and single-bay transepts. The chancel has two bays and a sacristy tucked into the corner. The tower rises in three stages, with an octagonal stair turret and crenellated parapet. Outside, the churchyard is quiet, while Old St Chad’s chapel keeps its own small graveyard in the fields nearby.