Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

392 parishioners of Goostrey had to bury their dead at the mother church of Sandbach; but in consideration of the distance between the two places, and " the danger from inundations," from the River Dane, as we suppose, a license was, in 1350, obtained for a cemetery to be attached to the chapel of ease at Goostrey. Though the greater number of English churches since the Conquest have been constructed of stone, the minor fanes of our more secluded villages, especially those in the vicinity of large forests, were not unfre- quently built up of wood. Such was the case with Marton, Eccleston, Lower Peover, and Siddington, in this county, and such was also the case with the chapel of ease at Goostrey. There are those yet living who remember the pretty little fabric of timber, in which, 65 years ago, the churchmen of Goostrey were wont to assemble, and to approach the Throne of Grace with their united offerings of prayer and praise. How different is the prospect now ! In 1792, it was suddenly discovered that the building, where the parishioners of Goostrey had worshipped for many a long century, was quite unfitted to its sacred purpose. In a spirit of vandalism too prevalent at that period, the venerable fabric was condemned to destruction, while in its place arose an edifice of brick, which has little to commend itself either to the architect or antiquary. Mr. Massie himself, in his interesting paper on the " Timber Churches of Cheshire," thus facetiously treats of it at page 302 of the Chester Archaeological Society's Journal:— " My old cure at Goostrey had a ' black and white' chapel, from about A.D. 1200 to 1790, which, at the last interesting era in the history of national architecture, was supplanted, at a cost of £1,700, by a brick nave and tower, from a design by the village brick-setter, with flat ceiling adorned with a pretty circle of red and green christmas in the centre; and four substantial milestones at each angle of the square steeple, wherein three bells rang to the tune of ' three blind mice' on many a happy occa¬ sion, as I hope they do still. On enquiry, I found that the bitter cold of the thin walls had there brought about the abandonment of the old ' wooden walls' of England : if so, I can affirm that the remedy is, in this respect, as bad as the disease." We have given two engravings of the exterior of Goostrey Chapel,* and would have gladly done the like with the interior of a building which was so long the scene of our deceased friend's ministrations ; but we have deferred to the better judgment of a lady correspondent, who assures us that " the interior of the chapel is not wortn delineating, possessing not * We must not omit thankfully to acknowledge, though it be but in general terms, the assistance rendered to us by several kind friends in the compilation of this memoir. To Mrs. C. Gresley, of Lichfield, we owe an especial debt of gratitude for the readiness with which she contributed from her folio the three pencil drawings of Goostrey which accompany the present paper.