(source not shown -cwm) 237 MOBBERLEY (St. Wilfrid) (Map Ref. D.2.) DURING the 1888 restoration, when excavations were being carried out for the foundations of the chancel arch, Saxon remains came to light, pointing to the existence of a pre-Conquest church. Although there is no mention in Domesday of a church or priest at Mobberley, this fact in itself is no evidence that the place did not possess one or both at that date. The object of the survey was to compile a register of the land and the tenures by which the estates were held, and on which the King might be able to levy taxes. As Camden says, " this Domes-day book was the tax-book of king William and taxes were levied in accordance with it up to 1522 when a more accurate 238 MOBBERLEY (St. Wilfrid) survey was compiled."Domesday was not an" ecclesiastical taxation" and although church and priests are mentioned occasionally, this only occurs when they held land, or when there were disputes about the ownership of the site of a church. The first reference to a church at Mobberley occurs about the beginning of the reign of King John, but it is reasonable to assume that one existed there long before that date. About 1206 one Patrick de Mobberley founded a small priory of regular canons of the order of St. Augustine in honour of God, the Virgin Mary, and St. Wilfrid, who were to abide and dwell for ever in the church of Mobberley. The benefactor gave the canons half of the church and all its appurtenances in his possession so that the parsons of the other half of the church of Mobberley, which was not in his possession, would not be able to challenge his grant. The existence of Mobberley priory as an independent foundation was short-lived, and ended before 1240 when the moiety of the church, with the advowson etc., was annexed to the priory of Rocester in ,Staffordshire. There were subsequent disputes in 1259, etc., between the Mobberley family and the canons of Rocester, respecting the advowson. The present fabric (223) in its oldest parts was built about 1245, when it was a through church under one continuous nave and chancel roof, with narrow side aisles and a detached tower-the latter becoming ruinous, was rebuilt in 1533 by John Talbot of Grafton, who employed Richard Plat as his master mason. It is of three storeys, divided by string courses with corner buttresses having four offsets.1 The summit is embattled, and there are seats which suggest that pinnacles were intended, or have at some time been removed. The strings are beautified with carved foliage shields and many figures of animals. The belfry windows are double, with dripstones, and the west doorway is typical Cheshire work of its period. At the south-west corner the internal vice or turret serves all storeys. It is at this angle on the exterior and continued round the buttress to the south side that the builder carved the following inscription:-" Orate pro bono statu domini Johannis Talbot militis et dominae Margaretae uxoris suae patronae ecclesiae Anno domini milesimo quingentesimo tricesimo tertio. Richard Plat Master Mason." The lettering, carved in grey sandstone, is still in excellent condition, and the masonry has weathered extraordinarily well. The tower arch leading into the nave is broad and well proportioned, and springs from semi-octagonal shafts. The body of the church is largely work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (227), but frequent restoration and the insertion of new windows has, to a certain extent, effaced the character of the medieval work. The chancel and vestry are new, having been rebuilt as recently as 1888-9. Conforming to the early plan, the church consists of a broad nave with chancel of similar width and narrow side aisles. The arcades are of four pointed arches, rising from octagonal piers, with good caps. It is observed that the first arch of the arcades nearest the tower is loftier than the others and that the supporting pier has octagonal responds with elaborate capitals. This is accounted for by the builders of the tower in 1533, deciding to link up with the nave arcade. In the east window of five lights, the early mullions are of interest. This example is one of the earliest and best windows of its period in Cheshire. The design of the body of the church is distinctly east Cheshire, the aisle walls with small three-light square-headed windows, the walls without battlemented parapets, the roofs oversailing them with deep eaves. The clerestory is also low and has five small square-headed two-light windows on either side. When the chancel was largely rebuilt in 1888 a chancel arch dividing the quire from the nave was erected in place of the timber and plaster tympanum which reached to the roof over the rood screen. In 1710 the royal arms and one table of the decalogue were painted on the plastered surface in accordance with the custom of the times. Although the tympanum has gone, the magnificent rood screen remains (226), with delicate vaulting spreading out like lace; the screen mullions, too, are lovely (224). To give the best possible description of this beautiful example of Tudor carving, I cannot do better than quote the following authoritative description by A. Wolfgang 2 :-- 1 The idea of building the tower west of the church and coupling afterwards was a common feature, exemplified at Wrexham and at Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire. 2 Ancient Screens in Cheshire and Lancashire Churches. (Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol . 64, 1912). MOBBERLEY (ST. WILFRID) 239 " On the rail of this screen is the following inscription:- In our beginning Gode us spede in grace and goodnesse, MCCCCC octavo viginti die Maij Mayde by Mr. Peter Acton. Orate pro ani[ma]bus istius parochiae. "As at Astbury, the rib moulding radiating from the springing is carried over the face of the coving panel, forming a similar design in each of the eight bays. In the centre of each bay of the coving are four panels (II), each containing heraldic shields or designs, some showing various coats of arms of the local families. The whole of the rib mouldings are profusely ornamented with bosses. The beam or breastsummer running along the top of the coving panel is ornamented with seventeen corbels, of which the three centre ones are joined together by a narrow band enriched with quatrefoils, which also runs round each of the corbels and between them. There is no tracery in the upper part of the bays of the screen below the coving. "The panels on the lower part of the screen are ornamented with an arcading, the upper part of which is very richly carved tracery work. The mullions are well moulded, and on their sides is a running pattern of sunk tracery-work, which is also carried round the soffit of the arches. On four of the mullions are carved faces. On the north end of the eastward beam of this loft is the commencement of a band of carving; the design is similar to the running tracery on the mullions. "The details of the designs in the central panels of the bays of the coving are as follows:- (1) The four panels are filled with tracery of varied design in circles. (2) Similar to the first. (3) Two panels with tracery and two with monograms of Jesus and Mary. (4) One panel is filled with the arms of Brereton (two bars), surrounded by branches of briar springing out of a tun; two panels having the monograms of Jesus and Mary, and the fourth being filled with tracery. N A (5) One panel has the initials I R, another M R, a third bears a shield of the arms of I I Ashton (a mullet) surrounded by five letters " A," while the fourth is filled with tracery. The design of bays 6 and 8 is slightly different from the preceding, the subjects being enclosed in ovals instead of circles. (6) One panel has the sacred monogram IHS: another has the ancient arms of Troutbeck (a fleur-de-lys between three negroes' heads): a third those of Leycester of Tabley (a fesse between three fleurs-de-lys); the fourth contains a shield of two chevronels with a canton charged with three objects that may be escallops, but look like garbs reversed. 1 (7) The panels are filled with oak leaves in three rows, vine and grapes, acorns and the initial M surrounded with trefoils. (8) One panel contains the arms of Massey of Dunham (quarterly, in the first quarter a lion passant): the second shows England and France, modern quarterly2; a third has the arms of Massey as above, with the addition of an estoile of six rays in the fourth quarter3; the fourth a panel, from which all tracery has gone, seems to have had an ornamental M on it." The fact that the rood screen bears the date 1500 and the arms of the Talbot family would suggest the probability of it having been made by order of the same John Talbot who was responsible for the erection of the new tower in 1533. Woodwork of an entirely different style is seen in the open ringers' gallery (225) under the tower. The main beam carried on stone corbels is surmounted by a fence of slat balusters, with oval and circular carving and the whole embellished 1 It is difficult to identify this curious coat. It may perhaps be a variant of Mobberley. The Mobberleys varied the charge on their canton; it was sometimes a cross-crosslet-fitchy, sometimes a cross-patonce, and sometimes a mullet. 2 It is unusual to find France in the second and third quarters. In the royal arms France occupied the first and fourth and England the second and third quarters from 1405 to 1603. 3 "Massy de Ellerborrowe" in Bucklow Hundred is said to have borne: Quarterly gules and or in the first a lion passant argent, and in the second a mullet sable (Heraldic MS. temp. Eliz.). 240 MOBBERLEY (ST. WILFRID) with jewel ornament. The tower rail is inscribed " John Bageley and Henry Burges, Churchwardens 1683." The nave roof(229), although considerably restored last century, is a fine example of medieval carpentry. The principals divide the work into five bays, each of thirty-two panels. The rafters and purlins are well moulded, and where the timbers join square bosses of carved foliage are inserted with half bosses, completing the design against the principals. The most elaborately carved bay is the eastern one nearest the rood screen, and the general effect is one of massive beauty, accentuated by the great principals cambered on both sides with fine central bosses. The main beams rest on stout wall posts, carried by stone corbels. with wide spreading wings are a pleasing feature of the wall posts, each placed between the square-headed windows of the clerestory. The church possesses some interesting old glass, notably twelve shields in the south window of the chancel, which formerly were in the east window. Reading from left to right they commemorate:-- Patrick de Mobberley William de Mobberley Richard de Mobberley 1206 1299 1306 Massey of Dunham Massey Raufe de Mobberley Massey of Tatton 1359 1305 Venables of Kinderton Arderne of Aldford Legh of Booths 1320 1327 1303 Butler of Bewsey Mallory of Studley Hulse 1462 1621 1397 The device in the canton of the Mobberleys was a cross crosslet fitchy in 1206, a mullet 1299, three escallops 1306, and a cross fleury in 1359. The other arms are those of families connected with the early history of the manor. The Ardernes of Aldford were the paramount lords. The Leghs of Booths possessed the second moiety of the manor which came by marriage to the Radcliffes of Ordsall, Lancs. A window in the vestry contains the ancient arms of the Troutbeck family as well as the arms of the Leycesters. In a window near the reading desk are the arms of a former rector (Hamon Leicester) date 1461. Over the nave arcades are faded frescoes and the figure of St. Christopher may be clearly discerned. The church, although robbed of much early work, notably the old fittings lost in last century's renovations, retains many old possessions contrasting with the new. Ancient window heads, an early thirteenth century consecration cross and curious monuments, formerly hidden away in the belfry, the seventeenth century marble font with wooden pedestal, is now placed at the east end of the south aisle. The one now in use in the church, by the south-west door, rests on the base of an old Tudor font inverted, the pedestal being the base of a fourteenth century holy water basin. Also spared in the remodelling were the fine carved ascending double sedilia and the piscina. There is a ring of six bells, cast by Rudhall of Gloucester in the eighteenth century, and apparently given by Samuel Egerton, Esquire, of Tatton. In 1891, two of the bells had worn thin, and had to be recast, and the remainder of the ring were rehung at the same time. The bells are inscribed as follows:-- 1. "Peace and good neighbourhood 1772." 2. "T. Rudhall, fecit 1792, S. Peacock, churchwarden." "With louder tone again I ring, to God's house all men to bring. Samuel Hargreaves, renovavit 1891, G. Eden, J. Norbury, wardens. John Taylor & Co., Founders Loughborough." 3. "Thomas Rudhall, Gloucester, Foundry. 1772." 4. "Prosperity to this Parish 1772." 5. "We were cast at the expense of Samuel Egerton, Esq. 1772." 6. "I to the church the living call, and to the grave do summon all. Ring out clearer than before, God's praises evermore." " E. of T. 1891; John Taylor & Co., Founders, Loughborough." MOBBERLEY (ST. WILFRID) 241 The registers begin in 1578, and among many curious entries the following appear : 1701. Mary Key, buryed at the Quakers Burying Ground, contrary to Act of Parl., for burying whereof was paid five pounds. 1706. Isaac Tunner, married to Mary Bray (This man was killed in ye great wind in February 1714.) 1777. Hannah, daughter of John Lounds, bapt. Sunday after the earthquake. The churchwardens' accounts are a source of much interest and many quaint entries are to be found in the eighteenth century records. Probably no church in Cheshire is more closely associated with any one family than Mobberley with the Mallorys. In the chancel monuments they are commemorated by one to Dean Mallory of 1636, whilst in the list of rectors, they are seen to be both parish priests and patrons of the living. Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester, was a younger son of Sir William Mallory of Studley in Yorkshire (Fountains Abbey). In 1619 he purchased from Andrew Carrington of Mobberley, the advowson of the church, also the manor house, erected on the site of the old priory, and other portions of the Mobberley moiety that had not been sold elsewhere. He also purchased the royalty of that part which had belonged to Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1663. In Dr. Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. I, a pedigree of the Mallorys is provided. In 1832, Julia Mallory, daughter and heiress of the Rev. John Holdsworth Mallory married George Leigh, M.A. curate of the parish of Liverpool and died in 1835. George Leigh had assumed the name of Mallory and was the rector of Mobberley until 1885. He married a second time Henrieta, daughter of Trafford Trafford, Esq., of Oughtrington Hall, 1836, and had several sons and daughters. Herbert Leigh Mallory, the seventh son, born in 1856, became rector of Mobberley until 1904, when he exchanged livings with the Rev. G. C. Dicker of Birkenhead. He died in 1943 at Chester and previously had been granted a change of name to Leigh-Mallory and a grant of arms in accordance with the same: Mallory quartering Leigh, with a cross pattee in the canton in the arms of Mallory of Mobberley. The arms of Mallory of Studley were without the canton azure. In our own time, we think of George Leigh-Mallyg, who, with his companion, Andrew Irvine, the son of W. Fergusson Irvine, M.A., F.S.A., lost his life in a gallant attempt to reach the summit of Everest and a beautiful modern window in the church to his memory has the inscription: "All his life he sought after whatsoever things are pure and high and eternal. At last in the flower of his perfect manhood, he was lost to human sight, between earth and heaven, on the topmost peak of Everest." His brother, Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, one of the country's great soldier airmen, lost his life when the plane in which he was flying to Asia collided with a mountain in November, 1944. Their kindly old parents endeared themselves to many, including myself. Near the Mallory window is a modern one to the memory of one of the Galloway family who formerly lived in the parish. The subject is an unusual one, and depicts the legend of Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid (to whom Mobberley church is dedicated) as set to verse by Rudyard Kipling. Portrayed in very life-like stained glass, Eddi, who had ordered a midnight service finding that not a single individual put in an appearance, save an ox and an ass, takes the service and preaches to the pair, who are shown in the picture. One verse of the poem seems to justify Eddi's decision- "How shall I tell which is greatest How shall I tell which is least, That is my Father's business, Said Eddi, St. Wilfrid's priest." The following is a list of the rectors of Mobberley :-- Circa 1206. Priory built appendant to the 1306 Richard de Mobberley existing church. Walter first Prior. 1320 Henry de Hanley. 1281. Lawrence de Cestria. 1322 Ralph de Mobberley 1299. Adam de Kelsale. 1327. Robert de Huxelegh. 1304. John de Mobberley. 1351. Robert de Cravene. 242 MOBBERLEY (ST. WILFRID) 1358. William de Wykford. circa 1650. Robert Barlow, M.A. 1359. William Jeffeson. 1660. Edward Wyrley (Restored). 1372. William de Brackeley. 1664. James Stanley, M.A. 1378. John Brunstath. 1674. Jonathan Brideoake, B.D. 1392. Thomas de Scholehall. 1684. Thomas Mallory, M.A. 1416. John de Scholehall. 1690. James Flesher, M.A. ----. William Symonell. 1733. Thomas Plumbe, LL.B. 1439. Roger Bolton. 1770. Thomas Mallory, LL.B. 1461. Hamon Leicester. 1786. John Holdsworth, M.A. 1494. Richard Fletcher. 1795. John Holdsworth Mallory, M.A. 1511. Henry Sherman. 1832. George Leigh Mallory, M.A. 1528. Hugh Staunton. (formerly George Leigh). 1535. Humphrey Glover. 1885. Herbert Leigh Mallory, M.A. 1565. James Davison. 1904. Gerald Campbell Dicker, M.A. 1570. John Caldwell, B.A. 1931. David Henry Saunders Davies, M.A. 1595. Robert Eaton, M.A. 1945. Howard Stanley Randle. B.A. 1621. Thomas Mallory, B.D. 1644. Edward Wyrley, M.A. Patron:-- T. T. Leigh-Mallory, Esq., and Mrs. Doherty.