St Peter's Church, Oughtrington is in the settlement of Oughtrington to the east of the village of Lymm

Lymm

Lymm is a large village and civil parish within the Warrington borough of Cheshire, in North West England. Lymm was an urban district of Cheshire from 1894 to 1974. The civil parish of Lymm incorporates the hamlets of Booths Hill, Broomedge, Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little...

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England. The church has been designated by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Grade II listed building, and an active Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 in the diocese of Chester

Diocese of Chester

The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York based in Chester, covering the county of Cheshire in its pre-1974 boundaries...

, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Bowdon. Its benefice

Benefice

A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...

 is combined with that of St Werburgh, Warburton

St Werburgh's Church, Warburton

St Werburgh's Church, Warburton is the name of two separate churches in the village of Warburton, Greater Manchester, England. The older church is located to the west of the village, and may date back as far as the middle of the 13th century. It is now a redundant church but services are held...

.

History

The church was built in 1871–72 at the expense of C. G. Dewhurst, the architects being Slater and Carpenter

Richard Carpenter (architect)

Richard Herbert Carpenter was an eminent Victorian architect from England.Richard was born 1841 in St. Pancras, London, Middlesex, England and died in 1893...

. Initially a chapel of ease

Chapel of ease

A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....

 in the parish of St Mary's Church, Lymm

St Mary's Church, Lymm

St Mary's Church, Lymm, is in the village of Lymm, Cheshire, England, standing on a bank overlooking Lymm Dam. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building...

, it became a separate parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 in 1881. In 1932 a Lady Chapel

Lady chapel

A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...

 was created in the north aisle to celebrate the jubilee.

Architecture

It is built in grey snecked rubble

Rubble

Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture. This word is closely connected in derivation with "rubbish", which was formerly also applied to what we now call "rubble". Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as brash...

 sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 with grey slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 roofs. Its plan consists of a five-bay

Bay (architecture)

A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...

 nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 with a clerestory

Clerestory

Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...

, north and south aisle

Aisle

An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...

s, an apsidal

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

 chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

, a south vestry

Vestry

A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....

, a south porch and a northeast tower with a spire. At the west end is a rose window

Rose window

A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...

 above four lancet window

Lancet window

A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...

s. The tower has a square base over which is an octagonal belfry

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 surrounded by pinnacle

Pinnacle

A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...

s, and a stone spire. The authors of the Buildings of England

Pevsner Architectural Guides

The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. Begun in the 1940s by art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1975. The series was then extended to Scotland and...

series consider that the spire is too thin for such a substantial church and that the pinnacles are "unjustifiable". The stained glass in the apse, dated 1894, and in one of the windows in the south aisle is by Kempe

Charles Eamer Kempe

Charles Eamer Kempe was a well-known Victorian stained glass designer. After attending Twyford School, he studied for the priesthood at Pembroke College, Oxford, but it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching...

, and the stained glass in the windows at the west end, dated 1907, is by A. K. Nicholson

Archibald Keightley Nicholson

Archibald Keightley Nicholson was an English 20th century ecclesiastical stained-glass maker. His father was Charles Nicholson and his two brothers, Charles and Sydney, were a church architect and church musician respectively....

.