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The History Of A Stafford Church

Andrew Lucas who drew some of the pictures for my book "Coin Collecting For Beginners"  has been writing this for a long time and kept changing it by improving the pictures/illustrations and expanding the text. I have been promising that I would publish it for a couple of years now and been putting it off on various pretexts, but after ruthlessly editing out most of the drier detail and leaving the historical and anecdotal text I think it makes an interesting addition to my range of books. The appeal of this title will be limited, but history buffs and many people who are interested in how life was in older times and how it has changed in and around a county town may well be fascinated by its contents. The theme of the book centres around the church, but it is definitely not a religious book although some of the workings of the church in times gone by are detailed.

CONTENTS

Part One - A History of the Royal Free Chapel of St. Mary’s and the College of Canons

• A History of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary’s
• Stafford’s Origins
• The Workings of the Royal Free Chapel and Its College of Canons
• The Collegiate Clergy and Daily Life at St. Mary’s
• Services
• The Odd Life and times of Dean Bozo
• Courts and Charters
• The Schools

• The  Layout of Church and College in Mediaeval Times

• The Canons’ Stalls
• The Location and Type of Collegiate Buildings at Stafford
• Walls and gates
• The End for the College

Part Two - The Architectural History of the Mediaeval Church

• Early History – This mists of time
• Early Mediaeval St. Mary’s – the Mists Clear

• True Gothic Arrives at St. Mary’s

• St. Mary’s Gains a New East End -1240 to 1300

• The 1244 works - South Transept, Belfry and Stalls
• The Chancel as it was built in c. 1255 and its alteration after 1270.
• The north aisle as added in c.1290-1300
• Interior Evidence

• The Late Mediaeval Period - St. Mary’s at its peak.

• The 15th century Church – A New Grandeur
• Last New Work - The Nave Clerestory

Part Three - A State of Decay, St. Mary’s Post-mediaeval Traumas

• A Time of Destruction

• The Collapse of the Spire and the Seventeenth Century
• A State of Decay – The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centurie
• Restoration - The Mid-Nineteenth Century
• The Rescue of the Ancient Church
• And on to the present day!