The Medieval Period (Plantagenet) 1154-1485
The Vernon’s of Shipbrook Castle
The introduction of the Erdeswicke family.
William de Malbanc, 3rd Baron Malbanc, had no male heirs. His daughter Auda, heiress of Sandon, married Warine de Vernon of Shipbrook Castle, Cheshire, in c.1230 and their daughter Alditha (referred to as Adeleia in A Survey of Staffordshire by Sampson Erdeswicke) brought Sandon by marriage to Sir William Stafford, KT, a member of the great baronial family of Stafford Castle. In 1338 a descendent, Margaret Stafford, married Thomas Erdeswicke, bringing the land and church of Sandon under the care of the Erdeswicke family where it remained until the 17th century.
The rebuilding of the church.
In 1300 the church was demolished and rebuilt. A history of the church, Jesus be Our Spede, refers to the following time as follows. “By 1300 the church was found to be too small. The Norman structure was removed and replaced, with the addition of the present nave and chancel, by 1310, at which date the list of vicars, patrons and monarchs begins. Having a vicar for the church suggests that a vicarage/parsonage was on site at this date. Where the north wall had stood, octagonal pillars were erected from which rise early English pointed arches. The great antiquity of the south aisle is shown by its being wider than the Nave and Chancel”.
In his series named The Buildings of England, Nikolaus Pevsner refers to this period as follows; “The botched w front shows at once that something unusual must have happened. The explanation given is indeed that the Perp sw tower was set into the existing s and w walls. They would be the walls of a church represented by the present s aisle. In the c13 this received a narrow n aisle. Then shortly after, ie about 1300, the present chancel was built as the chancel for a new church and a new nave was duly put up for which the former nave became the s aisle. This nave in its turn in the early c14 was given a short n aisle. The windows indeed have flowing tracery in that aisle. However, in the s aisle the same type of late c13 windows is used as in the chancel.”
At the northeast of the nave a Chantry Chapel to the Stafford family was added in 1450, joined to the main building by two arches. The tower was built into the southwestern corner of the church, probably because of the difficulty of otherwise building on the exterior steeply sloping ground of the churchyard. This forms the exterior appearance of the church as we see it today. The signs of the botched joining can be seen today in the stonework, especially in the Ringing Chamber.
The pinnacles on the tower were enriched with heraldic devices peculiar to the Stafford family.
Things to see in the church.
The piscina and the recessed shape of an ancient doorway can still be seen in the south wall. High up in the west wall of the tower can be seen what appears to be a round-headed window.
The area adjacent to the church building contains many fine tombs and inscriptions and the column of a mediaeval Preacher’s Cross.
Set into the tracery light of the baptistry west window is just a fragment of an early 14thcentury pinnacle, the oldest piece of glass in the church.
The Vicars and Patrons of Sandon All Saints
Records of the Vicars and Patrons of Sandon All Saints begin in the Medieval Period and continue through to the current day.
