Latest News
Updates from around St Mary's, Handbridge, the City of Chester and the Diocese of Chester
About St. Mary Without-the-Walls
St Mary Without-the-Walls is a Church of England parish, situated in Handbridge, south of the River Dee, in the historic city of Chester. We are here for everybody who lives in this community and witness to the Christian faith.
Handbridge Centre
Our new community facility serves businesses, organisations, and groups with connections to the parish church.
Welcome
A Message from the Rector
St Mary’s Without-the-Walls is a glorious building opened in 1887, standing as a powerful symbol of the enduring truth of the Christian faith.
But primarily, St Mary’s is a community of people who are seeking to enthusiastically follow Jesus Christ, living out the Christian faith, sharing the Good News, and serving the community.
Everybody is welcome at St Mary’s, at all moments of life: in times of joy and in sorrow. It is where the beginning of life can be marked with Christenings, love can be celebrated at weddings, and where we say farewell to our loved ones at funerals.
St Mary’s is a place where people can come to explore the big questions about life, love, and loss, and see how the Christian faith teaches us to engage with those issues, and encounter the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
When we gather for our services we sing hymns, listen to the words of the bible, pray together, and break bread just as Jesus commanded. Children and the young are very welcome: there is a children’s corner and we have a family service once a month.
Please do come and join us. You will receive a warm welcome.
St. Mary's People
The Reverend Antony Dutton
Rector of St. Marys
The Reverend Maureen Pickering
Hon. Assistant Clergy
The Reverend John Carhart
Hon. Assistant Clergy
The Reverend Trevor Dennis
Hon. Assistant Clergy
Miss Linda Manning
Reader Emeritus:
Mrs Mavis Sellers
Church Warden
Mrs. Hailey Mason
Church Warden
Doris Keen
Parish Administrator and Centre Manager
The History of St. Mary's without The Walls
The church was built between 1885 and 1887 to a design by F. B. Wade for the 1st Duke of Westminster.[3] A porch was added on the south face of the tower in 1914 which was designed by P. H. Lockwood.
Architecture
Exterior
St Mary's without the walls is constructed in ashlar Waverton stone with dressings of Runcorn sandstone.It has Westmorland green slate roofs. The plan consists of a five-bay nave with a clerestory, a three-bay chancel, a chapel at the southeast, an organ chamber and a vestry. There are two porches, one on the south and one on the north. At the west end is a three-stage tower with a recessed spire. It has clock faces to the north, west and south, paired louvred bell-openings on each face, a machicolated parapet, two pinnacles at each corner, lucarnes to each cardinal face of the spire and a weathervane.
Interior
The baptistry is in the tower and has an encaustic tiled floor and a stone font with an oak cover. The stained glass in the baptistry is dated 1887 and is by Edward Frampton. It depicts Christ's baptism. In the baptistry is a portrait memorial dated 1900 to the first Duke of Westminster. The nave is floored with wood blocks. There are three steps up to the chancel with wrought iron rails. The chancel has a mosaic floor. The southeast chapel has a wrought iron screen. The pulpit and lectern are in oak. To the north of the chancel is a sedilia. The east window is probably also by Frampton. The reredos was designed by Frederic Shields and made in cloisonné by Clement Heaton.[3] There is a ring of eight bells which were cast by Mears and Stainbank at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1887.[4]
External features
The walls, gates and railings of the churchyard were also designed by F. B. Wade for the first Duke of Westminster in 1887, and are listed Grade II.