Church

This is how the St Mark’s was described:

The church of St. Mark, erected in 1848, is a building of red sandstone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch, and a small central turret, with spire, containing one bell: the chancel was beautifully decorated in 1863, and three stained windows added, at the sole expense of Samuel Higginbottom esq. of Glasgow, in memory of his wife: two other stained windows were erected in 1878, by the tenants and friends of the late Rev. George Eaton M.A. of The Pole : there are 220 sittings.

The living is a vicarage , net yearly value, £34o, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Great Budworth, and held since 1932 by the Rev. Oliver Mordaunt Tyndale B.A. of Worcester College, Oxford.

in December 1846 a public meeting was held to discuss where to build a new church in Antrobus. There were two proposals, one from Peter Jackson of Cogshall Hall to build it on his land, and the other from George Eaton who wished it built on his land along Knutsford Road. According to reports the meeting became very heated and in the end the vote went against Peter Jackson, and construction of St Marks started the following year. Peter Jackson took his revenge by building a lodge on one of the sites of his proposed church, the plan of the lodge symbolically forming a cross.

The architect was George Gilbert Scott who also was involved in the re-modelling of St. Matthew’s at Stretton, not to mention the Albert memorial and the now-called St Pancras Hotel in London.  Despite such an illustrious architect, the materials and labour were all locally sourced: the stone from Delph Quarry in Appleton, bricks for the interior wall salvaged from an old brick kiln in Whitley, and the sand from Ring Field at Nook Farm. The woodwork was undertaken by Mr Fairhurst in Whitley.

The total cost was £1700, of which £200 was provided by the Cheshire Rural Chapel Society, £75 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and £80 from the Incorporated Society. Rev’d Richard Greenall, the rural dean, paid the difference and took great personal interest in the building.

The church was consecrated on Friday 7 January 1848 when a collection was taken for a parsonage.

The vicars of St. Marks are as follows:

Rev’d L H Streane (1848 – 1850 )

Rev’d Henry Brooks  (1850 – 1850)

Rev’d John William Newall Tanner (1850 – 1894) – vicar for 44 years. His wife Sarah Ann was buried in the churchyard in October 1894 and he followed just two months later. He was buried by the vicar of Stretton.

Rev’d Joseph Holden (1895 – 1914)   – he died at the young age of 59 at the Vicarage in November 1914 and was buried in the churchyard by the vicar of Whitley.

Rev’d William George James Lasseter (1915 – 1932) – vicar for seventeen years at St.Mark’s, Rev Lasseter was formerly headmaster of Formby Grammar School. His wife died in 1931, and in March 1932 he resigned owing to ill-health. Rev. Lasseter retired to Chestnut House, Barbers Lane and died a year later in March 1933.

Rev’d Oliver M Tyndale (1932 – 1966) – The last full time vicar. Rev Tyndale died in Lytham in 1974 and was buried at Antrobus.

Rev’d David Johnson (1999 – 2007)

Rev Richard Diggle (2008 – 2012)

Rev’d Alec Brown (2013 – present

Vicars of St Marks

At the end of January 1871 a fire nearly destroyed the church. It was caused by the heating system which overheated the wooden church roof. Local joiner, John Taylor, went on to the burning roof via a series of spliced ladders, and continued to pour buckets of the hot roof slates before he was able to reach the heater flue and after some hours, extinguish the fire.

The Witton fire engine was speedily on its way to Antrobus with a full complement of firemen, but when they had proceeded as far as Great Budworth they were met by a second messenger, who informed them that their services happily were not required.

Not only did John Taylor save the church from being destroyed, he also saved the vicarage next door.

Reports in local newspapers give a full account of the incident, and mentions it was only six years since the chancel was thoroughly renovated and handsomely decorated, at a cost of about £600.

All the parish registers for St. Mark’s have been transcribed and are found on our records page.

Photographs of many of the memorials in the graveyard have been taken and added to Find a Grave website which is free to use.