SS Joseph and Etheldreda, Roman
Catholic church
One of
the Gothic Revivalist architects in the Pugin mould, Charles Francis
Hansom (brother of Joseph of the cab and Birmingham Town Hall), designed
the Roman Catholic church of SS Joseph and Etheldreda at Rugeley.
Building took place 1849-51, the spire reaching to 150 feet being
added in 1868. The stone was given by the first Marquis of Angelsey,
an act commemorated by a brass.
The church
is in Decorated style with nave, aisles, Lady Chapel and sanctuary.
There is a fine east window and carved altar and the Lady altar is
of Caen stone. There was a turret on the north-east corner of the
tower surmounted with a diadem in stone, but this and the pinnacles
weathered badly and were demolished in the late 1930s. The early 1980s
modified replacements are in fibreglass.
Chief
benefactors were Joseph Robert Whitgreave, a son of George Thomas,
of Moseley Court (descendant of Thomas Whitgreave who helped Charles
II on his Boscobel flight) and his younger sister Julia, who became
a nun at Princethorpe taking the name Etheldreda. Hence the double
patronage of the church.
Joseph
was building a mansion for himself and future family close to the
church site. He is buried in the churchyard with his wife (Rosina
Hodges of London) and a daughter. There is a memorial window to his
memory, provided by his widow in 1885.
The churchyard
also contains a Wolseley family vault and a large churchyard cross
under which is buried the legendary Canon Thomas Duckett, priest at
Rugeley for 46 years and responsible for most of the embellishments.
There is a Taunton grave, a group of identical headstones marking
the resting places of the Harris family, and a stone for Ann Brodhurst,
a descendant of the Pendrells.
This
Catholic Mission was started by chaplains to the Astons of Tixall
Hall in the late 18th century. In the early 19th century the area
was served by chaplains of the Blounts, who had married into the Astons
and had a chapel at their home at Bellamour, in nearby Colton.
