Description:The Sutherland Papers include a number of letters relating to Barlaston Church and Vicarage over the nineteenth century. Both the Church and Vicarage had extensive repairs carried out on them during this period, and letters in the collection provide detail about the work and the people involved, telling us about life in Barlaston at this time.
Thomas Hanley wrote to the Duke of Sutherland's Estate Agent William Lewis from Trentham on the 27th December 1834 having ‘examined the repairs and alterations done at Barlaston Church about four years ago’. Hanley’s letter provides a detailed description of the work which had been undertaken on the Church in 1830.
Hanley informs Lewis ‘the old elliptic arch between the Church and Chancel has been taken out, the brickwork cut away to extent the opening and a new Gothic arch introduced’. His remarks reflect contemporary architectural trends which were used in the building of churches during this period.
Hanley also reports that new stone steps have been put in place ‘to approach the altar’, and also the ‘old oak railing’ had been ‘cleaned, varnished and secured to the floor’. He also refers to ‘a new skirting round the Chancel’. Expenses on the repairs and alterations to the Church had been ‘defrayed’ by the Duke of Sutherland, and Hanley reports that the Church was ‘now in a good state of repair’.
In addition, ‘a new vestry’ had been built and also ‘a small Gallery erected over the entrance to the Tower from the body of the Church’. The tower had been ‘raised about four feet’ and had a ‘new stone parapet and Battlements’.
Hanley describes the interior of the new part of the church, which had ‘been fitted up with oak pews framed and fixed as those in the old’. However, he suggests that the new oak needed staining to look like the old oak and that the whole needed a new coat of varnish ‘the colours at present being very opposite though in a good preserved state’.