On the River Trent in rural Staffordshire is the grade I listed Church of St Nicholas at Mavesyn Ridware, which demonstrates a rare late eighteenth century remodelling of a church that incorporates a thirteenth century aisle from the former church as a family chapel, the Mavesyn Chapel.
The Mavesyn Chapel contains the tombs and effigies of the war-like Lords of the Manor of Ridware going back to the thirteenth century. In the centre of the chapel is the free-standing tomb of Sir Robert Mavesyn who died in 1403 at the battle of Shrewsbury. The chapel contains many neo-medieval alabaster effigies of knights, which probably date from the 1782 remodelling of the church, although they are clearly intended to look much older.
The first Mavesyn came over with William the Conqueror, he fought at the Battle of Hastings and was rewarded with the lordship of Ridware. The Mavesyn’s built the Church of St Nicholas c. 1140, when the rector was Hugo Mavesyn. Several re-workings of the church followed.
Next to the church is another grade I listed building, the surviving part of the ancient manor house of the Mavesyns, built in the 1390s. Now referred to as the ‘gatehouse’ it probably formed the north side of a quadrangular complex. It is a large, timber framed building, which was later re-fronted in brick and stone. There is evidence that Oliver Cromwell held a Council of War in this manor house in 1643 prior to his attack on Lichfield
A new house closer to the river was built in the classical style in 1718 (listed grade II*) and the ancient manor house was then remodelled as the gatehouse to the new mansion.
On the opposite side of the River Trent is the Armitage Shanks works, first created in 1817, but despite the industry, this stretch of the river remains a rural idyll.
