Relhan Collection : 129 Conington, church. NE view
Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844
Relhan Collection
<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>At St Mary’s church major and unusual rebuilding was carried out by Dingley Askham c.1737. He belonged to a junior branch of the Cotton family and lived in Conington for 50 years. He replaced the C14 nave and buttressed the C14 tower and spire with two prominent and strange sloping brick buttresses. Cole (1745) appreciated the Gibbs surrounds to the windows and the entrance doorway to the tower (now the main entrance). In 1871 the lime-washed rendered chancel was rebuilt by WM Fawcett, who intended to rebuild the whole church. There are few changes since Relhan’s drawing. In restorations of 1902 and 1911 the spire was rebuilt with stone ashlar and the C14 tower was partly rendered. The nave roof is still leaded. The C18 gravestones can still be found.</p><p>Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Palmer 1932; RCHME 1968; Wright 1991</p></p>