Established church
Services were held in Branston from 1844 in a schoolchurch, converted from a stable and cowshed and
licensed at the request of the newly-appointed incumbent of Christ Church, in Burton. (fn. 7) It stood to the south
of the present church, on a site now occupied by the
vicarage house. There was an evening congregation of
28 adults on Census Sunday 1851, besides Sunday
school children. By 1853 a grant from the Church
Pastoral Aid Society together with subscriptions provided funds for two Sunday services, one taken by a
curate from Christ Church and the other by a curate
from St. Modwen's, in Burton. Having secured grants
from the Lichfield Diocesan Church Building Society,
the Incorporated Church Building Society, and John
Hardy of Dunstall Hall, in Tatenhill, the incumbent of
Christ Church arranged for the Derby architect Henry
Stevens to design a church to be dedicated to St. John.
Subsequently the marquess of Anglesey offered money
and a site, but the scheme was abandoned, apparently
because insufficient additional money was raised
locally.
In 1863 a committee was formed to supervise the
erection of a new school-church, which was opened in
1864 on the south side of Main Street. (fn. 8) It was replaced
in 1870 by the present church on the same site, paid for
by voluntary subscriptions and dedicated to St.
Saviour. It served a district chapelry for Branston
township within Christ Church ecclesiastical parish. (fn. 9)
After part of Branston was added to Burton borough in
1878 St. Matthew's mission church in St. Matthew's
Street was opened from St. Saviour's in 1886. In 1889
it was transferred to the newly-created Burton parish of
All Saints'. (fn. 10)
The patronage of St. Saviour's church was originally
vested in a body of local trustees but was transferred in
1895 to the Simeon's Trustees. (fn. 11)
From 1994 the vicar was also priest-in-charge of the
united benefice of Dunstall with Rangemore and
Tatenhill, and in 1997 he became vicar of a new
benefice called Branston with Tatenhill, although the
two parishes remain separate. The bishop of Lichfield
and Simeon's Trustees were named as joint patrons,
and Branston was made the incumbent's place of
residence. (fn. 12)
A vicarage house was built east of the church in
1871. It was replaced in 1985 by a new house south of
the church, and the former house became a restaurant. (fn. 13) In 1878 a Sunday school and reading room was
built opposite the church by B. H. Buxton of Branston
House (formerly Branston Hall) and was vested in the
parishioners as trustees. (fn. 14) It was replaced in the late
1970s by a building used as a village hall.
Figure 58:
St. Saviour's
church from the
north-west
Church Building
St. Saviour's church, built of red brick, was originally
a single-celled building with a west bell-turret. A
north-east vestry and organ chamber and a northwest porch were added in 1891, (fn. 1) and a stone reredos
was later installed in memory of the first vicar, John
Bramell (1871-97). (fn. 2) The porch was rebuilt in 1981,
when a meeting room with cross-gabled windows was
inserted along the exterior north wall between the
porch and the vestry. (fn. 3) Stained glass from St. James's
church, Derby, was placed in the east window in
1993. (fn. 4) There was a small burial ground beside the
church, and in 1914 a 1 -a. site in Clays Lane was
consecrated as an additional ground. (fn. 5)