Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the Shropshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 March 1968. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
tenth-frieze-aspen
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Shropshire
Constituency
South Shropshire MP: Stuart Anderson (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
21 March 1968
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Mary, Bettws-Y-Crwyn
OS grid reference
SO 205 813
Coordinates
52.42452, -3.16931
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating from the late 13th or 14th century, with significant rebuilding of the nave and a complete rebuild of the chancel in 1860. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The building consists of a nave, chancel, and a south porch.

The church features verge parapets, and a semi-integral west bell-turret, with a set-back to a gabled bellcote featuring a chamfered arched opening. The south side of the nave has three 19th-century windows with paired lancets, hoodmoulds, and carved stops. A chamfered arched doorway is located between the first and second windows, with a six-panelled door. The south porch has a chamfered archway, interior side benches, and a hexagonal date stone in the gable reading "RESTORED/AD/1860.” The north side of the nave retains three late 13th or 14th century lancets with hoodmoulds and carved stops. The chancel has single lancets to the north and south, similarly detailed, and an east window constructed in a 15th-century style, featuring three trefoiled ogee-headed lights, panelled tracery, and hoodmoulds with carved stops.

Inside, the nave has a six-bay roof constructed in the 15th or early 16th century, exhibiting arch-braced trusses with moulded bases, collars with cusped V-struts above, two pairs of moulded purlins, and three tiers of cusped wind braces forming quatrefoil panels. A collar and tie-beam truss is located to the west, with inclined queen struts and V-struts above the collar. A likely 19th-century two-bay roof exists in the chancel, mirroring the nave's design. A late 15th or 16th century eight-bay screen features round-arched lights with open tracery, bisecting mullions, a moulded tie-beam above, and an open quatrefoiled panel beneath, with a central two-bay opening including carved spandrels. A 17th-century octagonal wooden pulpit incorporates lugged panels, with a reader's desk displaying raised and fielded panels. An 18th-century altar rail is present, lacking its central gate, and a 19th-century font is paired with a 17th-century panelled cover. The church also includes 19th-century pews with bold poppyheads, bearing the names of farms within the parish, and a panelled sanctuary. Late 18th- and early 19th-century wall tablets are also present.

The interior, despite the relatively plain exterior, is notable for its excellent roof structure and screen.

Local climate

Church of St Mary receives an average of 960 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 66% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 55 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 33 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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