Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a chapel of ease, now a parish church, located in Edstaston. The building originates from the late 12th century, with major subsequent alterations: the east wall was largely rebuilt around 1300, the west end was truncated and rebuilt around 1723, and the whole structure underwent restoration in 1882–3 by G. H. Birch.

The exterior is constructed of regularly coursed and dressed yellow and red sandstone blocks to the nave, with sandstone ashlar to the east wall, west wall, and the 19th-century porch and vestry. The roof is of plain tile with coped verges. The building comprises a nave and chancel in one (though the chancel is probably slightly earlier), with 19th-century additions including a west bellcote, south porch, and north-east vestry.

Both the nave and chancel retain their original trefoil-arched corbel table and moulded string course at cill level of the original windows, with a chamfered plinth to the chancel.

The south side of the nave features two 15th-century windows: the eastern one has panel tracery, while the western has a hoodmould and grotesque head-stops. A gabled porch to the west, erected in memory of George Honyman, Baron of Sutherland (died 1875), contains a stone dated "1710" with names of "Gentleman wardens" inscribed on its west side, reused from an earlier porch. The 12th-century south doorway has four orders of shafts with leaf capitals, two of which are embellished with carvings of a human head and mythical beast. The arches display chevron and crenellated decoration, and the hoodmould is carved with dogtooth decoration, head-stops, and a carved head at the apex. Above this is a restored quatrefoil niche. The oak door is probably also original, with elaborate contemporary ironwork.

The north side features four large buttresses: two to the west are of early 19th-century date, and the easternmost incorporates the footings of a medieval buttress. The second buttress from the east is stepped and larger than the others, probably from the 17th century. Between the second and third buttresses from the east is a 15th-century window with panel tracery and grotesque head-stops. Between the first and second buttresses from the east is a 12th-century window with crocket capitals and chevron decoration to the arch. A 12th-century doorway between the western buttresses has one order of shafts with elaborate carved capitals and a zig-zag decoration enclosing a round. The outer arch displays elaborate foliage decoration with intertwined animal and human figures, supported on tiny carved corbelled responds. The hoodmould has a type of leaf motif and a carved head at the apex. The door is probably original and has contemporary crescent-shaped ironwork.

The west wall was rebuilt around 1723 to the east of the original west end. It features a three-light window in the Decorated style from the 19th century and a gabled bellcote with twin cusped openings.

The south side of the chancel has a 15th-century window with panel tracery to the west and a three-light 14th-century window to the east. A priest's doorway set in a chamfered projection to the west has inturned upward leaves to its capitals, ringed nook-shafts, chevron decoration to the outer arch, and dogtooth carving to the inner arch. A 19th-century door reuses some 12th-century ironwork. Above this is a blind rectangular opening. A 12th-century pilaster buttress is cut by the 15th-century window.

The north side is divided into two bays by an original pilaster buttress. The east bay has a 12th-century window with a narrow round-headed inner arch and one order of nook-shafts with crocket capitals. The west bay has a 15th-century window with panel tracery and grotesque head-stops. A 19th-century flat-roofed vestry at the east corner has a tall chimney in the angle with the chancel, featuring an octagonal shaft and miniature lucarne-like louvres to the cardinal points.

The east wall was rebuilt above the 12th-century string course around 1300 and has contemporary angle buttresses and a short chamfered buttress beneath the window. This window has five intersecting lights with cusped heads to the lower arches and a cusped sexfoil to the apex, with a hollowed hoodmould.

Internally, a moulded string course remains at cill level of single-splay 12th-century windows in both nave and chancel, and also at the level of the springing of the window arches to the nave. A considerably restored wide round-headed recess on the north wall of the nave houses a piscina. The king-post roof to the nave, dating from around 1718–23, is in four bays with two tiers of curved windbraces and has the date 1723 carved on the western tie beam. A similar roof to the chancel was restored with panelling inserted, probably in 1882–3.

Considerable traces of medieval and post-medieval murals of several different dates survive on the nave and chancel north and south walls, including sham painted ashlar masonry and consecration crosses to a sedile beneath the 14th-century window in the chancel and on the wall to the east of the nave south-east window. Other subjects include a 13th-century Adoration of the Magi on the north wall of the nave, a 15th-century St Christopher above the north doorway, and a 15th-century St John the Baptist above the south doorway. A restored 14th-century aumbry and piscina are in the east wall of the chancel.

The interior also contains a simple Jacobean pulpit and a 17th-century oak chest in the vestry. A possibly 12th-century font bowl is at the north-west corner of the church. Other fittings and furnishings, including the present font, are of late 19th-century or later date. Fragments of 15th-century stained glass, including part of a bearded figure, remain in the top part of the nave south-west window. The south-east window dates from 1844 and commemorates Admiral George Bowen. Other windows are of the late 19th century.

Plain 18th- and 19th-century wall tablets commemorating members of local families are in both nave and chancel. A royal coat-of-arms of George III (1806) is positioned above the nave west window.

A chantry was established here in the late 15th century, probably by Richard III. Edstaston, originally a dependent chapelry of Wem, became a separate parish in 1850. This is one of the most complete Romanesque buildings in Shropshire.