Church Of St Simon And St Jude

The Church of St Simon and St Jude is a chapel-of-ease, now a parish church, located in Cockshutt, Shropshire. The present building dates to 1777, built on the site of a 16th or earlier chapel, with a restoration occurring in 1886. The church is constructed of red brick with slate roofs featuring carved stone kneelers and coped verges.

The church comprises a nave, a polygonal chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a north-east vestry added in 1886-7. The three-stage tower has a recessed top stage with corner pilasters terminating in stone pyramids rising to a plain brick parapet. The belfry features round-headed louvred windows on all sides, with a round-headed window to the second stage on the west. The base of the tower has a blind roundel on the west and a round-headed plank door with a clock dated 1789 above it on the south. The south side of the nave has broad pointed lancet windows. A late 19th-century open gabled timber porch shelters flush-panelled double doors. The north side of the nave mirrors the south with lancets and corbelled eaves cornices. The west wall has round-headed windows flanking the tower, and the east wall contains a narrow chamfered stone lancet inserted into the apse in the early 20th century. The polygonal vestry, projecting at a 45-degree angle to the north-east, has segmental-pointed cast-iron fixed-light windows and a moulded eaves cornice. A small chimney stack projects from the north-east corner of the nave.

Inside, the nave has a late 19th-century boarded crown-post roof in five bays, and a ribbed wooden vault covers the apse, likely dating from around 1886. The pointed, chamfered chancel arch rests on late 19th-century responds decorated with foliage. A pointed doorway to the left leads to the vestry. While there's no access from the nave to the tower, a half-arch, presumably for a former gallery, is visible within. The church contains late 19th-century benches and an octagonal font. A pulpit from 1888 incorporates 17th-century decorated panelling and a 19th-century inscription. Reused 17th-century rectangular oak panelling forms wainscoting on an adjacent wall. A 1937 screen, originally at the east end around a raised chancel, now stands at the west end of the nave. A late 17th or early 18th-century communion rail, hinged in three sections, is also at the west end. The sanctuary features a black and white tile floor, an alabaster reredos (1904), and alabaster wall facing (1912). Stained glass windows in the sanctuary, by Kempe (1896), commemorate Charles Backhouse Robinson and his family, while nave windows date from 1894. The church contains no notable monuments. Originally a dependent chapelry of Ellesmere, the church was formerly dedicated to St Helen and attained parochial status in 1868.