Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

Parish church of medieval and 19th-century date, located on the north side of High Street in Albrighton. The building is constructed of red sandstone ashlar with yellow sandstone to the north aisle, and occasional patches of tile throughout; it has a moulded cornice to the north aisle wall and plain tiled roofs.

The west tower is of 12th-century and later date, arranged in three stages with broad clasping buttresses. The first stage features a roll and fillet hood moulding and string course on the south side, with lancet windows. The second stage has 12th-century round-headed windows, the southern one with nook shafts. The belfry stage contains pointed windows and 12th-century circular openings. Perpendicular battlements and gargoyles date to around 1400.

The nave, aisles, porch, organ chamber and vestry are of 1853 date; the southern aisle occupies the site of a mid-13th-century aisle, with old masonry visible in the end walls. A 20th-century boiler house is also present. The windows are in Decorated style of 19th-century date, with 2- and 3-light designs; round windows light the end walls of the north aisle, which is buttressed.

The east chancel window dates to around 1300 and features five lights with reticulated tracery and transom, ogee heads to the lights below, and cusped quatrefoils in the head. The west window on the south side of the chancel has simpler reticulated tracery with three lights, trefoiled heads and cusped quatrefoils above. The east window on the south side of the chancel has two lights with earlier cusped bar tracery. A 12th-century south doorway is now blocked, with two contemporary carved heads in a semi-circular recess above. Diagonal buttresses flank the east wall.

The interior was substantially restored in 1853 by H.J. Stephens of Derby. The nave roof is lit by two dormers, and the outline of the old roof pitch is preserved on the east wall of the tower above a blocked 12th-century round-headed window with nook shafts. The three lancets in the tower have deep internal splays. The tower arch, dating to around 1300, is triple chamfered. The nave arcades comprise three bays, and the chancel arch is of mid-19th-century date. A medieval trussed rafter roof covers the chancel. A plain 14th-century sedilia and piscina with chamfered recess above are positioned in the south wall. An early 14th-century window in the north wall was knocked through during restoration to form an entrance to the vestry. The east and south windows contain mid-19th-century glass. The choir stalls are mid-19th-century, with altar rails dated 1895. Mid-19th-century box pews occupy the nave and aisles. A 19th-century parclose screen closes off the east bay of the south aisle. A hexagonal 17th-century pulpit is preserved, alongside an octagonal mid-19th-century font.

A late 13th-century tomb chest stands at the west end of the north aisle, uncovered in the south aisle during the 1853 restoration. It features trefoiled arches on short shafts along the sides with shields in the spandrels; the lid bears a cross in a circle with four small shields filling the spaces between the arms, and a further eight large shields cover the remainder of the lid. An alabaster altar tomb on the north side of the chancel commemorates Sir John Talbot (died 1555) and his wife, retaining traces of colour. It features two recumbent effigies, with his feet resting on a lion; armorial devices and small figures flank the sides between twisted colonettes. Against the south wall stands a plain table tomb with a crude cross carved in relief on its top, commemorating the Duke of Shrewsbury (died 1718). An incised slab to Leonard Smallpece (died 1610) is built into the external east wall of the south aisle, though now illegible. The borough mace of 1664 is displayed in a wall case at the west end of the north aisle.