Church Of St Peter And St Paul

SHEINTON C.P. SHEINTON SJ 60 SW 5/112 Church of St Peter and 13.6.58 St Paul GV II*

Parish church. Medieval fabric, partly re-built in 1660s, thoroughly restored 1854. Uncoursed limestone rubble with coursed rubble to C19 parts, plain tile roofs with coped stone verges. Nave with belfry, chancel, north aisle and south porch. Nave: medieval or C17 fabric on south side with 2-light Decorated-style window (c.1854) to east of mid-C19 gabled stone porch; similar window to west wall, corbelled-out timber framed belfry above probably C17 but considerably restored, close-set vertical posts with 2 middle rails and quatrefoil frieze to top, twin trefoil-headed openings below wide spreading eaves of pyramidal roof with brass weathercock; rectangular stair turret to north and lean-to 2-bay north aisle with paired cusped lancets, both c.1854. Chancel: south side has cusped lancet with blind lowside window below to left of pointed doorway and a 2-light Decorated-style window to right, all c.1854; north side also with mid-C19 Decorated- style window to east but retains medieval fabric and has an early C14 cusped lancet with blocked lowside window below to west; east window of 3 lights with reticulated tracery (c.1854). Interior: round-headed south doorway has massive plank and muntin door said to come from Buildwas Abbey (q.v. under Buildwas C.P.), nail-studded with long fleur- de-lys pointed strap hinges, the upper bent at right-angles to allow space for a small inset round-arched door with strap hinges on the inside; double hammer-beam roof to nave in 3 bays (outer trusses restored) supported on elaborately carved wall brackets, straight wind- braces and V-struts from collars; the belfry rests on 2 wooden posts with arch bracing, tie beams and quatrefoil struts - a stone in the north wall of the nave is lettered "RICD HARNAGE/RH 1669/GEO.HARNAGE/1845"; mid-C19 pointed chancel arch; trussed rafter roof to chancel with moulded eaves cornice probably C14, although some of the decorative motifs to the cornice (including ball-flower and dog-tooth ornament) are probably mid- C19; trefoil-headed piscina probably also C14 and 2 mid-C17 chairs flank altar; pulpit also C17 and some of the pews are of this date (although one to front on north side of nave has date 1716); plain apparently mid- C19 font on circular plinth and C19 stained glass in East window by H. Hughes (1877). Monument: remarkable effigy of a recumbent female figure, perhaps a child, only 0.7m long, and probably C14 - now at east end of nave but said to have been found in chancel during C19 restoration. The church occupies a prominent position in the village on high, probably partly man-made, mound. B.o.E., p.242; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 6 (1903), Pp. 506-7.

Listing NGR: SJ6105803982