Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the Shropshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 November 1954. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- ragged-sentry-quill
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Shropshire
- Constituency
- South Shropshire MP: Stuart Anderson (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 12 November 1954
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Mary, Caynham
- OS grid reference
- SO 553 732
- Coordinates
- 52.35575, -2.65666
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary is a building with a 12th-century tower, while the nave and chancel were rebuilt and extended in 1885 by James Brookes. The church is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings to the tower. The 19th-century rebuild uses rusticated coursed stone, and the roofs are covered in plain tiles with a pyramid roof to the tower, an ashlar-coped gable to the chancel, and ornamental clay ridge tiles.
The church comprises a chancel, a north vestry, a nave with a north aisle and south porch, and a west tower. The chancel is the 1885 rebuild, featuring a three-light Decorated-style east window with cusped cinquefoils. It includes ashlar-gabled diagonal and side buttresses, and a gabled vestry projection with a chimney stack featuring rounded ashlar shafts. The 1885 rebuild incorporates a restored Decorated cusped lancet to the north wall and two similar windows to the south wall, alongside an additional twin-cusped lancet with a quatrefoil. The nave’s south wall also dates to 1885, with three tall lancets, one reset Norman lancet with a dogtooth dressed lintel. A reset and restored Norman south door is present, with a dogtooth and chevron arch, scalloped capital, and a 19th-century tympanum and abaci. The 1885 north aisle wall contains broad flat buttresses and four lancets, including a reset Norman lancet and a former east window of two cusped lights, now reset in the west aisle wall. The 1885 south porch is constructed of stone with a tiled roof. The two-stage west tower has a Transitional doorway with hoodmoulds on eroded figure-head imposts. The upper stage features lancets, and a roll-moulded string course runs around the base.
Inside, the chancel has a ribbed stone-vaulted roof springing off 13th-century corbels with Early English moulding and undercut abaci, which are probably reset. The triple chancel arch is transitional, with a central tall archway and arched side openings, all featuring plain chamfered imposts and raised roll-moulded hoodmoulds on the nave side. The nave roof, also from the 1885 rebuild, is composed of eight bays with nine pine trusses, arched braced with scissor-struts over the collar and with clasped purlins. The aisle arcade comprises three arches on scalloped capitals supported by large round shafts, dating to 1885. An Early English font is also present.
Local climate
Church of St Mary receives an average of 810 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 61% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 85% of listed buildings. Of these, 22 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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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
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