Church Of St Mary

LEIGHTON AND EATON EATON CONSTANTINE SJ 50 NE CONSTANTINE C.P. 1/78 Church of St Mary 13.6.58 II

Parish church. 1847-8 on site of medieval church. Roughly coursed limestone and conglomerate rubble with ashlar dressings, machine tile roofs with fishscale bands, coped verges and moulded eaves cornices. Nave, chancel, west bellcote, south porch and north vestry. Nave: buttressed in 4 bays, broad lancets with hoodmoulds and gabled stone porch in first bay from west on south, 2 lancets to west wall linked by single hoodmould with quatrefoil window above, gabled stone bellcote housing single bell. Chancel: in 2 bays, lancets with hoodmoulds on south and east window of 3 stepped lancets under continuous hoodmould, gabled vestry to north. Interior: arch-braced King-post roof in 4 bays to nave and one of 2 bays to chancel; west gallery supported on 2 cast-iron columns and pointed chancel arch with corbelled responds; good complete set of mid-C19 box pews with small brass name plates of local families engraved in cursive lettering, pulpit, reading desk and chancel fittings (including floor tiles) all con- temporary; mid-C12 font remains from medieval church, circular with moulded pedestal and ornamental band to bottom of basin; stained glass in east window c.1888 and in chancel south windows c.1905; 2 chairs in sanctuary incorporate decorative carved panels of late C15/early C16 date and a board on one of the chancel benches is lettered: "THOMAS BATHOE CHURCHWARDEN 1634". Eaton Constantine was originally a dependent chapelry of Leighton but became a separate parish in the later Middle Ages; the old church was taken down in 1847 and the new one erected at a cost of £775. B.o.E., p.124; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 7 (1905), p.571; Post Office Directory of Shropshire (1856), p.46.

Listing NGR: SJ5972106315