Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene, Quatford

This is a 12th-century church, of which the nave and tower were rebuilt in 1714 by Henry Pagett and William Higgins. The chancel was restored in 1839, and in 1857 the south aisle and porch were added by Robert Griffiths.

The medieval parts are built of tufa. The 19th-century work is of local Bunter sandstone with Alveley sandstone dressings, with tile roofs, except for the leaded chancel roof.

The church comprises a nave with a slightly wider chancel (which has higher walls but a flatter roof than the nave), a south aisle under a separate roof, a south porch and a west tower.

Externally, the church is mainly in Decorated style, apart from the Gothic-survival tower. The buttressed four-bay south aisle has two-light windows, with a porch in the left-hand bay. The porch entrance has a pointed arch on a single order of shafts, and the south doorway has a simpler continuous chamfer. The nave north wall is of tufa, consisting of two wide buttressed bays, each with 19th-century two-light windows. At the east end of the nave is a projecting section of the 12th-century nave wall. The 12th-century chancel has set-back 19th-century red-sandstone buttresses. The windows are mainly restorations of 14th-century originals. The east window is three-light with reticulated tracery. The south wall has a single cusped light and a lower smaller cusped window to the left. On the north side is a two-light window and one round-headed restored Norman window. The three-stage tower has added diagonal buttresses and moulded bands between stages. The west front has a two-light window inserted in 1848. In the second stage are small pointed north and south windows, a small west window with a weathered head above it, and a round clock face of 1901. Two-light bell openings are beneath an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles.

Internally, the nave has a four-bay south arcade in 14th-century style, with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. The tower arch has 19th-century polygonal responds and moulded capitals, but an arch of circa 1200, round with two orders of chamfer, roll mould and hood mould. An 18th-century plastered barrel ceiling in the nave is supported on short hammerbeams on corbelled posts. The aisle has a 19th-century trussed-rafter roof. The late Norman chancel arch has two orders of shafts, eroded block capitals and roll mouldings. In the chancel is a three-bay cambered tie-beam roof. The south wall contains a Decorated ogee-headed piscina, next to which is a blocked square-headed opening. Interior walls are plastered, except in the chancel where the walls are scraped. A fragment of wall painting, composed of lozenges of the early 12th century, is in the north chancel wall. The nave has an 18th-century panelled wainscot in the north wall, and the chancel east wall has panelled wainscot earlier than the reredos. The nave and aisle have red and black tiles and raised wooden floors beneath the pews. The chancel, reached by steps, has similar tiles, except for medieval tiles in the sanctuary discovered during the 1857 restoration. Two 13th-century grave slabs are in the porch floor.

The font is Norman, with four-leaf flower decoration in roundels around the bowl, presumed to be a 17th-century reworking, on a pedestal of stout clustered shafts. The polygonal pulpit on a broad pedestal has foliage panels incorporating Christian symbols. A painted Royal arms of George I is on the nave north wall. Pews have plain ends to the aisle but the ends in the nave have blind Gothic panelling. Pews have mostly been removed from the south aisle to create an informal space. Choir stalls of 1911 have shaped ends with panelled fronts and backs with fielded panels. Priests' stalls at the ends are distinguished by carved poppy heads. A painted wooden reredos of 1935 incorporates the crucified Christ with Mary and John. Beneath the tower is a Benefaction board of 1846, and painted Ten Commandments and Lord's Prayer on boards. In the north nave wall is a Gothic tablet to John Smalman (died 1852) by T Gaffin of London. Several windows have stained glass of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the chancel, the south windows show Mary Magdalene with Christ and Christ holding a lantern, of 1873. In the aisle east window are Saints Simon and Anna, by Clayton & Bell, 1875. In the south are the Venerable Bede and Saint Credan, 1904 by Burlison & Grylls; and St Wulstan and Lady Adeliza Countess of Shrewsbury, who co-founded the church in the late 11th century, 1936 by Geoffrey Webb. The aisle west window shows the Virgin Mary and Good Shepherd, dated 1953, by Thomas William Camm of Smethwick.

The church was founded as a collegiate church in 1084–86 by Roger of Shrewsbury, standing in a commanding position overlooking the Severn valley. The college had moved to Bridgnorth by the mid-13th century, since when Quatford has been a parish church. Of the present building, the 12th-century nave north wall, chancel, and the chancel and tower arches survive from what was a substantial Norman church. The tower arch may have been the original west doorway reset in 1714. The 12th-century church was built of tufa, which was probably shipped here on the River Severn. The church was modified in the 14th century with new fenestration in the chancel. The nave and tower were rebuilt in 1714 by Henry Pagett, master-mason of Bridgnorth, and William Higgins, mason of Pitchford, at which time the nave was narrowed by six feet and shortened by six feet. The churchwardens stipulated that the tower should be in medieval style. A drawing of 1790 shows the tower without buttresses and the present arrangement of chancel south windows. Chancel windows were restored in 1839 (plaque on chancel wall). Local architect Robert Griffiths added the south aisle and porch in 1857, altered the nave by inserting Decorated windows, and added buttresses to the chancel and tower.