St Eata, Atcham, Shropshire.

I Location

Site Location: Atcham
National Grid Reference: SJ 541092
County: traditional: Shropshire
now: Shropshire
Diocese: Lichfield
Dedication: St Eata
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

An aisleless church with late Saxon or early Norman masonry in the N nave and chancel walls. There is a small, plain, round headed window in the N wall of the nave. The lower stages of the tower are late 12thc. and the top stage is 15thc. The early 13thc. W doorway is the only feature with Romanesque sculpture.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) W doorway

: W doorway.

Round-headed. The arch is of one order above five orders of shafts. Red sandstone.

The arch is plain. The five orders of shafts have waterholding bases, monolithic nook shafts and simply moulded capitals with necking below an abacus that continues over all orders. The weathered label is chamfered and supported on hollow chamfered imposts.

The capitals and nook shafts appear to be modern.

Dimensions

h. of doorway	2.95 m
w.	1.62 m

VII History

The church was dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon saint St Eata the Confessor, who was abbot of Melrose in 661, becoming abbot of Lindisfarne in 664 (Eyton 1859, 244). This is the only church in the country dedicated to St Eata. The village was the birthplace of the historian Orderic Vitalis.

Although the church is not mentioned in DS, it must have existed at this time as Orderic was baptised here in 1075.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

J. C. Anderson, Shropshire: Its Early History and Antiquities. 1864, 164-5.
R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, 8, London: J. R. Smith, 1859, 239-46.
J. Newman and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire. Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2006, 124-126
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire. London 1958, 66.