Cleobury Mortimer is in the extreme SE of the county, less than a mile N of the Worcestershire border and 10 miles E of Ludlow. The church is a an aisled 13th.c building, with a 14thc. N chapel and a W tower dating from c.1160. The tower arch is partly 12thc., partly 19thc. The 12thc. section is decorated with sculpture.

The estate was held by Ralph de Mortimer in 1086, and by Edith before the Conquest. It was assessed at 4 hides, and included a mill and woodland for 500 pigs. It was a large settlement with 45 inhabitants mentioned, including a priest and thus probably a church too. It was still in the same family in 1226 when Henry III granted Hugh de Mortimer the right to hold an annual fair at the manor.

The tower arch was extensively restored during the restoration by George Gilbert Scott in 1874-5. Only the third and fourth orders appear to be 12thc., albeit with some restorations. Flat leaf capitals, as on the S side of the tower arch, are normally dated to the 1170s, but this one, with its over-elaboration, looks more like work of the previous decade.