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St Peter, Chelmarsh, Shropshire

Location
(52°29′14″N, 2°24′44″W)
Chelmarsh
SO 721 878
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Shropshire
now Shropshire
medieval Hereford
now Hereford
medieval St Peter
now St Peter
  • Barbara Zeitler
  • Nicola Coldstream
  • Barbara Zeitler
  • Ron Baxter
17 August 2011

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Description

Chelmarsh is in the SE of the county, 3 miles S of Bridgnorth to the W of the Severn valley. The village straggles along the B4555, with the church towards the N end. It is a 14thc. building with nave and chancel in one, in buff ashlar with a rubble 14thc. N aisle containing a reset 12thc. doorway. In the same wall are three chevron voussoirs reused as building rubble. The tower is 17thc. There is a 12thc. font at the W end of the nave.

History

Chelmarsh was held by Ralph de Mortimer from Earl Roger Montgomery in 1086, and by Earl Edwin before 1066. It was assessed at 5 hides. In 1345 Hugh de Mortimer endowed a chantry chapel in the church. According to Pevsner, this act may have been the culmination of the extensive rebuilding of the church that took place in the 14thc.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Miscellaneous

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The capitals of the first order on the N doorway jut out considerably from the roll-moulding on the arch above. This feature can also be found on the S doorway at Upton Cressett.

The reset fragments displaying chevron ornament in the vicinity of the N doorway may have come from a 12thc. S doorway, which was dismantled when the church was rebuilt in the 14thc.

Bibliography

D. H. S. Cranage, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire...: illustrated from photographs by M. J. Harding; with ground plans of the most important churches drawn by W. A. Webb, 2 vols, Wellington: Hobson & Co., 1901-12, Vol 1, part 4, 279-85.

EH, English Heritage Listed Building 254605.

R. W Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, London: J. R. Smith, 1859, Vol III, 36-47.

J. Newman and N. Pevsner, Buildings of England: Shropshire, New Haven and London, 2006, 193-94.

N. Pevsner, Buildings of England: Shropshire, Harmondsworth 1958, 95.