Church Stretton is a market town approximately 13 miles S of Shrewsbury, in the Shropshire Hills. The town is sited in a pass or saddle point beween two great hills: the Long Mynd to the W and Caer Caradoc, site of an Iron Age hill fort, to the E. A Roman road runs through the town, using this strategically important pass for communications between Shrewsbury and Wroxeter and the southern centres of Hereford and Kenchester. The church is in the centre of the town, and consists of a nave with crossing, transepts and chancel. The nave is 12thc: N and S doorways, both decorated with sculpture. The N doorway is blocked up, the S now opens into the vestry. The crossing arches are Transitional, the transepts and chancel Early English and the crrossing tower Early English with a Perpendicular upper storey. 19thc arches open into the W aisles of N and S transepts (not described here). The N doorway was blocked up in 1818 (see Bilbey, below). A vestry was added in 1831. The church was extensively restored by S. Pauntney Smith between 1866 and 1868, when the transept aisles were added. Further restoration work was carried out in 1879, 1882
and 1932.