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St John the Baptist, Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire

Location
(52°47′34″N, 2°54′0″W)
Ruyton-XI-Towns
SJ 394 221
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Shropshire
now Shropshire
  • Barbara Zeitler
  • Ron Baxter
25 Aug 1999 (BZ), 10 May 2017 (RB)

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Feature Sets
Description

The village of Ruyton-XI-Towns acquired its name in the 12thc, when the castle was built and it became the centre of a group of eleven manors. It is in the N of the county, 7 miles SE of Oswestry and 9 miles NW of Shrewsbury. The church is on a raised site,, dominating the centre of the village, with the ruins of the castle at the W end. St John's consists of a 12thc chancel extended E c.1300, with a N vestry added in the mid-19thc; a 12thc nave with a 14thc N aisle and a S porch, and a 15thc W tower. The N aisle was rebuilt in 1845; the chancel wasrestored in 1862 and the rest of the church in 1868. Romanesque features recorded here are the nave and chancel S doorways.

History

The 2 manors of "Udeford" and Ruyton were held by Leofnoth in 1066 and by Odo from Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury in 1086. The two manors were assessed at 1½ hides and there was woodland for 40 pigs and 5 fisheries. The church was built as a chapelry of Baschurch in about 1140. It became an independent parish in 1230.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Windows

Comments/Opinions

The segmented arch of the S doorway tympanum is reminiscent of the tympana at St Mary's in Shrewsbury and at Lilleshall. The List Description compares the chancel doorway with that at Knockin.

Bibliography

D. H. S. Cranage, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, 10 vols, 1894-1912, part 9, 818-25.

Historic England Listed Building 256690

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, Harmondsworth 1958, 237-8.