The church lies on the SE side of Shrewsbury; it was built on an elevated gravel promontory where the River Meole ran into the River Severn. The present building, used as a parish church, incorporates the remains of the abbey of Shrewsbury. At the end of the 11thc Foregate was the main road and the abbey controlled the bridge. (Baker 2002, 25-34) The abbey church was built in the local red sandstone at the end of the 11thc on the site of an Anglo-Saxon chapel. It consists of an aisled nave, W tower, transepts and chancel. The nave is of 5 bays, the 3 E bays of the 11th or 12thc, and the 2 narrower W bays later, perhaps 14thc. The two sections are separated by a long pier, but the Romanesque elevation begins a 4th bay with part of an arch and capital to the W of this. Above the Norman arcade is a gallery arcade - the gallery was removed and the arcade fenestrated in the 14thc., but the piers and outer arches of the original gallery remain. A clerestorey above this, in a Norman style, is of Pearson's restoration of 1886-87, the 0riginal clerestory having been removed in 1728-29. The nave aisles were originally vaulted, perhaps with groins, but of the vault only a few of the responds survive with their capitals. The Norman arch from the N aisle to the transept survives and is heavy with a stilted arch. Further W all belongs to Pearson's rebuilding. The W tower is Norman in its lower parts, including parts of the W doorway, but it was remodelled in the 14th-15thc, and restored in 1862-63 by Pearson. The monastic buildings were to the S of the church, and the SW cloister doorway survives. The abbot's lodging was converted at the Dissolution, but everything above ground was destroyed c.1836 when a new road was constructed.

The surviving Romanesque elements of the building are the E section of the nave and aisles, with N and S doorways, and the nave arcade with the gallery arcade. Resistivity and radar studies in 1995-96 showed that the E end was apsidal and that it was later extended by a Lady Chapel but not replaced (Baker 2002, 33-34; Newman 2006, 517). In addition to the architectural features described above, there is a pillar piscina, now set up in the N nave aisle. The font is interesting in being made from a re-used Roman capital.

Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, founded the Benedictine abbey of St Peter and St Paul, on the site of an earlier church of St Peter in 1083, and was buried there in 1094. He worked with the priest Odelerius of Orléans, who was in his service and was the father of Orderic Vitalis. Monks from Seez in Normandy, Reginald and Frodo, supervised the building of the church and the monastic complex. In Domesday Book it is described as a 'monasterium' with parochial status holding two manors worth one hide each. The monks also derived income from milling. (Baker 2002, 15-19)

In 1137 the remains of St Winefried were translated to the abbey. The monastery was dissolved in 1540, and in 1546 William Langley bought the monastic buildings, occupying and extending the abbot's lodging.

Despite the extensive restoration the church offers an important contribution to our knowledge of West Midlands Romanesque.
The unusual position of the animal's legs on the piscina is paralleled in the depictions of animals on the font at Stottesdon. The piscina now in Holy Cross may, thus, also be a work of the Hereford School. A label accompanying the piscina displays the following information: 'The object was discovered in a rockery in the garden of the Borough Technical School. It was presented to the Abbey Church in 1901 by the Shrewsbury Corporation.' (Fieldworker)