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St Michael and All Angels, Woolstaston, Shropshire

Location
(52°34′53″N, 2°48′31″W)
Woolstaston
SO 453 985
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Shropshire
now Shropshire
  • Barbara Zeitler
28 July 2000

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Description

Woolstaston is a village about four miles N of Church Stretton. The church lies to the of the N village and consists of a structure of uncoursed and roughly coursed grey and brown sandstone rubble with grey sandstone ashlar dressings. The late 12th-early 13thc chancel features a triple lancet window at the E end. The nave is single-aisled and dates to the 13thc; it features a pointed S doorway. The Victorian bellcote at the W end and the vestry were added between 1864 and 1866, when the church was restored by William Hill of Smethcott and Rev. E. Donald Carr. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway and the font situated at the W end of the nave, below the bellcote.

History

The Domesday Survey records that in 1066 'Vlestanes' was held by Aelfric and Ketil; in 1086 it passed under the lordship of Robert, son of Corbet. The manor valued £2. The first mention of the church dates to 1272 (Cranage, Harding and Webb (1894-1912), II, pt. 6, 514-6).

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The arch of the S doorway, consisting of a single piece, is probably a later replacement.

The large font now forming the base of the smaller one is said by Cranage, Harding and Webb (1894-1912), II, pt. 6, 514-6, to come from the old chapel at Womerton, now destroyed. In its large dimensions, it resembles the Roman font at Wroxeter.

Bibliography

D. H. S. Cranage, M. J. Harding, W. A. Webb, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, Wellington 1894-1912, vol. II, pt. 6, 514-6.

R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, London 1858, vol. VI, 151-7.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, Harmondsworth 1958, 322.