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St George, Clun, Shropshire

Location
(52°25′8″N, 3°1′50″W)
Clun
SO 300 806
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Shropshire
now Shropshire
medieval Hereford
now Hereford
medieval St George
now St George
  • Barbara Zeitler
  • Ron Baxter
  • Barbara Zeitler
  • Ron Baxter
31 August 1998 (BZ), 14 June 2023

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Description

Clun is a small town in the Shropshire Hills, in SW Shropshire, 13 miles W of Ludlow and 12 miles SW of Church Stretton. It stands on the River Clun, a tributary of the Teme. It was an important crossing on the ancient drove road from Wales to the markets of the Midlands, and a stronghold of the de Says, important Norman landowners.

The church is on the S side of the river and consists of an aisled 12thc nave with a 14thc N porch, a 12thc W tower remodelled in the 17thc. and a 19thc chancel. The medieval work is of coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. As well as renewing the chancel, G. E. Street virtually rebuilt the entire church in 1876-77, although he used medieval material when possible. The features reported here are the N and W doorways, the nave arcades and a corbel reset above the 13thc NE nave doorway.

History

Clun was held by Picot from Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury in 1086, and by Eadric the Wild before the Conquest. It was assessed at 15 hides, 2 of which were held from Picot by Walter. The manor remained in the family of de Say, Barons of Clun until the reign of Stephen, but Elias de Say, perhaps Picot's grandson, died without a male heir and the barony passed to his daughter Isabel's successive husbands, the third and last of which was William Boterell. Isabel and William gave the church of Clun to Much Wenlock Priory, and on their deaths the manor passed to the descendants of her second marriage, the FitzAlans, in the person of William FitzAlan (II), who held the barony from 1199-1210. Details of the later ownership of the manor will be found in Eyton.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Corbel tables, corbels

Interior Features

Arcades

Nave
Comments/Opinions

The N doorway overlooks the town, with the church on steeply rising land at its southern edge, which explains why it is the main entrance to the church. The label stops on the N doorway are probably 13thc. embellishments, although the W may be original. The NE doorway and its relationship to the N aisle are difficult to date. The animal head above the NE doorway recalls the head of a bear on the W corbel table at Diddlebury. The weathered human head above the W doorway resembles that above the W doorway at Diddlebury.

Bibliography

Anon, Brief Notes on St. George's Church, Clun, n.d.

  1. R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, 12 vols, London 1854-60. Vol. 11, 225-42.

L. Garner, Churches of Shropshire, Shropshire Books, 1994, 54-6.

Historic England Listed Building, English Heritage Legacy ID: 257178

  1. J. Newman and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire New Haven and London 2006, 220-22.

N. Pevsner, Buildings of England: Shropshire, Harmondsworth 1958, 107-8.