Lilleshall Abbey is 1 mile to the SE of Lilleshall village, 4 miles NE of Telford in the E of central Shropshire. The ruined site, now administered by English Heritage, is at the end of a track on the N side of the minor road linking Lilleshall and Weston Heath. What survives is the church, a cruciform building with a 4-bay chancel, 2 bay transepts with E chapels and a long, aisleless nave. The cloister is on the S side of the nave, and substantial remains of the E and S ranges survive. These are treated as a separate site (Lilleshall Abbey Cloister Buildings).

Of the church, the chancel, transepts and crossing are late-12thc, while the rest of the nave, except for the E bay which goes with the crossing, dates from the 13thc. The crossing is unusual in that the W crossing piers are larger and more complex than the E, because the W crossing arch was by far the most elaborate, with extra orders framing the view into the chancel. Unfortunately, little survives of this above base plinth level, so the only crossing arches that can be described in any detail are the S arch and the E arch. The most impressive Romanesque feature is the doorway from the cloister into the first nave bay on the S side.The chancel is 4 bays long, 2 storeys high and vaulted. The vault responds and their capitals survive and are described below. The S transept arch responds and their capitals survive, but little remains of the N transept. The most impressive Romanesque feature is the doorway from the cloister into the first nave bay on the S side.

The foundation of the abbey is attributed to the brothers Philip and Richard de Belmeis, nephews of Richard de Belmeis (d.1162), a minor Shropshire landowner who rose to become Henry I’s agent in the Welsh Marches and, in 1108, Bishop of London. A colony of canons was brought from the Arrouaisian house at Dorchester and established at Lilleshall between 1145 and 1148. The abbey was built on land given by Philip de Belmeis, who also gave wood for building and the Leicestershire churches of Ashby de la Zouch and Blackfordby. Richard’s contribution to the new foundation came from his prebends of the house of secular canons at St Alkmund’s, Shrewsbury, which were transferred to the canons from Dorchester as they became vacant. The foundation of Lilleshall thus involved the suppression of the chapel royal of St Alkmund’s, and was consequently seen as a royal foundation. In practice this meant that both Stephen and the Empress Matilda had to confirm it, which both did in 1145 and 1148 respectively. The abbey was dedicated to St Mary, probably from its foundation. Over the first century of its existence it amassed a considerable portfolio of land and properties. It was surrendered to the king in 1538, when it still held most of the properties of the early endowments.

The most spectacular Romanesque feature of the church is the processional dooway from the cloister into the S nave aisle. Its elaborately carved colonnettes, playful use of chevron and varied waterleaf forms all point to a date in the 1170s; a generation later than the foundation of the abbey.

The vault and crossing arch capitals are all scallop variants, and despite their sad state of repair they demonstrate the same kind of mannerist toying with forms as the doorway and must belong to the same period.