We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.

Heath Chapel, Heath, Shropshire

Location
(52°27′59″N, 2°39′12″W)
Heath Chapel, Heath
SO 557 856
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Shropshire
now Shropshire
medieval not confirmed
  • Barbara Zeitler
16 August 1998

Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=2365.

Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.

Description

Heath is a hamlet and small civil parish in the Clee Hills area of south Shropshire. It was once larger, and the church is a remnant of the Desrted Medieval Village of Heath, surrounded by typical earthworks, house platforms, hollow ways and ridge and furrow. Apart from these the chapel stands alone in a field. The nave and the chancel, built in the 1140s, are almost unaltered, except for the window in the N wall of the nave, which dates from the 17thc. An unornamented string course runs across the exterior and the interior of both nave and chancel. The capitals on the chancel arch have some decoration. The S doorway, made of yellow sandstone, is extensively decorated with sculpture. Roman (?) bricks in masonry of church exterior. Flat buttresses. 12thc. font in nave, close to the S door.

History

The Heath Chapel once served the village of Heath, which is now abandoned, and formed part of the parish of Stoke St Milborough. Settlement in this area is thought to have begun c. 1090 under the aegis of the Lords of Holdgate Castle who held the lands in this area from the Priory of St Milburga at Much Wenlock. The church was built by the lord of Heath c. 1140. The village population decreased in the 14thc.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The nookshafts and bases of the S doorway may date from the early 20thc. restoration. The base of the font may be modern.

Bibliography

Historic England Listed Building 484154

Klein P, A Guide to The Heath Chapel Shropshire, Leominster 1990.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire: Harmondsworth, Middlesex 1958, 147.

Victoria County History: Shropshire, 10 (1998), 393-99