Battlefield Church, Salop: an historical and descriptive sketch / Together with some account of the battle of Shrewsbury, and foundation of the college or chantry

by W. G. D. Fletcher

Humphrey Thomas, 1525 and 1530.

John Hussey, admitted 18 Oct., 1535; aged 40 in 1549; last master.

Description of the Church.

Battlefield Church was, as we have seen, doubtless erected in the years 1407 and 1408, excepting the tower, which was completed a century later. It is entirely of the perpendicular style of architecture, with the exception of one window on the north side of the church and two on the south side which have reticulated tracery in their heads. The church is not, strictly speaking, divided into nave and chancel, as is usual in parish churches, but consists of one covered space only, and is uniform in its character throughout.

The length of the nave and chancel inside is 94 feet, and of the tower 18 feet; the breadth of the nave is 28 feet, and of the tower 14 feet; the total length outside being 119 feet, and the breadth 33 feet.

On the South side of the church was the cemetery or burial ground, formerly enclosed by a stone wall which came up to the church, at its south east and south west corners, and had an exit at the west end. The dimensions of the cemetery are given in one of the Morris MSS. in the Salop Free Library as follows,—length 126 feet, breadth 80 feet, including the church; from the east end of the church to the ditch, 57 feet; from north to south between the ditch, 222 feet; width of the ditch, 22 feet. This stone wall, which was probably coeval with the church, was taken down at the restoration in 1862. The church and college originally stood in an oblong space enclosed by a moat, which may still in places be traced.

The tower is about 100 years later than the rest of the church, and was completed by Adam Grafton, master of the college, in 1503. His initials and the date, A.G. 1503, occur on a shield on the east side of the tower. Roger Ive by his will in 1444, left directions as to certain alms being accumulated for the building of the belfry; and the funds may have been thus raised. The tower has eight pinnacles, which were mostly replaced in 1862. It is surmounted by an embattled parapet of equal intervals, with plain cappings. Just below the battlements, is a handsome carved frieze or border, enriched with diamond shaped ornaments and quatrefoils. On the west it has two windows, and one on the east, north, and south sides. Over the higher of the west windows, in the middle of the frieze, is an escutcheon bearing an animal, apparently a lion rampant passant; and over the east window is an escutcheon having on it the inscription A.G. 1503. The second floor of the tower is furnished with a fireplace, having a chimney formed within the thickness of the wall, and opening outside the western window of the bell chamber. Exterior buttresses are built at the corners of the tower, and a square projection on its south-east corner has a spiral staircase to the top. The tower is not placed at right angles to the body of the church. The break in the stonework at its eastern wall, the comparative rudeness of the mouldings, the absence of a second plinth mould to the base, and the coarse treatment of the angle buttresses at their lower weatherings, all bear out the statement that the tower is a hundred years later than the body of the church.

The church was probably all of one pace originally, and no division made between nave and chancel externally. The exterior, between the windows, is supported by handsome stone buttresses. And it seems clear that there never was any clerestory.

With the exception of the three already referred to, the windows are all of the perpendicular style, though in some of them there are evidences of a lingering fondness for the flowing lines of decorated tracery. Some of the windows have the dripstones terminating at the bottom with plain returns, others with representations of human heads. The three windows with reticulated tracery in their heads, one on the north and two on the south side, are in style a century earlier than the rest of the windows. How can they be accounted for? One theory is that the church was designed by an architect from France, where the decorated style remained longer than in England. Another, and more probable, theory is that they were brought from the neighbouring church of Albright Hussey, which, judging from the window mouldings in the fragment that remains, was of 14th century architecture, and was probably suffered to fall into decay when Battlefield Church was built.

The east window is of five lights, and has handsome perpendicular tracery. The present stained glass in it is modern, and represents our Lord led out to crucifixion, followed by the women, the home at Bethany, Mary wiping Christ’s feet, the women at the Sepulchre, and the Risen Lord appearing to Mary,—all scenes in the history of St. Mary Magdalene. Above are the Evangelists and four greater Prophets. The old stained glass represented the decollation of St. John Baptist, and was probably brought from Albright Hussey church, which was dedicated to that saint. When the church was undergoing its first restoration in 1749, this glass was taken down, and entrusted to the care of a neighbouring farmer, who suffered his children and servants to destroy it, so that when it was to be replaced only a few fragments could be found. These were inserted in the window, much injured and dilapidated, and contained, amongst other designs, two crowned heads, a human head in a dish, a chalice and wafer, the crucifixion, some escutcheons of arms, and an inscription commencing “Orate pro animabus Rogeri . . . hujusce capellani . . . .” These fragments at the second restoration in 1862 were carried away to Prees Church, and some portions to the ante-chapel at Sundorne Castle.