Church of St Michael

Details

WELSHAMPTON C.P. WELSHAMPTON
SJ 42 SW

9/196 Church of St. Michael
- (formerly listed as
27.5.53 Church of St. Michael
and All Angels)
GV II
Parish church. 1863 by George Gilbert Scott, on site of earlier church,
for Frances Mainwaring and Salusbury Kynaston Mainwaring in memory of
Charles Kynaston Mainwaring of Oteley (q.v. under Ellesmere Rural).
Snecked yellow sandstone ashlar; slate roofs with lozenge patterns to
nave, zig-zag patterns to chancel and porch and plain bands to aisle
and vestry. Stepped coped verges to nave and cast-iron Celtic cross
to east end of chancel. Nave and apsidal chancel with bellcote at junction; north porch, south aisle and south-east vestry/organ chamber.
Late Early English Style. Nave. North side has stepped gabled buttresses to west corner. Moulded cill band and chamfered plinth continued
to porch, west end and south aisle. Two 2-light windows with plate
tracery and hoodmoulds with foliated stops to left of porch and single
trefoil-headed lancet also with foliated label-stops to right. Porch
has decorated Celtic cross to gable and pointed moulded outer doorway
with 2 orders of shafts and hoodmould with head-stops. Small triple
lancets to each side. Pointed inner doorway, moulded with single order
of shafts, has foliated label-stops to hoodmould. Scissor-braced roof
has hanging cast-iron lamp. Gabled bellcote at junction with chancel
has twin-pointed openings divided by circular shaft with foliated capital;
blind quatrefoil to each side and Celtic cross to apex. West end has
3-light window with plate tracery and head-stops to hoodmould. Lean-
to south aisle, unbuttressed in 4 bays, has diagonal buttress to west
corner and twin-gabled buttress to east corner. Paired lancets except
for west wall, which has 2-light plate tracery window, all with foliated
label-stops to hoodmoulds. Lean-to south-east vestry has pointed arch-
way to left with foliated label-stops and inner cusped trefoil-headed
doorway approached by flight of 3 steps; narrow rectangular window with
shouldered head to right. East wall has paired lancets with blind trefoil
heads and stack in form of stepped gable to south-east corner has top
rebuilt in concrete. Steps to boiler house below. Apsidal chancel
with moulded plinth and stepped cill band is buttressed in 4 unequal
bays with foliage decoration below cill band to buttresses and incised
decoration above. Carved corbel table. 3 broad lancets with head-
stops to semi-circular end and 2-light window with plate tracery and
head-stops to north side. Cast-iron downpipes and rainwater heads with
blind quatrefoils all round church. Interior. Nave has trussed rafter
roof supported on miniature stone octagonal shafts; stone corbel table.
Panelled roof to chancel with foliated bosses and foliage decoration
to stone cornice. Pointed moulded chancel arch with head-stops and
foliated capitals to clustered marble shafts. Pointed 4-bay south nave
arcade has large marble columns with moulded stone bases and capitals;
foliage decoration to label-stops of hoodmoulds. West respond has 3
marble shafts and east respond has 2 marble shafts flanking corbelled
stone responds. Benches in nave and aisle by Scott have brass sconces
with foliage decoration and twisted shafts. Harmonium in front of pointed
arch with wooden Gothic screen leading to vestry/organ chamber has C19
copy of Van Eyck's Ghent altar piece. Richly decorated font with 4
marble shafts has octagonal wooden cover with wrought-iron work. Stone
pulpit has marble shafts to base and sides. Encaustic tiles in raised
chancel and sanctuary, windows of which have marble shafts with foliated
stone capitals. Choir stalls and sconces by Scott and wooden Gothic
screen in segmental pointed arch with marble shafts and foliated capitals
leading to organ chamber. 2 sedilia with trefoil heads on south and
trefoil-headed credence shelf on north. Alabaster reredos, wooden communion table and brass altar rails probably also by Scott as is brass candelabrum hanging from roof. Oak chest against west wall of nave probably late C17 or early C18. Brass plate above records that church was built in 1863 in memory of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring and stained glass in west window also in his memory. Glass in north-west window of nave commemorates Jeremiah Lehopena Mashueshue (died 1863), son of Moshesh, "Paramount Chief of Busuto Land, South Africa". More glass of 1863
in chancel. West window of south aisle has late C19 glass to Revd.Charles
Mainwaring and south-east window (1885) is in memory of Henrietta Margaret
Peel. No monuments of note. The medieval church on the site was replaced by one built in 1788 for Mary Kynaston of Oteley, which was in turn demolished by Scott. B.o.E. p. 309; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 9 (1908) p. 778; appendix, p. 1012;


Listing NGR: SJ4337434913

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

260893

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cranage, DHS, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, (1908), 778 1012
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 309

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.