Church of St Mary and St Andrew

Details

SJ 40 NE CONDOVER CHURCH STREET (south side)

5/59 Church of St Mary and - St Andrew (formerly listed as Church of St Andrew) 13.6.58

GV II*

Parish church. Late C12, 1662-79 and 1868, restored by Fairfax Wade 1878. Uncoursed and dressed pink sandstone with ashlar dressings, machine tile roofs. Nave, chancel, north and south transepts, west tower, north porch, south vestry and organ chamber, north chancel chapel. Tower: 1664 in late Perpendicular style; 3 stages with diagonal buttresses, embattled parapet has crocketed corner pinnacles; integral stair turret with domed cap at south-east corner; 2-light trefoil-headed openings to top belfry with narrow lancets to second stage on south and west and clock (late C19) on north; 3-light west window and door (1878) also in Perpendicular style. Nave: 1660s also in late Perpendicular style, replacing a medieval nave with north aisle and crossing tower; buttressed in 5 bays with embattled parapet, flat-headed 2-light window with minimal panel tracery (restored) and ornate stone porch (1878) in first bay from west on north. North transept: late C12 has pilaster buttressing from chamfered plinth and a moulded string course, 2 round-headed windows on north and one on west, all with nook shafts and waterleaf capitals; pierced quatrefoil opening below apex on north with narrow doorway on east and restored corbel table. South transept: possibly slightly earlier than nave has a timber framed gable with decorative cusped quatrefoils in square panels; 3-light window on south side with tracery similar to that in nave and blocked doorway beneath. Chancel: 1868 on site of C13 chancel. Early English style; single lancets on north and south and east window of 3 stepped lights with cusped heads and multi- foils above; contemporary chapel on north and prominent gabled vestry/ organ chamber (1878) on south. Interior: pointed double-chamfered tower arch has initials "J.O/1664" on right jamb for John Orum, mason; magnificent 5-bay hammerbeam roof to nave (restored 1878) with similar but plainer roof (1878) spanning transepts and position of former central tower, late C19 arch-braced roof in 4 bays to chancel; early C20 stained glass in north wall of nave by Hardman and Powell with east window by Reginald Cholmondley (1868); font (1878) by Landucci of Shrewsbury with carved figures of Christ and St John the Baptist; C13 oak chest in north transept has iron strap- work with fleur-de-lys finials; a stone slab (1744) set in north wall of tower gives rules for bell-ringers and various C18/early C19 boards hanging at west end of nave record benefactions to parish. The chief feature of the church is its monuments: these include Thomas Scriven (died 1587) and wife, 2 recumbent alabaster effigies in deep 4-centred arched recess with strapwork achievement, frontally placed children against tomb chest below (chancel south wall); higher on wall to right a memorial to Martha Owen (died 1641) brought from Old St Chad's, Shrewsbury - frontal bust in oval recess between columns with carving of her baby in front; other most notable monuments all in north chancel chapel; against north wall a fine double monument (1641) paid for by Jane Norton (died 1640), she and her husband, Bonham, are represented by the upper figures while the lower figures are of her elder brother, Sir Roger and her father, Thomas Owen, builder of Condover Hall (q.v.), each figure is kneeling and faces its partner across a prayer desk; below east window Roger Owen by L.F. Roubiliac (1746), semi-reclining figure with seated female figure (Roger's daughter, Catherine) at its feet; centre stage goes to marble monument of Sir Thomas Cholmondley (called Owen), (died 1864), powerful bearded kneeling figure holding a sword by G.F. Watts in a style developed from Nicholas Stone; Watts' influence is detectable too in the sentimental monument by Reginald Cholmondley to his wife, Alice, and her infant daughter (died) 1864), recumbent effigy of Alice with her baby lying by her side, its cradle stands empty at the mother's feet. Condover was in origin a Saxon minster parish, serving a vast area, and had several dependent chapelries including the Church of St John the Baptist, Stapleton (q.v.). B.o.E., Pp.111-12; D.H.S. Cranage, The Churches of Shropshire, Part 6 (1903), Pp. 475-81

Listing NGR: SJ4946905782

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

259360

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cranage, DHS, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, (1908), 475-481
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 111-112

End of official list entry

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