Church of St Mary

Details

SJ 23 SE
4/45

SELATTYN AND GOBOWEN CP
SELATTYN
Church of St Mary

8.10.59

GV
I
Parish church. C13 nave and chancel, tower of 1703-1704, north transept of 1821, south transept of 1828 (shortened 1892); north aisle and restoration by C. Hodgson Fowler of Durham in 1892. Uncoursed and roughly coursed gritstone and conglomerate rubble with ashlar dressings; late C19 machine tile roofs. Nave and chancel in one; west tower; transepts; north aisle and south porch.

Tower. Datestone 1704 on south side. Three stages with embattled parapet and corner pinnacles; plinth and multi-stepped diagonal buttresses; C18 brass weathercock to north-west corner. Belfry has windows of two lights with shouldered round-headed arches, Anglo-Saxon in appearance and possibly reused from an earlier tower; similar window to second stage on south. C19 west window.

Nave: south side has square-headed window of three trefoil- headed lights, probably late C15, to east of doorway. Window to right also of three lights but with right light now cut by transept, has more rounded cusping and is probably C16; infilled narrow round-headed doorway beneath of indeterminate but presumably earlier date as cut by cill of window. Timber framed porch on sandstone ashlar walls erected 1892 in memory of Rowland Jones Venables and his wife, Harriet; C13 single-chamfered pointed south doorway.

South transept: has late C19 Perpendicular-style window to gable and pointed doorway of same date in east wall. Chancel: south side has restored C17 square-headed window of three cusped lights; C19 Perpendicular-style east window with contemporary roundel above.

North transept: shortened by the erection of the north aisle in 1892 has window of three lights with intersecting tracery and cusped openings below to gable; square-headed window with two cusped lights to west wall. Late C19 doorway with shouldered arch to east wall.

North aisle: three-light Perpendicular-style window to east wall and three plain square-headed windows to north wall, that to left of three cusped lights and those to centre and right with two cusped lights; two-light Decorated-style window to west wall. Stepped integral lateral stack with gabled top.

Interior: main feature is early C15 arch-braced collar beam roof in eight bays to nave and chancel with two tiers of cusped windbraces and cusped struts from collars to similarly cusped principal rafters. Three bays to chancel have restored ceilure; cornice has elaborately carved quatrefoil decoration, largely C19 but copied from section of original at east end of north side; three bands of foliage decoration, the one at the apex also being carved with dragons. Panels are decorated with a variety of tracery patterns and have subsidiary rails with billet moulding and rose-shaped bosses. C19 carved angels at junction between ceilure and nave roof. Arch-braced roof of 1892 to north aisle.

Late C19 low segmental pointed tower arch and north arcade of five four-centred arches with four clustered columns; similar arcade in two bays separates nave from south transept. Chancel has raised and fielded wainscot panelling of 1747 and reredos with Corinthian capitals. Panelling around walls of nave, north aisle and south transept with fluted pilasters reuses panels from C18 box pews.

Above the door to the north transept (vestry) and in the south transept are the remains of a C15 rood loft with carved decoration similar to that of ceilure. C18 pulpit and altar rails with turned balusters. Communion table is partly Jacobean as are two flanking chairs. Chest at east end of north aisle incorporates some C17 and C18 work and oak chest in nave is dated 1760. Probably C13 circular font has moulded plinth on later moulded base and incised floral decoration to rim. Stained glass in east window depicting crucifixion by Kempe (c.1876). Stone above door to north transept, probably not in situ, has carvings of three nails and a heart with date "1679" in raised lettering and probably commemorates some alteration to the fabric.

Monuments: plain C19 wall tablets and memorials, most notable being that to Revd. Thomas Edwards (died 1800), Rector of Llanfechain (Powys): draped urn. The roof at Selattyn is very similar in detail to the one at St Martin's (q.v. under Church of St Martin, St Martin's CP), although it is probably a little earlier in date.

Listing NGR: SJ2663834027

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

255758

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cranage, DHS, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, (1908), 830-3
Owen, B, Selattyn A History of the Parish, (1900)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 240

End of official list entry

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