Shrewsbury, St Mary's

St Mary's church at Shrewsbury in Shropshire is an ancient church but now a redundant one - which means it is no longer used for Christian Worship.

We visited in early December 2022 and, as always when I visit somewhere without researching it beforehand, I probably need to return at some point as there is a lot that I missed! It sits on a small railed island of grass and gravestones in the centre of Shrewsbury town. Without a wide angle lens I found it difficult to get a decent photograph of the exterior, but you can make out here that it is built of two different colours of sandstone: red and white.

A church has stood on this site since around 960 CE, a Royal Peculiar founded by King Edgar the Peaceful who reigned from 959-975 and kept under his own jurisdiction rather than under the diocese of Lichfield. The present church was built from the mid 12th century onwards, the original walls being replaced by arched aisles to either side of the nave and new walls created making the church wider.

The roof of the nave is of oak and carved with angels, birds and animals. It was carved and installed in the 15th century and survived the fall of the spire which crashed though it in 1894. The restoration was so successful that the only evidence of damage is some slight staining from the lime cement of the spire. It is rather dark inside the church though - I wasn't able to spot any evidence of this at all. The spire is England's third tallest spire at around 500 feet (154.2 metres).

There are other examples of carving to be found inside both in wood and stone. There was a few people inside looking round and a couple of people acting as helpers, more than as guides. We spoke with a lady who told us a little of the history of the church and was proud of the fact that Queen Elizabeth I had visited the church twice during her reign (1558-1602).

"Have you heard of Benbow?" she asked. "The Admiral?" I asked in return, a little surprised. I had assumed he came from somewhere down south for some reason, probably because of the pub in Penzance which featured in Treasure Island. However whilst Long John Silver may have been a fictional character, Vice Admiral John Benbow was a real officer of His Britannic Majesty's Royal Navy. He was born in Shrewsbury in 1653, joined the Navy at the age of 25 and had a distinguished career fighting against the French and pirates variously.

In August 1702 he was stationed in Jamaica and was involved in a battle with the French Admiral du Casse. This is a complicated tale - Benbow was deserted by some of his ships and their captains subsequently came to trial by court martial, but during the battle Benbow was struck in the leg by a chain shot. This would not just "break his leg" as some reports have it; it would absolutely shatter all of the bones in his leg and whilst he was able to attend the court martial of his rebellious captains, he died of his wounds at Port Royal, Jamaica on 4 November 1702.

There is another monument here which has a strange story behind it. Robert Cadman was a steeplejack, stuntsman and daredevil of the early 18th century. His favourite trick was to attach a rope to the top of a church tower and slide down it for vast distances, across rivers or castle courtyards wearing a wooden breastplate that had a groove for the rope. He did this successfully at Lincoln flying from a tower of the cathedral down to Castle Hill, at Dover, flying from the castle to the harbour, and at Newark from the church tower.

In 1739 he planned at Shrewsbury to slide from the spire of St Mary's down to Gay Meadow across the River Severn. Attaching one end of the rope to the spire, he then attached the other end to an anchor in the meadow. Then he climbed up the rope from the meadow all the way up to the top of the spire, performing tricks and feats of balancing as he went. Here he put on his wooden vest and lay down along the rope which nestled in the groove in his breastplate. On the way down the rope broke. He is buried here at St Mary's and a placque memorial can be found on the tower by the west door.

The real treasure of St Mary's is its glass. It has a collection of medieval glass from all over northern Europe. Sadly this is subject to more than its share of vandalism. One of the helpers told us this magnificent window had only recently had damage repaired when it was broken again to allow someone access to the church and who then broke another window from within to get out again...

When the sun is shining, as it was when we visited, the stained glass casts patterns of colour all over the lower levels of the church interior. This being December, there was a sale of Christmas cards for charities in the aisle of the church.

The organ has four manuals and dates from 1912. It is built into the crossing and under the organ we can see through the north transcept to St Nicholas' chapel which contains the church's only remaining plasterwork from the 13th century. Until the Puritans came along all the interior walls would have been plastered and painted. There is a balcony at the back of the church where a Puritan minister apparently cursed and harangued his congregation from behind so that they would face forward and concentrate on their prayers!

I spotted a face high up in the dim corner of the Trinity chapel above the grave of a Crusader. This was testing my camera to its limits. The photograph has been enhanced greatly in terms of brightness! There's a Green Man somewhere up in the roof, but I'm not exactly sure that this is it...

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