Knowbury is a small village near

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England. It is located in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Caynham Caynham is a village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England. The parish lies on the River Teme. It can be accessed via the A4117 or the A49 roads and is located 2½ miles (4 km) southeast of the market town of Ludlow. The civil par ...

. It is near to Clee Hill Village and had a part-time Post Office - now closed. There were two adjacent

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s in the village, on Hope Bagot Lane - the Penny Black, and the Bennett's End. The Bennett's End continues to be a pub, though the Penny Black is now closed. The Elan aqueduct passes through the area and crosses the Colly Brook valley (including Cumberley Lane) on the impressive Bennett's End Aqueduct.

St Paul's Church, Knowbury

The first church was a simple structure with a square tower, erected in 1839 for £1,200, on land donated by the Hon. Robert Clive, who also donated the stone and wood for building the church and vicarage. The builder was John Grosvenor of

. Next to the church was a school for 100 pupils. At the time the population was employed in collieries and brick works. The church was consecrated on 29 January 1840 by the

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Hereford Cathedr ...

, Thomas Musgrave. The church "stands on the hill side, and is a conspicuous object from all parts of the surrounding country." It was closed for essential work in 1874, and re-opened in 1881. There were alterations and additions made in 1883/4 when the chancel, stair turret, and porch were added by Edward Turner of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. The church is built in stone, the early part has a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof, and the roof of the later parts is tiled. It consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a south porch, a higher chancel with a north organ chamber, and a west tower with a north

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. The tower has three stages, a west doorway with a pointed arch, and an

embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. The windows are in Decorated style. Further donations were made, with the addition of a processional cross, altar cross, candlesticks, communion table, books, seats and silver communion plate. The organ is by H Wedlake of London and cost £191 in 1884. An old font was donated by Sir John Dashwood King, who also donated the tower clock. The clock mechanism is by J B Joyce & Co of Whitchurch. The stained glass in the east window is by

Mayer of Munich Franz Mayer of Munich is a German stained glass design and manufacturing company, based in Munich, Germany and a major exponent of the Munich style of stained glass, that has been active throughout most of the world for over 170 years. The fir ...

; it shows the Crucifixion. The window in the south chancel showing the Eucharist and the glass in the tower, showing the Baptism of Christ and Suffer Little Children, are probably also by Mayer. The painted reredos, a wooden triptych, is by

Charles Edgar Buckeridge Charles Edgar Buckeridge (1864 – 11 May 1898) was an English church decorative artist and the son of Charles Buckeridge, a Gothic Revival architect. Life and career Born in Headington, Oxford in 1864, the son of Annie and Charles Buckeridg ...

; it shows Christ in Majesty, painted in the Netherlandish style. The rood was erected in the memory of Revd. F M Williams in 1911. The floodlighting for the tower was installed in 1977 to commemorate David Coles. The church is

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The churchyard contains the graves of 4 war dead, two

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldiers and an

airman An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions. In civilian aviation usage, t ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and an airman of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Outside the church is the grade II listed War Memorial in form of a granite obelisk.

External links

Village website

References

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire

St Paul's Church, Knowbury

External links

See also

References