St Giles' Church is in the hamlet of Barrow,

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 ...

, England. It is an active Anglican

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the deanery of Telford Severn Gorge, the archdeaconry of Ludlow, and the

diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

. Its benefice is united with those of All Saints, Broseley, St Mary, Jackfield, St Bartholomew, Benthall, and St Leonard, Linley. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building 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 ...

. It is one of the earliest surviving churches in Shropshire, and contains the county's only Anglo-Saxon

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

History

St Giles' was originally built as a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

Wenlock Abbey Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mon ...

. The date of origin of its chancel is uncertain; it has been suggested that this was as early as the 8th century, but it is more likely that it originated in the 11th century. The

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

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 ...

dates from about 1100, and probably replaced an earlier timber nave. The lower parts of the tower date from later in the 12th century. A brick south porch was built in 1705, and the brick top stage of the tower and its pyramidal roof were added during the 18th century. The church was restored in 1851–52 by G. E. Street. In 1894–95

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...

built the north chapel to replace a chapel dating from 1688, and also rebuilt the east wall of the chancel.

Architecture

Exterior

Other than the brick top stage of the tower and the porch, the church is constructed in stone with tiled roofs. On the north wall of the chancel is an Anglo-Saxon window and traces of a strip

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

. In the south wall is a Norman priest's doorway which cuts into an earlier window. In the nave the Norman features consist of two windows in the north wall, and a window and a doorway in the south wall. The tower has a Norman west doorway and one Norman window. The east wall of the nave has been built around the east

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

of the chancel. The porch is Neoclassical in style; it is built in red brick with rusticated stone

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

. Its outer doorway is round-headed with a keystone, flanked by a pair of

oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...

. Inside the porch is a pillar

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

Interior

The chancel arch is Anglo-Saxon in origin, but it was altered during Street's restoration. The tower arch consists of the original Norman west doorway of the nave before the tower was built. Its tympanum, now seen from within the tower, is decorated with three tiers of

saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltatori ...

crosses in squares. The font consists of a plain tub on a cylindrical stem, and probably dates from the 12th century. The timber pulpit is in the shape of a drum, and is decorated with traceried panels. Also in the church is a poor box dating from about 1690 that is mounted in a later stem. The wall monuments date from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

External features

In the churchyard is the Neoclassical chest tomb of John Rose, the creator of the Coalport China Works, who died in 1841. It is listed at Grade II. Barrow Church Cemetery contains the

war grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

of a

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

soldier 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 opposing ...

.
CWGC casualty record.

References