St Eata's Church is in the village of

Atcham Atcham is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the B4380 (once the A5), 5 miles south-east of Shrewsbury. The River Severn flows round the village. To the south is the village of Cross Houses and ...

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 activitie ...

in the deanery of Shrewsbury, the archdeaconry of Salop, and the

diocese of Lichfield The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...

. Its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

is united with that of St Giles-with-Sutton, Shrewsbury. 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 I ...

. Its

dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days ...

Eata of Hexham Eata (died 26 October 686), also known as Eata of Lindisfarne, was Bishop of Hexham from 678 until 681,Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 217 and of then Bishop of Lindisfarne from before 681 until 685.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of ...

is unique.

History

The first church to St Eata is said to have been built in the eighth century but there is no longer any trace of this.From report by Jennifer Meierhans. A church was present on the site by 1075, the chronicler

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern histor ...

being

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

there on the Easter Day of that year. The oldest part of the present church is in the

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-typ ...

and dates from the late

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

or the early Norman era. The tower is probably from the 12th century, and the

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. ...

from the late 13th century. The south porch is dated 1665. The church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

in the late 19th century.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in red and grey

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, and incorporates some large blocks of stone from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

city of

Wroxeter Wroxeter is a village in Shropshire, England, which forms part of the civil parish of Wroxeter and Uppington, beside the River Severn, south-east of Shrewsbury. ''Viroconium Cornoviorum'', the fourth largest city in Roman Britain, was sited ...

. The roof is tiled. The plan of the church consists of a nave, a chancel, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower is in four stages, with

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. At the top of the tower is a

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

, corner

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wall ...

s, a

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'). ...

with truncated

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainl ...

s, and a small pyramidal cap. The bell openings are louvred, with a clock face over the opening on the north side. In the third stage are paired

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and ...

s, and the second stage contains a large lancet window on the west side. The bottom stage has a round-arched west doorway with five orders of shafts. In the north wall of the nave is an early, small, round-headed window; the other windows in the nave are

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

in style. The chancel has an east window consisting of three stepped lancets under one arch. The windows on the north and south sides of the chancel contain Y-

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

Interior

In the south wall of the chancel is a tomb recess. The octagonal

font In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...

is dated 1675, and the reading desk contains 17th-century panels depicting the

Parable of the Prodigal Son The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable wit ...

. The choir stalls incorporate late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

poppyheads and 17th-century

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s. The stained glass in the east window dates from the 15th century, and there is 16th-century glass in a north nave window depicting

Blanche Parry Blanche Parry (1507/8–12 February 1590) of Newcourt in the parish of Bacton, Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches, was a personal attendant of Queen Elizabeth I, who held the offices of Chief Gentlewoman of the Queen's Most Honourable Privy Ch ...

. In the north wall of the chancel is a window dated 1859 by

William Wailes William Wailes (1808–1881) was the proprietor of one of England's largest and most prolific stained glass workshops. Life and career Wailes was born and grew up in Newcastle on Tyne, England's centre of domestic glass and bottle manufacturing. ...

, and there are windows in the south walls of the chancel and the nave by Lavers and Westlake. The oldest monument dates from 1524. The two- manual

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''rank ...

was built in 1858 by G. M. Holdich, restored in 1896 by Nicholson and Company, and overhauled in 1961 by Hawkins and Company. More pipes were added in 1976. Near the organ are two brass parish war memorial plaques, one listing nine men who died serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the other two men who died in

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. There is a ring of six bells, four of which were cast in 1709 by Abraham Rudhall I at

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...

, and two in 1829 by Thomas Mears II at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bell ...

. A bellringing gallery, with mezzanine floor accessed by spiral stairway, was installed in 2014; it replaces the previous gallery that was badly damaged in a fire caused by a lightning strike in 1879 (which injured several children) and taken down in 1896.

External features

In the churchyard to the south of the church are six structures that have been designated as Grade II listed buildings. The

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a fl ...

probably dates from the 18th century. The Lawrence Memorial is dated 1789, the Howells Memorial dates from the early 19th century, and the Walford Memorial is dated 1814. There is a group of five coffin slabs probably dating from the 14th century, and a group of five chest tombs from the late 18th or early 19th century. There is an unlisted family vault for

Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick (16 April 1745 – 6 January 1789), was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1784 when he was raised to the peerage. Early life Hill was the youngest and only surviving ...

and his descendants down to 1903. Anna Bonus Kingsford, feminist writer and wife of a then vicar of Atcham, is buried in the churchyard, which also contains five

Commonwealth war graves The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

of airmen of the

Second World War 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

- two

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs m ...

, an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal ...

, a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and a

New Zealander New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

References