St Mary's Church,

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and civil parish on the banks of the River Tern in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is located between the towns of Whitchurch, Shropshire, Wh ...

, stands on the top of a prominent outcrop of red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rock above the River Tern. 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, ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 mentions "a Priest in Drayton", and there was likely a wooden

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

church on the same site prior to the construction of the present

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 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

stone building, which dates to 1150. In 1201

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

forbade the weekly market which had traditionally taken place in the churchyard after the Sunday morning service. As a result, the market moved northwards a few hundred yards, to its present site in the town. In the 1320s major building work was undertaken in the church. In the

Georgian era The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the House of Hanover, Hanoverian kings George I of Great Britain, George I, George II of Great Britain, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Geor ...

galleries and

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s were added, but in the 1880s these were removed. On 9 June 2025, a suspected arsonist set fire to the west door (under the tower) which burnt away a portion of the door and caused the interior to be smoke-logged.

Internal features

The church boasts some fine stained glass. The west window, depicting

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, is by

Shrigley and Hunt Shrigley and Hunt was an English firm which produced stained-glass windows and art tiles. History The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire. In 1868, control of Shrigley' ...

. The east window, showing the

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus () is Christianity, Christian belief that God in Christianity, God Resurrection, raised Jesus in Christianity, Jesus from the dead on the third day after Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion, starting—or Preexis ...

, is by

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lychg ...

(1837–1907). Other Kempe windows are in the south west corner of the nave, depicting Jesus

healing the blind near Jericho Each of the three Synoptic Gospels tells of Jesus healing the blind near Jericho, as he passed through that town, shortly before his passion. The Gospel of Mark tells of the curing of a man named Bartimaeus, healed by Jesus as he is leaving Je ...

, raising Lazarus from the dead, and healing the paralytic at Bethesda, and at the north east corner: the

flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:13–Matthew 2:23, 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the Biblical Magi, visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Saint Joseph, Joseph in a dream telling ...

and

Presentation of Jesus at the Temple The Presentation of Jesus is an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, describing his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem. It is celebrated by many churches 40 days after Christmas on Candlemas, or the "Feast of the Presentation of Jes ...

. The

Corbet family The Corbet family is an aristocratic English family of Anglo-Norman extraction, who were amongst the early marcher lords, holding the barony of Caus. Following the extinction of the senior line (and therefore the loss of the barony) the jun ...

, who were

lords of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

and church patrons, are memorialised in several locations in the church. A brass plaque with the Corbet

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

serves as a monument to Rowland Corbet (died 1560). Above this is a monument to Dame Alice Corbet (died 1682), who bore twenty children. Her husband Sir John Corbet, the Puritan politician, was buried here in 1662. The original organ was installed in 1805, and was replaced after 1866. At one time the current organ blocked the view of the altar, but the pipes have since been moved to behind the reredos and the console to the north side of the chancel.

External features

The exterior of the church, largely rebuilt and restored in the late 19th century, consists of red

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

with some grey

in the tower.Church Of Saint Mary, Market Drayton
Shropshire History The angle-buttressed tower features

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

s that were added in the 16th century and

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the Old French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of a crocket to a bishop's Shepherd's crook, ...

ed corner

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 main ...

s from the 19th century. St Mary's has a peal of eight bells, the oldest of which dates to 1700. The tenor bell weighs and the treble . The

arch over the main west door is the only remaining part of the original stone church. Early in the 14th century the doorway was incorporated into the superstructure; the large west window above the door features ornate and elaborately patterned stonework typical of the period. The conqueror of India

Robert Clive Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British List of governors of Bengal Presidency, Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for l ...

, who attended the nearby Old Grammar School in the 1730s, is said to have once climbed out onto one of the tower's carved

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

Buntingsdale Chapel

The chapel has been long associated with the owners of

Buntingsdale Hall Buntingsdale Hall is a historic country house in the parish of Sutton upon Tern, to the southwest of Market Drayton in Shropshire, England. It became a Grade II* listed building on 14 February 1979. History Buntingsdale Hall was first built fo ...

– especially the Bulkleys, the Mackworths, the Tayleurs and again the Mackworths. The part converted into the choir vestry lies over the old family vaults. The paintings by Parry (late 20th century) depict ''Man's search for God'' and (on the reverse) ''Seasons of Faith''.

War memorials

The church contains a "Chapel of the Resurrection", a side chapel dedicated, refurbished and panelled in memory of the parish war dead of both of the 20th century's

world war A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s. It has a huge brass memorial tablet unveiled after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and a set of kneelers bearing service badges of the regiments in which those commemorated served. To the right of the main chancel arch are plaques to Major Charles Egerton Hugh Harding (died 1917) and Second Lieutenant John Alberic Everard Upton (killed in the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

1916), while on the chancel's south wall is a plaque to Lieutenant Charles Henry Lycett Warren, killed at the

Siege of Lucknow The siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the British The Residency, Lucknow, Residency within the city of Lucknow from rebel sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British East India Company's Army) during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After ...

in 1857.

References

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