Holy Trinity Church, Much Wenlock

Holy Trinity Church in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. Located on Wilmore Street and dating to the early 12th century, it is now a Grade I listed building.

Holy Trinity Church
The church in 2016
52°35′47″N 2°33′26″W
Location	Wilmore Street, Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England
Architecture
Completed	Early 12th century

The oldest part is the nave, the south aisle and chapel and the tower were added in the late 12th century, and the chancel was later extended, doubling its length. The church is built in stone, and consists of a nave, a south aisle and chapel, a south porch, a chancel, and a west tower. The nave is Norman in style, and the chancel is early Perpendicular. The tower has four stages, clasping buttresses, round-arched bell openings, and an embattled parapet.^[1][2]

Architect Samuel Pountney Smith added windows to the south aisle and the south chapel in 1843 and 1866.^[1][2]

The church has a variety of war memorials. In the chancel are plaques to Lieutenant Robert Gwinn Granger, died of wounds in the Action of 7 February 1813 on HMS Amelia, another to John Arthur Greer, attached to the Ashanti Field Force, killed in attack on rebel camp at Kumasi during The War of the Golden Stool in 1900, and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thomas Milnes-Gaskell of the Coldstream Guards who was killed in an aircraft crash in Egypt during the Second World War in 1943, while in the west end of the nave is a memorial to townsmen of Wenlock killed in the First and Second World Wars.^[3]

William Penny Brookes, inspirer of the modern Olympic movement, is both buried and commemorated at the church. The refurbished gravestones of himself and his family are in the churchyard, surrounded by coloured iron railings surmounted by olive crowns; indoors on the west wall of the nave is a memorial tablet to Brookes on the south west side of the entrance door and a clear glass memorial window to Brookes' parents.^[4]

See also

• Listed buildings in Much Wenlock

References

1. Newman & Pevsner (2006), pp. 426–428
2. Historic England & 1053793
3. Francis, Peter (2013). Shropshire War Memorials, Sites of Remembrance. YouCaxton Publications, Bishop's Castle. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-909644-11-3.
4. Beale, Catherine (2011). Born out of Wenlock, William Penny Brookes and the British Origins of the Modern Olympics. DB Publishing, Derby. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-85983-967-6.

Sources

• Historic England, "Church of Holy Trinity, Much Wenlock (1053793)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 September 2018
• Newman, John; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Shropshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-12083-4