St Laurence's Church, Church Stretton

St Laurence’s Church stands in Church Street, Church Stretton, Shropshire, on ground that has been sacred for centuries. A Grade I listed building, it is built of local stone with tiled roofs and follows a cruciform plan. The nave belongs to the 12th century, the transepts to the 13th, and the tower’s upper stage was added in the 15th. A south vestry was added in 1831, and the transepts gained west aisles during a restoration led by S. Pountney Smith in the 1860s. The interior was modernised in 2010 when fixed pews were replaced by movable chairs and new heating, lighting and sound systems were installed. The church is worth visiting for its layered history and the craftsmen who shaped it. The tower shows three architectural styles: Norman buttresses on the nave, Early English transepts, and Perpendicular tracery in the east window. Samuel Pountney Smith designed the marble pulpit in 1880, and the Nicholson organ of 1883 was restored in 1987. Eight bells hang in the tower, four cast in 1711 by Abraham Rudhall I and four in 1890 by John Taylor and Company. Medieval glass survives in the chancel, while Flemish roundels and later works by Betton and Evans or Burlison and Grylls fill other windows. Inside, every roof is medieval and the octagonal font is Perpendicular. A sculpture of St Laurence on a gridiron was placed in the tower ceiling around 1970. Two notable memorial windows recall Lord Leighton, former President of the Royal Academy, and Hesba Stretton, author of Jessica’s First Prayer. Framed rolls of honour in the north transept list parish dead from both world wars, and a plaque honours Second Lieutenant Guy Barnett. Outside, the churchyard holds a sundial made from a former mill wheel and thirteen Grade II structures including walls, stiles and gates.