St Eata's Church, Atcham

St Eata’s Church stands in the quiet village of Atcham beside the River Severn in Shropshire. The building is an active Anglican parish church with a Grade I listing, the highest recognition for historic structures in England. Its dedication to Eata of Hexham makes it the only church in the country named for this seventh-century Northumbrian saint. The churchyard holds six Grade II listed monuments alongside Commonwealth war graves from the Second World War. A sundial, several memorials and a group of medieval coffin slabs add layers of history to the grassy surroundings. The church’s fabric tells a story that begins with a late Saxon or early Norman nave, a twelfth-century tower and a thirteenth-century chancel. Inside, a 1675 octagonal font and 17th-century panels in the reading desk show later craftsmanship. The east window contains fifteenth-century stained glass, while a window by William Wailes dates from 1859. Six bells hang in the tower, four cast in 1709 and two in 1829, and a 1858 Holdich organ has been maintained through the centuries. Visitors step into a space of red and grey sandstone, its roof tiled and its plan simple: nave, chancel, south porch and west tower. The tower rises in four stages with buttresses, gargoyles and a small pyramidal cap. Inside, poppyheads on choir stalls and reliefs on the reading desk catch the eye. Brass plaques list local men lost in two world wars, and the churchyard holds the grave of Anna Bonus Kingsford, a noted feminist writer.