St Alkmund's Church

St Alkmund’s Church stands in the centre of Whitchurch, Shropshire, on an elevated site. By tradition it was founded in the 900s by Queen Æthelflæd and is dedicated to St Alkmund. The building is recorded from 1089 and rebuilt in 1712 after the medieval tower collapsed. It is a Grade I listed building in red sandstone ashlar with a slate roof and neoclassical style. The plan includes a six-bay nave, north and south aisles, a three-bay apsidal chancel, a south porch and an integral west tower. The tower has four stages with clock faces dated 1977 and weather vanes on the balustrade. The church contains notable historical features and memorials. Sir Henry Percy, known as Hotspur, was temporarily buried here in 1403 after the Battle of Shrewsbury. The embalmed heart of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, lies under the porch, and his bones rest beneath an effigy in the Lady Chapel. A triptych war memorial in the west gallery commemorates parish men who died in the First World War. The Lady Chapel houses a Jacobean communion table, a 19th-century reredos and a painting attributed to Bonifazio Veronese. Inside, the nave is divided from the aisles by Tuscan columns and round arches. The organ occupies the east end of the north aisle and has a history of rebuilds, including work by Peter Conacher in 1894. The church has a ring of eight bells, seven cast in the 18th century. In the churchyard stands a Grade II listed sundial and the war grave of a Royal Field Artillery soldier from the First World War. The building remains an active Anglican parish church with regular services.