St Augustine of Canterbury

The current church was completed in 1823 and replaced the original parish church, the remains of which can still be seen across the road and is now know as ‘The Old Chancel’. The original church had become too small for the town’s growing population and was in a poor state of repair. Currently only the medieval tower, chancel, north chapel and one of the nave arcades remains standing and many of the materials from this church were sold off to help fund the construction of the new church.

The land for the new church was provided by the First Earl of Lichfield and the cost was £6,501. The architect for the new church was Henry Jones Underwood in a simplified perpendicular Gothic style. Pevsner notes that the building is ‘remarkable for its date’ and was designed early on in Underwood’s career after moving to Oxford, where ‘Survivalist Gothic’ had lingered on in the grounds of some of the colleges and institutions. In 1904, the church was extended with the addition of a large chancel due to the changing ecclesiological tastes of the day, and the congregation wanted to be able to seat a choir and accommodate more elaborate altar arrangement. The architecture of the chancel (by Frank L Pearson) is more elaborate in style, and features glass by CE Kemp to the east window.