St Bartholomew

St Bartholomew’s forms part of a nationally important grouping of historic buildings located at Moreton Corbet close to Shawbury in Shropshire.

The church is a Grade I Listed building and the adjacent Castle, together with the impressive ruins of its Elizabethan state apartments, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of English Heritage. The church provides a valuable insight into the history of the Corbet family who built the castle, and includes a series of exceptionally fine monuments to members of the family dating from the early 16th century to the early 20th century.

The nave and chancel originated in the late Norman period, but there is little surviving evidence for this due to subsequent alterations. The south aisle is, in effect, a memorial chapel to the Corbet family and was constructed in the mid 14th century. The base of the tower was constructed in around 1539 and features the arms of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VI). It is not clear whether it was originally finished to full height. If so, it is possible that the upper stages were slighted during military action in the Civil War. The present upper stages of the tower date from 1769.

The interior contains numerous monuments to the Corbet family including two chest tombs dated 1513 and 1567, a fine baroque wall monument to Richard Corbet dated 1691 and a number of good 18th century monuments. It is known that Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, the architect of the Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, carried out work here.

The church is fortunate to possess a very fine decorative scheme by Ninian Comper carried out in 1904 in memory of Vincent Corbet who died at Eton at the age of thirteen. The scheme encompasses most of the chancel interior and includes a fine stained glass window, communion table, alabaster reredos and canopy, and high quality painted decorations to the walls and roof timbers.