Much interest attaches to the old church in which Mr. Fletcher preached,
but little that is definite and satisfactory appears to be known. In one
of the topographies of Shropshire it is said to have been in the Norman
style of architecture, but nothing so early is shewn in the engravings of
the windows and tower. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a
Chantry is said to have been added in the 11th of the reign of Richard
II. It was small, damp, and dilapidated, in 1794, when it was taken
down. It appears to have contained some handsome altar-tombs and other
mural monuments, some of which we have already noticed as having been in
part removed at the building of the present edifice, as the well
sculptured figures representing the Brooke family. A number of tablets
were again placed in position in the present church, which, as they refer
to old Madeley families, some of which have either died out or removed,
we give, together with others of a later date.