According to the foundation of King Henry the Fourth, consisted of five
secular canons, and among other endowments possessed the churches of St.
Michael within the Castle of Shrewsbury, and also St. Julian’s, in the
same town. The clear annual revenues of the college at the dissolution
being £54. 1s. 10d. as stated by Tanner.
[Picture: Battlefield Church]
The fabric, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, stands in the centre of a
pasture field, and consists of a nave, chancel, and finely proportioned
tower, crowned with eight pinnacles and a richly decorated frieze and
parapet. The choral division, from the style of the windows, was
undoubtedly erected in the time of the founder, and the western portion
under the auspices of the Very Reverend Adam Grafton, Dean of the
Collegiate Church of St. Mary, Shrewsbury, Archdeacon of Salop, &c. &c. a
person of great eminence in his day, and who possessed much architectural
taste. His name is inscribed on the east side of the tower as warden of
the college in 1504. Length of the church, including the tower, 94 feet.
The roof of the nave and chancel having fallen in from decay early in the
last century, the latter was restored and supported by four doric
pillars. The interior is neat.
In the south wall is the piscina and the sedilia for the officiating
priests. In one of these is a curious wooden figure, called “Our Lady of
Pity.” It represents the Virgin seated and bearing on her knees a dead
Christ.
The eastern window is of five divisions, and contains some remains of the
stained glass with which this church was once enriched. The other
portion having been taken down during a repair of the fabric some years
since, was either lost or destroyed, through the negligence of the person
to whom it was entrusted.
The subjects comprised a history of the death of John the Baptist, with
various portraits of the knights who fell on the King’s side in the
battle at this memorable place. The crowned heads of King Henry the
Fourth and his Queen, the portraits of a bishop or abbot, and the head of
John the Baptist in a charger, may yet be distinguished, and are
tastefully pencilled. The red and yellow colours throughout are
particularly vivid. A beautiful border of foliage, with a mutilated
inscription, is at the base of the window.
At the east end of the north wall is a handsome florid gothic monument to
the memory of the late John Corbet, Esq. of Sundorne, who died in 1817.
The basement is after the model of an ancient altar tomb, from whence
rises five panelled buttresses with mouldings supporting the canopy,
which consists of four pointed ogee arches crocketed and crowned with
finials. The interior is a richly groined vault, and at the angles are
small turrets. The whole is beautifully worked in grained free-stone
from the neighbouring quarry of Grinshill.
The nave of the church is roofless: on each side are three elegant
mullioned windows, with tracery of different devices. In the walls are
corbels formed into grotesque heads, on which rested the timbers that
supported the roof.
The shaft of the ancient font (sunk in the ground) stands at the
north-east angle of the pointed arch which separates the nave from the
tower. The second floor of the tower is singularly furnished with a
fire-place, having a chimney formed within the thickness of the wall and
opening outside beneath the belfry window.
A tabernacled niche above the chancel window contains the crowned statue
of Henry the Fourth: the right hand once sustained a sword, and on the
same side also hangs the scabbard.
The college stood at the east end of the church, the moat which
surrounded it being still visible. Near this part is a field called the
“King’s Croft,” in which were placed a portion of the royal army. The
troops of Hotspur appear to have been chiefly stationed on the north
side.
On the south side of the church is a small cemetery, in which is
deposited the remains of the late Rev. Edward Williams, M.A. who for
nearly half a century was the Minister of this parish—loved and honoured
by his flock as a spiritual father, and the remembrance of whose virtues
and christian instruction still lingers like a lovely twilight. He died
January 3d, 1833, aged 70 years. {212}