St Mary the Virgin, Bromfield

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I former Benedictine priory church, now the parish church of Bromfield, Shropshire, in the Diocese of Hereford and the Bromfield Benefice.

Overview

Historic England records a priory church of about 1155 with thirteenth- and sixteenth-century additions, restored in 1890, probably by C. Hodgson Fowler. Wikipedia, citing the same listing and the Victoria County History, dates Fowler's work to 1889-90. The fabric is rubble and ashlar sandstone with a plain tile roof. The plan is a north-west tower (probably late thirteenth century and used as a porch), nave, north aisle and chancel. A blocked Norman chancel arch forms the east end.

Bromfield was a wealthy minster of royal foundation before the Norman Conquest. Henry II chartered it as a Benedictine priory in 1155, subject to Gloucester Abbey. After the Dissolution, Charles Foxe converted the south transept and former crossing into a house; fire in the late seventeenth century left only fragments with mullion-and-transom windows. The chancel's painted plaster ceiling of about 1672, by Thomas Francis, shows angels with scrolls, the Trinity and clouds. The listing also notes a communion rail of about 1700 and Kempe glass in the west window and north aisle, with sixteenth-century Flemish roundels in the vestry.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1291888
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bromfield
• Wikipedia: St Mary the Virgin's Church, Bromfield