St. Andrew's Church, Wroxeter, Shropshire

St. Andrew’s Church in Wroxeter, Shropshire, lies a quarter of a mile from the excavated remains of Viroconium (the Roman name for Wroxeter). The church is located just inside the original perimeter earthworks and wall that was Wroxeter Roman City, once the fourth largest city in England. The church was built on the site of a Roman bath. The front gate consists of two Roman columns from the nearby Viroconium . The church incorporates hundreds of chunks of Roman masonry borrowed/ stolen from the ruins of Wroxeter (as do many of the nearby houses). Small wonder some Anglo-Saxon poetry is haunted by ruins and decay. The church is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) as having four priests. The Chancel is Saxon, and work started on it in 1158. It was greatly extended in the late 12th century and a chantry chapel added to the original south aisle. Further additions to the structure were made between the 16th and early 18th centuries, but in 1763 the original south aisle and porch were demolished and the present south wall and vestry built. The front tower was built in stages from the 15th Century. The church was classified as ‘redundant’ in 1980 and handed to the Churches Conservation Trust in 1987 and is today classified as a Grade I Listed Building. It is available to hire overnight ‘church camping or ‘Chumping’ through the Churches Conservation Trust. Entering the church through the present porch, which dates to 1870, visitors find themselves confronted by the baptismal font which is also from the Roman site and is converted from a Roman column. Two stained glass windows straight ahead from the porch entrance, above the two brass war memorials, are by Morris & Company and date back to 1902; they depict Saint Andrew (patron of the church) and Saint George. They were dedicated to those who fell during World War 1. Further along the same wall there are three additional marble military memorials. One is to Admiral Robert Jenkins Royal Navy (died 1894), and his wife plus their only son Captain and Adjutant Robert Jenkins of the 1st Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, who died in 1891. The second memorial is to Edgar Francis Jenkins, his daughter Ivy and elder son Captain Edgar Kynnersley Jenkins, 19th Hussars and 2nd Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who died of wounds on 23 September 1916 on the Salonica Front. The third memorial is for Flight Lieutenant Robert C. Jenkins, killed in an accident at Farnborough in 1922. He had also served with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry during World War 1 and with the Royal Flying Corps/ Royal Air Force in the Middle East. A Jacobean pulpit with carved panels is situated further along the same wall. There is a huge white marble memorial to Sir Thomas Newport, a Royalist officer who fought at the Battle of Shrewsbury during the English Civil War. There are three alabaster stone tomb chests with original colouring in the chancel at the far end of the church. One is for Sir Thomas Bromley (died 1555), Chief Justice of England and executor of Henry VIII’s will. He lies supine alongside Mabel, his wife, their hands clasped in prayer, resting for eternity in a colourful alabaster tomb. It was probably made by Richard Parker of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. As for “ghost” or paranormal stories, the presence of Sir Thomas Bromley, seemingly reading documents has been claimed, and “marching Roman centurions” or guards heard along the quiet lanes around the church. In one quiet corner of the churchyard is a section for children and babies of the parish who died. This area has been referred to as having an ‘eery’ feel to it; inside the church itself there have been claims of laughter/ children laughing.