St Andrew's Church, Wroxeter

The earliest parts of the church are Anglo-Saxon but the precise date of its foundation is uncertain. There is circumstantial evidence that a church was built in the area of the Roman bath in the 5th or 6th century. A preaching cross was erected in the churchyard in the 8th century. It is thought that the oldest existing fabric in the present church dates from the 8th or 9th century. At that time it was a portionary church, i.e. a church served by a group of priests who took shares in the income but did not form a corporate entity, as would be the case in a collegiate church. FitzAlan declared his intention of increasing the number of canons to a "full convent", perhaps meaning 12, possibly…

In the east wall of the chancel is an aumbry and an Easter Sepulchre with ballflower ornamentation. The largest memorial in the church is an alabaster tomb-chest carrying the effigies of Thomas Bromley, former Justice of the Queen's Bench, who died in 1555, and his wife. Another tomb-chest carrying effigies is that of Sir Richard Newport, who died in 1570, and his wife Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Bromley. John Barker (rendered as Berker) of Haughmond Abbey and his wife, Margaret Newport, both of whom died in 1618, The Barker family were Shrewsbury merchants and several represented the town in Parliament. They were exceptionally wealthy, and able to marry into the upper strata of the…