St Gregory the Great
WV16 5 NB
P Open 10-4
Morville was one of the most important places in Shropshire before the Norman Conquest. The Saxons had created a vast Manor with 18 independent hamlets, including Bridgnorth which was of minor importance.
After the Norman Conquest, The Saxon Manor was split up and given to the Benedictine Abbey in Shrewsbury. The monks built the present church in 1118. They then enlarged the church and added the tower completing the work in 1168. To this day it remains predominately Norman and would be recognised by the monks as their place of worship.
Thanks to successful fundraising the church building has been kept in goodrepair and the facilities modernised without affecting the historic aspects of the fabric. In 2009, for the first time in 55 years, the bells rang out from the restored bell tower.
We were delighted not only to raise sufficient funds to repair the 18th century bells but were able to increase our bells from 6 to 8. The bells can be heard on a regular basis rung by our active group of bell ringers.
In 2018 we celebrated 900 years since the church was consecrated. As part of the celebrations we added information boards inside the church to provide visitors with interesting details of the church history.
The Crusade Chest
The Crusade Chest is of the ancient dugout construction. It consists of a large, single main trunk of an oak tree. It is wr
ought iron banded to provide for a strap-hinged lid and to prevent splitting. It is almost certainly ‘bog hardened’, by immersing in mud and underwater and it is too heavy to move other than being dragged by a horse.
The Main Nave Door
The heavy oak south door is early twelfth Century, and is almost certainly contemporaneous with
the building, having vertical board outside and horizontal board inside, locked together with lump headed wrought iron nails, driven through and clenched inside.
The Morville Drum Font
The shape is a characteristic Saxon or early Norman lead lined bowl in carved, hard limestone. It has been carved from a single quarried piece and transported, almost certainly from Wenlock Edge. The work would have been finished on site and because of its fragility, it will not have been moved in its lifetime.
It would be so difficult to move, that the possibility exists that it did come from the earlier Saxon church that was being replaced in stone and has stood for nine hundred years. The carvings around the body of the Font show a hint, perhaps as a reminder of the pagan image of ‘The Green Man’ and its pre Christian link to fertility.
For more information on this ancient and fascinating church, visit
https://www.morvillechurch.co.uk/ or
https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/10658/