St Marys Kinnerley Church was the Mother Church of all the churches south of Oswestry. Archdeacon Thomas, an undoubted authority, suggests that Kinnerley Church was the centre of evangelising the area south of Oswestry as early as the sixth century. What we do know, as an undisputed fact, is that Kinnerley Church built the church at Knockin as a daughter or mission church in the twelfth century.
As long ago as 1291 we find that the church was in the deanery of Marchia and in the Diocese of St. Asaph. It only came into the Diocese of Lichfield on the occasion of the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church.
In the "Valor" of 1534/35 the Vicarage, that is the living, was worth £7 2s. 6d., and the Rectory, the tithes of corn and hay, was worth £20, but alas the latter went to the Rector of Halston. The Priory of the Order of the Knights of the Hospitallers was at Halston. The Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem had taken over both the Church and the Manor, and held them until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Obviously parts of the lands owned by the Priory were given to the local Rector of Halston after the Dissolution.
The Earlier Building
Of the present church only the lower two thirds of the tower remain of the original church. It is typical of mediaeval perpendicular architecture and may safely be dated to the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century. The tower arch has moulded capitals and broad ogee mouldings, usual perpendicular features of this period. An interesting feature of the original structure is a profusion of 'mason marks' made by the monumental masons who built the church. They are to be seen in what is now the vestry. Initials dating back to the seventeenth century badly disfigure the walls in the lower part of the tower. Also to be seen on the lower part of the tower, near the south door, are grooves made by mediaeval archers sharpening their arrows.
In 1768 the condition of the old church was giving much cause for concern. We are told that "a frame of timber was made to support ye arch of ye church." In January 1773, we read that "an article has been entered to rebuild the church for the sum of £639". In the same month we read in the parish register, "The taking down of the old church was begun on the first day of the month. During the intermediate time from the taking down of the old church to the opening of the new one several children of this parish were baptised in the adjoining churches, and consequently these Baptisms are entered in the several registers there-unto respectively belonging." Fortunately a brief to pull down and erect a new tower was not complied with. Services were resumed in the church on 17th July, 1774. The architect for the 'new' church was Thomas Farnolls Pritchard who is better known as being the architect of the world-famous iron bridge in the Severn gorge.
The Present Building
The Georgian Church consists of a broad nave and an apsidal chancel. The wall of the Sanctuary is rounded; this is interesting insofar as it conforms to the architecture of the earliest Christian Churches. A pedimented doorway in the north-west corner of the nave, blocked up for many years, has recently been reopened. Like the tower, the 'new' church is built of large red sandstone blocks.
The apse has a magnificent painted reredos, which includes the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments, flanked by two fine stained glass windows depicting the Annunciation and the Nativity, the figures portrayed under classical canopies, in keeping with the style and architecture of the Church.
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