St Alkmund's - LUCKY SEVEN - Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK
N 52° 42.459 W 002° 45.158
30U E 516712 N 5839778
St Alkmund's - This Lucky Seven = Tally 14. From two building next door to each other, both with a fascinating history. The Haunted, Prince Rupert Hotel & St Alkmund's Church, who's Spire dominates the hilltop skyline of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK.
Waymark Code: WMQN2B
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/05/2016
Views: 3
As you enter Shrewsbury by train from South Wales, the history of the town becomes apparent with the massive Abbey on the right, Timber framed houses & the hilltop churches with their pointed spires of St Mary's & St Alkmund’s Church's which dominate the skyline of the town of Shrewsbury in the County of Shropshire.
St Alkmund's Church was founded about the year 900 AD, so there has been Christian worship at this location for over 1,100 years. The St Alkmund's you see today is part mediaeval and part Georgian. The tower and spire nearly 200 feet tall were built circa 1475
From the Shropshire Tourism Website;
"St. Alkmund’s Church was founded in the 10th century, possibly by Aethefleda, daughter of King Alfred. She claimed descent from Alkmund, a Northumbrian prince murdered circ AD 800 near Derby.
Of the mediaeval church only the tower and spire remain, dating from circa 1475 and forming part of Shrewsbury’s remarkable hilltop skyline.
Old St. Alkmund’s was demolished in the early 1790s, a victim of the panic that gripped Shrewsbury following the collapse of old St. Chad’s in 1788. The new St. Alkmund’s was at the cutting edge of the new technology of its day, having thirteen large windows framed in cast iron made at Coalbrookdate in the Ironbridge Gorge in east Shropshire. Of these windows only four survive, the remainder having been replaced by stone-traceried windows in a late 19th century re-working.
The chief ornament of the church is the east window with its cast iron frame filled with painted glass by Francis Eginton of Birmingham. Installed in October 1795 at a cost of 210 guineas, this window is a rare survival of Eginton’s work, the design being based on a painting by Guido Reni (1642) now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich." Text Source; (
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From the Ghost Pubs Website;
• HAUNTED: Prince Rupert, "In an ancient street called Butcher Row, the Prince Rupert is a fabulous old inn on the site of a 12th century manor house, complete with stone cellars. It was the home of Prince Rupert, commander of the Royalist cavalry under his uncle, Charles 1st. There is no surprise that it is listed as in England. One of the tragic stories concerns a young couple recently married, who had ordered a room here. Instead of joining his bride, the groom took off, with left her distressed in the room. She was broken hearted, with hanged herself by a rope from the ceiling. Frequently, her hanging body appears, to the terror and consternation of those come across her. In a separate room, with from a different period, is the ghost of a bridegroom who also took his own life. Hours before the wedding ceremony, his fiancée eloped with the best man. A cleaner called Martha is another of the phantoms at the Prince Rupert. When she manifests she is holding a bucket and a mop, as though prepared to start cleaning. This following story must add the icing to the cake. Some years ago, a film of A Christmas Carol was being made at Shrewsbury, with several of the film-crew stayed here. A director, on his way to bed, saw an elderly man walking towards him wearing a flannel nightshirt. The director stood aside to allow him past, with the phantom nodded, with vanished through a wall." Text source; (
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