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 hilltop skyline of the town of Shrewsbury in the County of Shropshire.
The Church 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.
The light now shines on St Alkmund Church is the only remaining open Anglican Church in the historic heart of Shrewsbury.
From the BBC TV Shropshire Website:
"St Alkmund's Church in Shrewsbury is a grade II listed building, and according to the Diocese of Lichfield, it's the first of its churches to install solar panels.
The Reverend Richard Hayes, vicar at St Alkmund's, said when the church roof was replaced, they took the opportunity to install 22 photovoltaic panels at the same time: "The planet is obviously suffering and we wanted to do our part and go green."" Text Source: (
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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 Of these windows only four survive, the remainder having been replaced by stone-traceried windows in a late 19th century re-working.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 Church Website;
St Alkmund’s Church stands at the highest point in the town of Shrewsbury. It is known that there was a Saxon market called the King’s Market at the heart of Shrewsbury all round the church of St Alkmund. Nothing visible remains of the church that Aethelfleda founded. What we see today is part mediaeval and part Georgian. The tower and spire (56 metres high) was built about 1475 in the Perpendicular style. It forms one of the five notable buildings that make the skyline of Shrewsbury so unforgettably interesting. The poet A.E.Housman immortalised this view in his words: “High the vanes of Shrewsbury gleam islanded in Severn stream”.
Following the collapse of a neighbouring church (old St Chad’s) in 1788 the congregation of St Alkmund’s became concerned that their church might also collapse. Whether this was truly the case or not, the decision was taken to demolish the old mediaeval church except for the tower and spire, and a local architect, John Carline, was commissioned to build a new church in the Gothic Revival style." Text source; (
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Address of Tower:
St Alkmunds Square, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK. SY1 1UH