"Benthall had a chapel by 1221, when Robert of Benthall conceded the advowson to the prior of Wenlock. In 1274 Benthall's tithes and 30 a. of glebe were given to the vicar of Holy Trinity, Much Wenlock, and independence of Holy Trinity parish was achieved only slowly. In the early 17th century Benthall was served by a curate appointed by the vicar of Holy Trinity. The curate could baptize and solemnize marriages, but burial rights were acquired only in 1702. With its endowment in the 18th century the curacy was a perpetual curacy, later styled a vicarage, in the gift of the vicar of Holy Trinity until 1930. The united benefice of Broseley with Benthall was then formed, with Lord Forester as patron; at the same time Posenhall extra-parochial place was joined to Benthall ecclesiastical parish.
The curate of Benthall had no glebe and no tithes except the small tithes of that part of the parish which had probably formed part of Posenhall chapelry. From the rest of the parish £1 13s. 4d. was paid prescriptively to the curate in lieu of all small tithes. In 1844 that payment and the small tithes were commuted to £8. Between 1735 and 1816 the living had been augmented six times by Queen Anne's Bounty. By the mid 19th century it had been endowed with the 15-a. Coxfold farm at Barr Beacon (Staffs.) and in 1851 was worth £98. The living's value varied little until c. 1920 when it began to rise considerably. In 1923 the glebe was sold.
Before the Reformation there was land endowing the celebration of Our Lady's service in the chapel. Baptisms and marriages in the chapel became more frequent from the 1570s, perhaps as the mining population increased, but in the later 16th and the 17th century it may have been poorly furnished: in 1552 there had been one little bell and a poor chasuble, and the chalice used belonged to William Benthall. Impiety was said to be 'too much used' in 1716; the minister of Much Wenlock then came to conduct a Sunday afternoon service once a month with communion three or more times a year. On Census Sunday 1851 morning service was attended by 70 adults and 30 children, afternoon service by 110 and 30 respectively.
There was an incumbent curate between 1609 and 1622-3 and in 1642, but thereafter until the mid 18th century Benthall probably did not have a resident minister, and there seems to have been no benefice house. Some, probably all, of the curates instituted thereafter were absentees until c. 1880. They normally employed an assistant curate who, by 1851, usually lived at Benthall House; one such was the antiquary C. H. Hartshorne (1827-8). The perpetual curates lived at Benthall House from c. 1880 to 1898, and at Benthall Vicarage (the former Coppice House) from 1902 until the living was united with Broseley. They had no salaried curates except 1899-1902, when the vicar of Much Wenlock was incumbent.
Between 1893 and the 1940s a mission room at Hilltop was used for Sunday evening services, and Sunday school continued to be held there in 1948. In 1948 Mrs. M. C. Benthall gave it to the parish, and it was named the Floyer Hall after her husband.
The medieval chapel was dedicated to ST. BRICE, bishop of Tours (d. 444). It was 'burnt down to the ground', probably in 1645, and 'wholly demolished'; afterwards no warden was appointed until the building of a new church was undertaken. A new church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW, so known by c. 1740, was built in or soon after 1667 probably on the medieval chapel's foundations. Consisting of chancel and nave with a west bell turret, it had a hammer-beam roof with carved decoration. There are some medieval floor tiles which, with pews, panelling, and furnishings that are mostly early 17th-century, were perhaps salvaged from the old chapel. In 1673 the lord of the manor owned several seats in the chancel, and it was probably late in the 17th century that the west gallery was added. The font may be of c. 1670 and the bell is of 1671. The royal arms, painted on plaster, filled the space over the chancel arch but were half whitewashed over when a nave ceiling was inserted.
In 1884 a vestry was built between nave and chancel on the south side, and the chancel was gothicized. It was perhaps then that high square pews, said in 1878 to block the chancel, were removed. In 1893 a western apse was added, with a porch replacing the old south door. At the same time the external stairs to the gallery were removed, the pulpit was moved from the south wall to the east end of the nave, and the lion's head bee bole over the old south door was renewed. The nave ceiling was removed c. 1950. In 1974 a painting of the Coronation of the Virgin was hung in the church.
The churchyard was extended in 1868 and 1937, and in 1964 it was levelled and the stones were removed.
The earliest register begins in 1640 and is complete from 1670 except for marriages 1752-5."
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