St. Lawrence's Church
In the centre of the village is St. Lawrence’s Church, a place of worship for centuries. The present building, constructed from local red brick, dates from 1739, although a church has occupied this site for much longer. A medieval map of the Weald Moors shows a representation of the church, dated 1587.
Weekly Sunday services are held generally at 9am or 10:15am on the second Sunday of the month. It may be prudent to check this on the church web site. We share the rector with five other small local villages: Kynnersley, Great Bolas, Tibberton, Edgmond and Waters Upton. The church hosts other events, such as Parish meetings and occasional concerts. The village school meets here regularly for assemblies, carol concerts and Harvest festivals. Following the death in October 1995 of Robert Frank Foskett (a local resident and businessman), a clock with a bell was donated to the church, which usually chimes out each hour, half-hour and for church services. An aerial survey of the church shows clearly that some repairs are needed.
The Millennium window (above) features the way of life at the turn of the century. It represents the professions in the village at that time: a tractor for the farmers, the symbol for the medics, pen and quill for office workers, an amber stone representing jewellers, the cat – a tribute to Margaret Turner (a much-loved Sunday School teacher), the Rector at the time and the Warden’s Staff (donated to the church). The grid represents St. Lawrence martyrdom and the scripture is from Psalm 31. The ideas were put together by the Parochial Church Council and the window was designed by Graham Chaplin.
In the church there is a tiled wall hanging (below), made by the children of Preston School at the Jackfield Tile Museum.
There is an Ordnance Survey mark in the wall near the bottom of the tower with a level of 66.706m (218’ 8½”) Ordnance Datum Newlyn.
