OS grid reference SJ 434 350 Country United Kingdom Heritage designation Grade II Opened 1863 Designated as world heritage site 27 May 1953 | Location Welshampton Denomination Church of England Address Ellesmere SY12 0QS, UK Diocese Diocese of Lichfield Architect George Gilbert Scott | |
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Dedication Saint Michael and All Angels Architectural style English Gothic architecture | ||
The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a Grade II listed Anglican church in the village of Welshampton in Shropshire.
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It was built in the 1860s for Frances Mainwaring and Salusbury Kynaston Mainwaring, in memory of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring of Oteley. The architect was George Gilbert Scott. There was originally a medieval church, which was replaced in 1788 by a church for Mary Kynaston of Oteley; this was replaced by Scott's church.
Building
The walls are of yellow sandstone ashlar; it has a slate roof which has a lozenge pattern over the nave and a zig-zag pattern over the chancel. The chancel has a semicircular apsidal shape. There are buttresses at the corners of the church and against the chancel. On the roof at the junction of the nave and chancel is a bellcote.
The church has lancet windows. The stained glass includes, in a west window a commemoration of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, and in the north-west window of the nave a commemoration of Jeremiah Libopuoa Moshueshue (see below).
The link with Lesotho
In the churchyard is buried an African prince, Jeremiah Libopuoa Moshueshue (1839-1863). He was a son of Moshueshue I of Lesotho.
The history of this link with Lesotho (at that time known as Basutoland) began when the vicar of Welshampton, Thomas Buckley-Owen, was offered a post in Lesotho. He turned it down because the new church in Welshampton would soon be complete; however, he maintained contact with the country. Moshueshue I sent two of his junior sons to study at an Anglican school in Zonnebloem. One of them, Jeremiah Libopuoa, came to England to train as a priest. He visited Welshampton when the new church was consecrated in 1863; during the visit he caught a fever and died.
In 2010 Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho visited the church, where she attended a service and paid respects to the grave of prince Jeremiah Libopuoa.