3-008-412 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Restoration of Battlefield Church, Shropshire, 1862. The Church of St. Mary Magdalene, '...having fallen into decay, its restoration, originated by a public subscription, was completed at the close of last year by Lady Brinckman, widow of Sir Theodore Brinckman, Bart , according to plans prepared by Mr. S. Pountney Smith...The first and most pressing object was to arrest the ruin of the tower. This work...proved to be a difficult and dangerous affair. The tower was entirely borne up by massive shorings, the bottom of the footings drained, the staircase turret to a great height and the angles of the south-western angle of the nave taken down, the soft clay earth cut out from under the tower walls, and an entirely new and spreading footing put in with Portland cement and concrete of Wenlock lime...The restoration of the masonry of the tower parapets is also unavoidably incomplete. The traceried windows of this building have been restored or renewed. As the width of the church necessitated a heavy span for the new roof, whilst the walls were comparatively weak, the hammer-beam roof was adopted...Dividing the chancel from the nave, in place of the old rood-loft, is a traceried and carved wood screen, 14ft. high, in seven divisions'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.