 |
| Moreton Corbet from the SW |
|
| Moreton Corbet from the SW |
 |
 |
|
| From the SE | The east end of the range | |
 |
 |
|
| The east end | The gatehouse to the inner courtyard |
Moreton Corbet lies NE of Shrewsbury near the village of Shawbury. It is noted for the church of St. Bartholomew with its fine tombs and its ruined manor house. The ruin is in the care of English Heritage but there are no visitor facilities. There is believed to have been a castle on the site from around 1100 and it passed into the hands of the Corbet family in 1239. Sir Andrew Corbet remodelled the gatehouse in about 1560. In 1580 a new huge domestic range was constructed by Sir Richard Corbet. During the Civil War, Sir Vincent Corbet was a royalist and the house was damaged during fighting around it. Later the house was repaired and the family lived there again but in the 18th century it was abandoned and gradually fell into decay. My pictures are mainly of the ruins of the 1580 building and the gatehouse. The Elizabethan range is on the south side of a triangular complex of buildings. There is a gatehouse at the NE corner, which was altered in 1579. Pevsner likens the Elizabethan work to that at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, also shown on this site.
 |
 |
|
| St. Bartholomew's and War Memorial | Church and part of the rectory | |
 |
 |
|
| Detail on tomb of Sir Richard Corbet, 1513 | Tomb of Sir Richard and Margaret Corbet. He died in 1566 | |
 |
 |
|
| Chapel with tomb | South aisle with unusual west window | |
 |
 |
|
| East end | Detail of ceiling armorials |
The church of St. Bartholomew has Norman origins but was damaged during the Civil War. The tower was started in the 1530s and rebuilt in 1779. The east window, shown above at the bottom left, shows the Madonna between St. Vincent and St. Bartholomew and was designed by Sir Ninian Comper in 1905. The chancel is Norman and the south aisle dates from 1330-1340. The south aisle has a three bay arcade and at its west end a spheric triangle window.
There is a highly coloured tomb of Sir Robert Corbet of 1513 and his wife, who outlived him by fifty years. His effigy bears armour of the Tudor period with his head on a helmet and his feet on a lion. In the panels around the tomb are shown six children and ten angels. The second 16th century tomb is of Richard Corbet of 1567. On the side panels are elephants and owls.
The Buildings of England, by Nikolaus Pevsner, Penguin Books, 1958.
The King's England, Shropshire, by Arthur Mee, revised by E.T. Long, Hodder and Stoughton, first edition, 1939, revised and reset 1968.
Wikipedia Article on Moreton Corbet
1.0 Strict 