St Mary's Church

Despite the church's strong Industrial Revolution connections, the earliest parish register for St Mary's (held at the Library of Birmingham) commences in 1558; while the first stone church building was erected on the site around 1160. This was a small and austere Norman structure, occupying about half of the present south aisle. The church's few surviving Norman features can be seen at the lower stages of the sandstone tower at the original church's east end. In its long history, St Mary's has undergone successive and opinionated reconstruction, especially in 1820 and 1870. As a Staffordshire country church placed at the convergence of several cross country tracks, St Mary's became a…