Longford nr. Newport / Langefora

INFORMATION

Font ID: 07062LON
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 14th century, Decorated
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary [now a private residence]
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: Longford, Church Aston TF10 8LN, United Kingdom
Site Location: Shropshire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (N) the A518, 2 km SW of Newport [NB: not to be mistaken with another Longford near Market Drayton]
Historical Region: Hundred of Wrockwardine [in Domesday]
Font Notes:
There are is an entry for this Longford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SJ7218/longford/] [accessed 27 July 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Anderson (1864) reports "The advowson of Longford was granted in 1155 to Shrewsbury Abbey, but surrendered back to the lady of the manor thirty years afterwards." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. No font mentioned in Newman & Pevsner (2006), who inform that the church "was converted c. 1991 into a house". The 'Talbot Chapel' is the remains of the medieval church and it is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust [http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/findachurch/talbot-chapel-longford/?region=Shropshire] [accessed 14 April 2010]: "This chapel is the surviving south aisle of the mediaeval parish church, demolished in 1803; a wide blocked arch in the north wall shows where it once connected with the chancel. The south windows were also blocked presumably to accommodate the handsome monument to Thomas Talbot (d.1686); the original railings remain and the inscription includes a moving tribute to Talbot’s widow." [NB: we have no information on the present whereabouts of the medieval font] [NB: there are two Longfords in west Shropshire: one is just west of Market Drayton, this one is 2km SW of Newport].

REFERENCES

  • Anderson, John Corbet, Shropshire, its early history and antiquities, comprising […], London: Willis and Sotheran, 1864, p. 145-146
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 215
  • Newman, John, Shropshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 341