Preston-upon-the-Weald-Moors / Preston-on-the-Wealdmoors / Prestune / Preston-super-Wyldmore

There is an entry for this Preston [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SJ6815/preston-upon-the-weald-moors/] [accessed 19 July 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Anderson (1864) mentions a rector of this church who resigned in 1336. The Victoria County History (Shropshire, vol. 11, 1985) notes: "The name Preston, the priests' tun, […] may indicate ecclesiastical ownership of the vill before 1066. About 1280 Thomas Lyart was vicar of Wellington and rector of Preston chapel. […] By 1336, whence institutions were regularly recorded, the independent status of Preston church was established […] The church of St. Lawerence, so called in 1871, […] replaced a church which was said c. 1736 to be beyond repair and so small that it would not contain more than half the inhabitants of Preston […] The gallery was removed in a major restoration of 1905 when the pews and pulpit were rebuilt, incorporating much 18th-century panelling, and a new font was installed." Newman & Pevsner (2006) describe the 1905 font: "Classical, with gadrooned bowl and baluster stem". [NB: we have no information on the medieval font(s) of the earlier churches]