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There is only one other surviving carving of this kind in Shropshire, to be found not far away at Pitchford, depicting John de Pitchford who died in 1285. Berrington's knight is fondly known as Old Scriven, although his true identity has been lost. He as possibly a member of the Lee family of Langley (near Acton Burnell) who were then patrons of All Saints. Certainly it must have been they who paid for a considerable number of alterations to the church in the early fourteenth century - perhaps as an act of pity for the soul of their deceased kinsman, if Old Scriven de one of their number.

This new era, known stylistically as the Decorated Period, saw the addition of the chancel with its curvilinear-traceried East window and two cusped open-headed South windows (one now hidden by the organ, although still visible from the outside). On the South side of the nave a new aside was added, which still retains its original East and West windows. With it trefoil-headed piscine in the e South wall, for washing the liturgical vessels, this probable served as a chapel devoted to the Blessed Virgin; it is separated from the main body of the church by three arches which rest on massive square chamfered piers. It is this Lady Chapel that Old Scriven rests, beneath an arched recess in the South wall.

At the time of these additions, it would seem that the whole church was re-roofed and given the splendid curved trussed rafters, which originally supported a fine show of Harnage stone slates, like those on the adjacent Manor Farm House, and which are also to be seen at Pitchford Hall.

The portly two-stage embattled tower was added a century later, in the fifteenth (or possibly early sixteenth) century, in the Perpendicular style. Originally crowned by eight pinnacles, it is not unlike the tower of the Church of St. Peter at nearby Cound, whilst Atcham and Wroxeter - also in the vicinity - have similar towers resultant from remodelling in the perpendicular style. All Saints' tower is rendered especially memorable for the great staggered buttresses, and it is worth looking for the grotesque head around the string course at the top of the tower's first stage. Many of these heads are badly weathered, but destroyed perhaps by man rather than the elements was a niche, the remains age which can be seen on the tower's South face (to the left of the long "arrow-slit" window). This once contained a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and was most likely destroyed as idolatrous at the Reformation, under Henry VIII.

Quite exactly hoe All Saints' interior looked before the Reformation, we shall probably never know, but it is almost certain that the wave of national change saw to the destruction of stained glass and wall painting.

Apart from the architecture of the church, the font and Old Scriven, the interior owes wholly to the gifts of ages later than the medieval period. To the right of the alter, and sadly obscured by the organ, is a splendid gesture of Jacobean mourning. It is a monument to Adah Greaves, wife of Samuel Greaves the then rector, who died in 1638. Still retaining much of the original colouring, it depicts Mrs, Greaves kneeling between two composite columns - a fitting token of her "piety, zeal, modesty and abundant grace", as the inscription assure us she possessed.

Close by is a fine early Georgian monument with a swan necked broken pediment to the memory of William Franke, who had married the co-heiress of the Eaton mascot estate, and who died in 1736.

For more flamboyant in their sense of display are the Williams monuments to the left of the altar, which record later owners of Eaton Mascott. Most are simple tablets; that to Arthur Charles Williams is by T. Daniel, whilst that to his father, Richard is by John Carline of the Shrewsbury family of sculptors, whose business occupied the site where the Wakeman School now stands in Abbey Foregate.

Edward Hosier Williams has a shrine-like new Gothic monument, but the real gem is to his mother Rebekah Gillian Williams, who died in 1827. This is by John Bacon the younger, and depicting a kneeling figure resting upon a sarcophagus, is a charming classical work.

Bridging the Williamsons' with their predecessor-at-Eaton Mascott's monument is the glass of the East window, which is of c. 1820. Given by John Aston of Betton Abbots (Who was church warden), it is the work of David Evans of Shrewsbury, an artist best known for his technically faultless replacement of Thomas of Oxford's fourteenth century stained glass at Winchester Collage Chapel.

The three figures hare are St John Evangelist, St. John Baptist and St. Peter, whilst above are Aston's arms, flanked by the Noel-Hall crest in the spandrels. The crest on the left has a coronet above it, and is reference to Thomas Noel-Hill. 2^nd Lord Berwick, patron of the living at the time (his ancestors purchased the advowson in 1789 and the Lord Berwick held it until 1946, when it was given to Radley Collage, Berkshire). The right-hand crest recalls his brother, Richard Noel-Hill, the then rector, who later became fourth Lord Berwick. The latter is commemorated by a monument on the South Wall.

Throughout the nineteenth century a flurry of gifts were bestowed upon All Saints, reflecting the decorative interest of the church fittings inspired by the Catholic-convert architect A.W.N. Pugh, and - with more relevance to All Saints - the Anglican Oxford Movement. These included not only the chancel's North stained glass windows of 1876 to the memory of Thomas Wells, possessor - at the time - of Eaton Mascott, but also the reader's chair and lectern, lavishly carved by the Florentine Rinaldo Barbetti in 1874, Closer to home, Edward Hughes of Shrewsbury carver and gave the pulpit for the church, but such was its scale that the floor had to be sunk to receive it.

For the Victorians, ornamentation was not enough without a thorough restoration. Thus in 1877, the younger Edward haycock of Shrewsbury was summoned to All Saints. Not only did he tile the floor, re-pew the church, insert new windows on the North and South sides, but he replaced the old stone roof slates with manufactured tiles. He also moved the North door arch to provide and opening to a new South porch, which he designed in place of a playfully embattled Georgian porch which, in turn, had replace a half-timbered structure.

Of a later date is the organ, given in 1913 to the memory of James Cavan, tenant at Eaton mascot Hall.

Not quite so visible to the casual visitor are the church's eight bells. In 1552 there were four bells and a sanctus bells, but the present bells are of a later date. Six were cast in 1796 by Thomas Mears of London, and the same firm restored and re-hung, the bells in 1926 as a memorial to Gilbert Culcheth Holcroft, the eldest son of Sir George Harry Holcroft of Eaton Mascoktt Hall, who died in the First World War. Mears were again called upon in 1948 to cast the additional two bells.

The tones of the bells of All Saints speak deeply of a long spiritual history in Berrington. Ringing out from the stout embattled church tower, they sound towards the distant Wrekin and the nearby barns and half-timber houses at Manor Farm. On Sunday, they still call the parishioners to prayer as they did in the fifteenth-century, when the tower was built. Yet as a place of worship, All Saints' site goes back much further.

With the lack of any certain evidence, we can only speculate that the ground on which now stands was used for pre-Christian worship. The near-circular raised form of the church yard would seem to endorse this, the area perhaps forming sacred grove.

Definitive evidence of the church at Berrington comes in the Doomsday Book of 1086, which mentions a priest, and of but a little after this date is the church's splendid round font.

Although perhaps not blessed with carving of the same exuberant standard as the Norman Salopian fonts at Stottesdon and Holgate, Berrinton's font is a remarkable and mysterious survival. Mysterious indeed, with its seven heads accompanied by a light candle, a beast of some form, and a cockerel. The candle would naturally seem to signify the light of Christ in the world, whilst the cockerel could be connected with the denial of Christ by Peter. As for the beast, this could link with the book of Revelation. In the nineteenth century, however, Dr. Alfred C. Fryer of Clifton, near Bristol, identified the beast as a lion, linking it with I St. Peter v.8, which reads:

"Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour".

Aside from the front, though, All Saints holds no other visible vestage of the Norman period. The period to which one must now look is the so-called 'Early English', of the nineteenth century, of which belongs the basic shape of the nave. Hare can be found an original small lancet window, in the North wall lighting the pulpit, the outer archway of the porch dates from this rebuilding, although until 1877 it formed a doorway in the North wall of the nave.

Perhaps also to be considered a part of the thirteenth century rebuilding are two unusual sculptures, high up the corners of the nave at the West end. There are demi-figures; that in the Northwest corner wearing a form of frilled cape, and that to the Southwest with what would seem to be a devil on its left shoulder, and a stick in its right hand. Superstition relates how when we spill salt, it should be thrown over the left shoulder into the face of the devil, and in heraldic terms "sinister" refers to the left-hand side. Likewise, in stained glass of the period, the devil is often shown whispering evil into the ears of those ready to hear, whilst perched upon their left shoulder, and it would seem that this strange piece of sculpture is a version of this.

It is to the left, when viewed from the alter, whilst the caped figure is thus on the right - the two figures begib, perhaps, a personification of the dammed and the blessed.

For its most splendid piece of sculpture, however, All Saints has waited until the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. This time however, the material chose was wood, and the work took the form of cross-legged knight, his head resting upon two diagonally placed cushions and his feet resting upon an exquisite carved lion. His hands are clasped in prayer as he gazes heavenward, whilst the sword at his side and spurs on his feet remind us of his earthly duties as a knight.

Horologists may be interested to learn that the tower's clock was last renewed in 1888, having been first recorded in 1680. The sundial in the South churchyard, one might add, was purchased from Carlines of Shrewsbury in 1814, its dial being the work of Richard Harper of Shrewsbury.

Today All saints is - as it always has been - the much loved centre of a parish. Donations, rather than enriching the fabric, support the continual conservation of which exists, and are always appreciated so that our unique heritage can be enjoyed by further generations. Most importantly, All Saints remain a place of worship and is preserved as it was created, as a monument to the Glory of God. We pray that you respect this, and may God bless you.

By: Gareth Williams M.A