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I have two collections of photographs of this beautiful church on my Flickr.
I will have to go back and get a more recent inside set of photographs.
Read down through the photographs some of the history of Tong.
Tong is a village in Shropshire England. It is near junction 3 of the M54 motorway (A41) junctions near Albrigton.
The village its self is small with three red bricked Georgian houses, a large Victorian house and pretty black and white cottages tucked away into each corner.
The village is remarkable mainly for its famous church St. Bartholomews, outside of which is the supposed grave of Little Nell. Little Nell was a fictional character in Charles Dickens book, The Old Curiosity Shop. It is thought that Charles Dickens visited Tong Church when his grandmother worked at Tong Castle. The castle was demolished in 1954 it stood south of the church. The site of the M54 motorway now.
Beyond the main road is an ornamental lake, which is all that remains of Tong Castle remodeled by Capability Brown in 1765.
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The Church itself was originally a Collegiate Church, although the college buildings which are referenced as having included a warden and four priests, two clerks and thirteen poor people have long since gone.
There are surely very few villages in England, which have had their church compared to Westminster Abbey. It was the American consul to Birmingham, Elihu Burritt who referred to Tong Church as a "Little Westminster". He may have been overstating it a little, but the red sand stone church has a central tower rising to a pinnacled spire.
There are certainly a wealth of impressive and beautiful monuments inside to noble families.
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Perhaps the most noted monuments are those of the Vernons, amongst whose tombs lies the resting place of Sir Richard, a 15th century Speaker of the House of Commons, and his wife Benedicta. Another link with the Vernon family is the Great Bell of Tong which was given to the church in 1518 by Henry Vernon.
The bell has been recast twice in the centuries since and it now weighs over 2 tons. A list provides visitors with details of when the bell is rung. These include Royal births, Royal visits to Tong and visits by the head of the Vernon Family.
Nearby the Vernon monument lies the grave of Sir William, a Knight constable of England and Margaret his wife.
Perhaps the oldest grave here is that of Sir Fulke de Pembrugge, who held the position of Lord of Tong from 1371 to 1409. His second wife Isabella lies by his side and she is the lady who founded the church in 1410 so that masses could be said to Sir Fulke and her two other husbands Thomas Peyeveyne and John Ludlow.
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The grave is thought to have come about because Charles Dickens novel, was serialised and shipped over to America and as a result; Americans began coming over to England to visit the scenes featured in the book. The tourists recognized the references to the Tong church from the book and came to view the supposed grave which of course was not there. There is a stone saying Little Nell.
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However a verger and village postmaster George H Bowden (16 August 1856-May 1943) apparently asked local people to pay for a headstone, forged an entry in the church register of burials (apparently the giveaway was that he used the post office ink to do this) and charged people to see the grave. The headstone has been moved from time to time to make way for genuine graves.
A particularly notable feature of St. Bartholomew's is the collection of amazing memorials to the Vernon Family and other proprietors of the Tong estate inside the church. You have to see them to believe how fantastic they are.
St. Bartholomew's was chosen by Simon Jenkins of "The Times" newspaper in 1999 as one of the best 1,000 churches out of 15,000 in England. He awarded the church, which was mostly rebuilt in 1409. three stars out of a possible five. He refers to the collection of villages tombs, the masterpiece of which that of Richard Vernon who died in 1451.
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In "White-ladies" one the "Boscobel Tracts" that describes the events of Charles II's escape from England after the battle of Worcester, there is a statement that Charles, while sheltering at Boscobel House about two miles away, "had the pleasure of a prospect from Tong to Brewood, which satisfied the eyes and the famous bells at Tong, which entertained the ear. The bells he heard were the bells of St. Bartholomew's.
If you visit Tong village and church, you must drive to Boscobel House and White ladies priory.
I have photographs on my Flickr account of these places. Boscobel House is stunning with beautiful gardens. The famous oak tree where King Charles II hid.
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