St Nicholas's Church is an Anglican church in the market town of Newport, Shropshire

Newport, Shropshire

Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies some north of Telford and some west of Stafford sitting on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border...

, lying within the Diocese of Lichfield

Diocese of Lichfield

The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers 4,516 km² The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England...

. It is dedicated to St Nicholas, the patron saint of fishermen and of Early English and Perpendicular

Perpendicular

In geometry, two lines or planes are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruent adjacent angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective...

 architecture. The church sits on an island in the centre of the town and is the main focal point for miles around. The buttressed tower dates from 1309, but the site had been used since the 13th century in the times of Henry I

Henry I of England

Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...

.

Thomas Draper bought the church from the Abbot of Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury Abbey

The Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey, was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1083 by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England.-Background:...

 in 1442 but it was not until 1700 that it gained its land and the rectory was endowed. The church has been restored

Victorian restoration

Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...

 twice, the south side in 1883 and the north side from 1890. The west porch was built in 1904, a gift from Lady Boughey.

In the south side of the exterior, in a niche, is a figure statue of a knight, reputed to be Henry I. The red sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 Norman parish church of St Nicholas, the patron saint of fishermen, was founded during the time of Henry I and is affiliated to a church in Edgmond. Restoration work to the church was undertaken in the 1890s to restore it to its current condition.