Sister Church
You would be forgiven for thinking that the two above pictures are the opposite sides of Saint Modwen’s church. In fact, whilst the top one is St Modwen’s but the bottom one is actually St Alkmund’s curch in Whitchurch, Shropshire.
They are almost identical, bar a few differences to suit their respective locations and a few additions over the years. Both were designed and built under the supervision of architect and builder William Smith, and his brother Richard. Saint Alkmund’s was completed first but William died before Saint Modwen’s was fully completed.
I had always imagined that churches were all unique so this was quite a revelation. In was strangely disappointing to find that Saint Modwen’s of all of Burton’s churches was a duplicate of an existing church being the mosty historically important church in Burton, and maybe even Staffordshire, occupying the site of Burton Abbey.