St Augustine of Canterbury

The church is situated by the Trent and Mersey Canal in the historic market town of Rugeley. A mining town, famous as the birthplace of the donkey jacket and the start of the highwayman, Dick Turpin's, flight to York where he stole his horse Black Bess from the Horse Fair.

Inside St Augustine's, the high alter standing below the large east window has a reredos (an ornamental screen or partition wall behind the alter), carved in an Alpine Village in Northern Italy, with the gilding and colour being added in London. The pulpit was created in 1907 in memory of Sarah Hopkins who died in 1944. She had been a prominent member of the congregation and a benefactress of the parish. It has a simple but expressive oak carving of St Augustine. There is an impressive organ and the bells have been recast several times, dating back to before the 1700s.

Pevsner notes that the building is ‘remarkable for its date’ and was designed early on in Underwood’s career after moving to Oxford, where ‘Survivalist Gothic’ had lingered on in the grounds of some of the colleges and institutions. In 1904, the church was extended with the addition of a large chancel due to the changing ecclesiological tastes of the day, and the congregation wanted to be able to seat a choir and accommodate more elaborate altar arrangement. The architecture of the chancel (by Frank L Pearson) is more elaborate in style, and features glass by CE Kempe.

St Augustine's churchyard has been reconfigured due to risk of subsidence and the grave stones now lie around the edge. Included with those laid to rest in the grounds, there are local links to Dr William Palmer (the Prince of Poisoners), John Parsons Cook (the last victim of William Palmer, which led to Dr Palmer's execution) and Christina Collins (murder victim on the local canal) that inspired the award winning Inspector Morse story "The Wench is Dead".

The current church was completed in 1823, but there has been a church on this site since the 10th century. The remains of the original parish church can still be seen across the road and is now know as ‘The Old Chancel’. The original church had become too small for the town’s growing population and was in a poor state of repair. Currently only the medieval tower, chancel, north chapel and one of the nave arcades remains standing and many of the materials from this church were sold off to help fund the construction of the new church. While the building is no longer open to the public, within the grounds there is an old tomb, dating back to the time of Oliver Cromwell, where two ladies were infamously put into sacks and buried alive within!