The church dates from the early 13th century, with 14th century transepts and 15th century clerestories and crossing tower.
Excavations in 1954 revealed the adjacent late Anglo-Saxon church of St Bertelin.[2]
The church was collegiate when recorded in the Domesday Book when there were 13 Prebendary Canons.[3] It became a Royal Peculiar around the thirteenth century, exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop, but this caused conflict and culminated in December 1258 when the new bishop Roger de Meyland came to Stafford with many armed men who forced entry and assaulted the canons, chaplains, and clerks.[4]
The church survived as a collegiate institution until the dissolution of colleges and chantries in 1548.
For several generations the Aston family, who held the Scots title Lord Aston of Forfar, acted as patrons, despite the fact that the entire family converted to the Roman Catholic faith in the 1620s. When the 2nd Lord Aston, who was very popular locally, died in 1678, hundreds of Protestants attended the burial at St Mary's of a man they all knew well to be a Catholic.
The church has large four manual organ by Harrison and Harrison dating from 1909. It has been awarded a Grade I Historic Organ Certificate by the British Institute of Organ Studies. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[8]
The second organ dates from 1790 when John Geib installed it at a cost of £820. It was rebuilt in 1844 by John Banfield, and then Hill, Norman & Beard in 1974. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[9]
^Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Staffordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 240–243. ISBN0140710469.
^Miele, Chris (1998). "Real antiquity and the ancient object: The science of Gothic architecture and the restoration of medieval buildings". In Brand, Vanessa (ed.). The study of the past in the Victorian age. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 103–124. ISBN1900188287.
