Standing outside St Mary's - at 1,300 feet above sea level said to be the highest church in England and looking at the panoramic view, it is possible even today to imagine the original church or chapelry at Bettys-y-Crwyn.

On this still lonely and windswept hill it was built perhaps seven hundred years ago, for there is a brief mention of it in the records of Wenlock Priory in 1276. The ancient drover road from Wales into England offers one reason for the choice of site, and it may have been a shrine for the well (perhaps with healing properties) that is now in Ladywell Cottage garden, just down the road. The drovers and hill shepherds must have been the first worshippers in this building.

Of this early church little remains - possibly only the north and south walls of the nave.

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