Historian names Shropshire chapel as favourite place of worship in UK

Professor Beard, famed for her documentaries on the Romans, is one of a number of well-known faces taking part in a survey to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Churches Trust.

People have been asked to name their favourite church, and Professor Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, named Heath Chapel, near Bolden in south Shropshire, as her choice.

"It's an absolute gem of a little, unspoilt Norman chapel," she told the Shropshire Star. "Before I was born my mother was head of the school at Clee St Margaret and when I was little, three or four, she used to take me and my dad, who was an architect in Shrewsbury, back there. We'd all go back and see Heath Chapel and it was like walking into history."

Professor Beard, who was born in Much Wenlock and attended Shrewsbury High School, said the 12th century chapel "takes you right back to the middle ages".

Heath Chapel was also singled out by Kate Williams, the social historian on BBC series Restoration Home and presenter of Timewatch: Young Victoria for BBC2.

And Michael Palin, who attended Shrewsbury School, praised St Margaret of Antioch Church, Abbotsley, Cambridgeshire, where he was married.

Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has said he does not believe in God, named the Norman St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall, Doncaster, as his favourite, while fellow atheist and Coalition Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg nominated the 15th century grade I-listed St Nicholas' Church in High Bradfield, in his Sheffield Hallam constituency.

Prime Minister David Cameron nominated All Saints Church in Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, and also named St Mary the Virgin in Witney, Oxfordshire, as a church for which he has "great affection".

The National Churches Trust promotes church conservation.