The village probably acquired a church and a priest in the mid-12th century. By 1246, the living was known as a rectory. The lord of the manor, that is the terre tenant, had the right to nominate his choice of priest to the Prior of Wenlock, although he had to pay the prior 3s. 4d. a year for the right. However, Wenlock was a Cluniac house and so classed as an alien priory, the daughter house of an abbey in France. Hence it was constantly seized by the Crown during the Hundred Years War, so nominations were actually sent to the Crown for most of the 14th century. Because of the Wenlock connection, Badger and the neighbouring parish of Beckbury formed an exclave of the Diocese of Hereford – an anomaly that persisted until 1905, when it was transferred to the Diocese of Lichfield. Several of the early incumbents seem to have been sons of the lord of the manor or of the lords of Beckbury. The rector lived on tithes and Easter offerings, and also had an area of glebe land and, for some centuries, the rent of a house inhabited by the Blakemans.