In 1851, The Worcestershire Chronicle began a series of weekly articles by “A Rambler” entitled “Stray Notes on the Churches and Church-goers of Worcestershire”. From 1st September 1852, for the next seven weeks, the Rambler turned his attention to the churches in the Vale of Evesham. He was much enchanted by the area, beginning by saying:
Thanks to the opening of the railway, we have now a ready communication with that golden valley, clothed with the richest verdure and watered by the meandering Avon, which has from early times been famous for its beauty and productiveness – I mean, of course, the Vale of Evesham. And if my reader is in love with the quiet repose of rural scenery, in a beautifully sequestered spot, where the fauna and satyrs, the wood nymphs and the fairies, lingered long ….. let him invest some two or three shillings in a railway ticket and leave the train at Evesham …..
The Rambler noted that there were 12 parochial chapelries of the Vale – Offenham, South Littleton, Middle Littleton, Bretforton, Badsey, Wickhamford, Hampton, Norton, Church Honeybourne, Bengeworth, All Saints and St Lawrence – which were originally subordinate to the monastery of Evesham. He would be concentrating on the first seven, as he had previously noted the others.
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The Chronicle of 29th September 1852 featured an article about St James’ Church, Badsey. The incumbent was the Reverend Thomas Henry Hunt, who had become Vicar only on 21st April of that year. After years of neglect, the church and churchyard was in great need of attention.
From the Bretforton road to Evesham, the very pretty tower of Badsey (or “Baddesei” as the Abbey MSS have it), peeping out from the trees, entices the lover of the picturesque across some exceedingly pleasant fields, and through the village to which it belongs – a village whose antiquity is warranted by the substantial old stone edifices, with their gables and mullioned windows, which here and there stand out in bold relief from the serrated line of houses constituting “the street”. It was in this parish that Abbot Chyryton (in the time of Edward III) provided a garden and buildings for the retirement of sick or convalescent monks from his abbey. May says that the site of this appears to be the spot now known as the Manor Farmhouse, to the left of the path called “Monken Lane”, on entering the village from Evesham. Some vestiges of perhaps the ancient buildings, within the present tenement, have induced strange notions among the villagers as to two disused drains and part of a culvert, which some of them gravely consider to be burial places and a subterranean walk. The fish pool may be traced north of the garden. In a field called “Fox Hill”, some ancient pottery, human and other animal bones, stone slabs, and a rude head, have been found; and some have supposed this was an early British settlement.
The church (which is said to have been consecrated in the same year and by the same prelate as the church of Bretforton) is placed on a gentle elevation rising from the street and, being surrounded by a good open space, its good old masonry and the ancient yew hard by are seen with good effect, though the burying-ground is kept in a most slovenly state. I had to wade up to my middle in nettles to look after the inscriptions, and found nothing after all to reward my pains. The church has a chancel, nave, with north chapel, and tower at the west end. As with many other churches hereabout a great portion of the walls Early English work, with restorations (if they may be so called) made during and since the Perpendicular period. But there is a small circular-headed doorway, with a horizontal lintel, in the north wall (now stopped up), which presents the chevron, cable and pellet mouldings, and indicates an earlier church on this site. If the church was consecrated in 1295 as recorded, one would have expected to see Geometrical rather than Early English masonry in the walls. The roof is of a steep pitch, tiled. There is a cross pate, in a hoop of stone, on the chancel gable, and a handsome floriated cross on the gable of the chapel. There are trefoil lancet lights in the west wall of the chapel and north of the chancel; the other windows are Perpendicular, except some wretched square ones with wooden frames, which ought at once to be removed. A well proportioned window of four bays above the western entrance – the only good window in the church – is shut out from view by the stopping up of the tower arch, and a gallery at the same places completes the deformity. The chancel arch too is supplied by a trumpery curve, not very dissimilar to a piece of bent timber. An obtuse arch divides the chapel from the nave. The tower is of three stages, embattled, and is singularly conspicuous for its grotesque gargoyles, one of which is like the head of a walrus, with projecting teeth or tusks. I noticed here that the hideous heads, whether human or fiendish, were toward the north, and the more amiable countenances southerly – an arrangement, I suppose, in harmony with the ancient superstition that all evil influences proceeded from the north and reigned absolute in that cardinal point. The heads are nearly all represented as being in that state which is usually experienced by persons when they first go to sea; and as the medieval carvers were waggish fellows, it may be that they intended some of the gargoyles as portraits of the sick monks of Evesham, who came to this parish for the restoration of their health.
In the church is a monument with the figures of a knight and his lady kneeling, with three children. These are members of the Hoby family, to one of whom, at the dissolution, Badsey was granted. The monument and effigies are sadly mutilated, reminding one of those beautiful lines of the poet:
Why for my ashes seek a place
Within this tomb of glorious fame?
For ere the pen my name can trace
Time will reduce to dust that name!In the chapel is the following inscription to one Edward Seward (1772):
He ne'er the Heights and Depths of Science trod
His better Science was to serve his God.
He ne'er with avarice Swell'd his Little Store,
But liv'd the frugal Steward of the Poor
To raise his own he sunk no neighbour’s Fame
Blameless himself he would not others blame.
From self blown Pride and vain Ambitions free,
His highest Glory was Humility.The Wilson family occupy the chancel burying ground. The font is octagonal, the basin supported by a pillared shaft. There are six bells in the tower. The Sunday schools number 60 or 70 children, and there is a day school beside. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of Christ Church College, Oxford, value £150. Reverend Mr Hunt, incumbent; William Barnard, clerk. Population in 1841, 295; in 1851, 390.
In an ancient minute book belonging to this parish, beginning in 1524, are several curious entries relating to the ceremonials of the church just preceding the reformation, as follows:
1527, Paid for painting of the cloth afore our Lady, 1s 0d
1527, Paid for the painting of the rood, 2s 11d
1531, Paid for the taper set afore St Nycholas, 1s 2d
1533, Paid for the foot of the pyx, 2s sd
1538, Paid for the sawnse-bell (sanctus-bell), 2s 2d
1538, Paid for painting of the sepulture cloth, 2s 9d
1546, Paid for making the four sentinels, 2s 8d
1546, Paid for the Judas, 0s 10dThe three last entries relate to the representation of Christ’s entombment and resurrection, formerly made in our churches during Passion week.
Just opposite the church of Badsey, dissent beards the establishment in the shape of a Wesleyan chapel; but I am credibly informed that if all the former incumbents of this church had done their duty faithfully, no such evidences of sectarianism would have been visible here.
It was not until 33 years later that a much-needed complete restoration of Badsey Church took place.
In the following week’s edition of The Worcestershire Chronicle, there was an article about Wickhamford Church.
Maureen Spinks, June 2025