At the 122nd Badsey Flower Show held on Saturday 26th July 2025, the theme for this year’s Literature competition was “Badsey Village Church”. Terry Sparrow, known primarily for his prose writing, entered this poem, which concisely tells the story of the church’s history.
A bishop came from far away
To Badsey Church on St John’s Day.
It was the year twelve ninety-five,
As written in an old archive.So a village church was here we know,
More than seven centuries ago,
But it dates even farther back,
Though written evidence we lack.Look at the church’s old north wall,
See a blocked door, no use at all.
But look more closely and is found
A clue in that old door’s surround.A moulding on the door’s lintel
More carvings on the arch as well.
These features are, the experts say,
Eight centuries old, if they’re a day.In due course came the tower so strong
With five new bells to chime their song.
Then in the year seventeen-o-six,
Those bells were recast into six.As time went by the village grew,
A bigger church was needed, too.
The reverend Hunt was just the man
To start a bold enlargement plan.Fund-raising began and a builder was found
To get this huge project off the ground.
A vestry was built and a new south aisle,
Plus essential repairs and the roof re-tiled.Our church today seems structurally sound,
But a different problem now is found.
Whilst it could stand for centuries more,
It needs more people through the door.North Littleton Church, three miles away,
Completely silent on Sunday,
And Saintbury, high upon the hill,
No people there the church to fill.Do we perhaps now fear the day
When Badsey Church goes the same way?
When no more hymns the people sing
And when the bells no longer ring.We’re blessed with splendid volunteers
But few, and getting on in years.
How long, one asks, before they say,
“It’s time we too called it a day.”
Terry Sparrow, July 2025