St Mary's Church, Lower Slaughter

St Mary's is the parish church of Lower Slaughter, its broad spire rising over the village near the manor house. It was almost entirely rebuilt in 1867 by Benjamin Ferrey for Charles Shapland Whitmore, lord of the manor, but it keeps an arcade from around 1200 inside. It is listed Grade II* and is listed as open to visitors.

History

St Mary's story is mostly that of the Whitmore family, who held the manor for about 350 years. The Victoria County History finds architectural evidence of a church here by 1235, and says it was tied to the rectory of Bourton-on-the-Water, whose patron was Evesham Abbey. It notes too that the dedication to St Mary is recorded only from 1867.

The old church

Around 1700 the church had a north aisle and a west tower with a saddleback roof, and by 1851 a gallery had been put in. Its surviving medieval work is the north arcade and a piscina.

The Whitmores

The Crown granted the manor to Sir William Whitmore in 1611, and in 1656 a new manor house was built near the church by Valentine Strong, apparently to the design of Richard Whitmore. The family lived there for nearly a century up to 1961, and the house is now The Slaughters Manor House hotel. Late seventeenth-century Whitmore monuments stand in the north aisle.

The rebuilding of 1867

In 1867 Charles Shapland Whitmore had the church rebuilt almost from scratch. Historic England's listing names the architect as Benjamin Ferrey, working in the Early English and Decorated styles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. A window by the firm of Clayton and Bell went in the same year, and the saddleback tower recorded around 1700 gave way to the present tower and spire. Three new bells were cast in 1866 to join three older ones.

What to see

Outside, the two-stage tower has diagonal buttresses and a broad spire set behind parapets pierced with trefoils.

Inside, find the north arcade first. Its three cylindrical piers with scalloped capitals carry pointed, chamfered arches, a mix of round Norman and pointed Gothic forms that the listing dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, the Transitional period. The Victoria County History calls it early thirteenth century.

Most of the fittings are Victorian or later, but look for the tub font, the thirteenth-century piscina in the chancel, an early twentieth-century alabaster reredos, the Clayton and Bell window of 1867, and the ledgers, brasses and glass to the Whitmore family. The church also owns a chalice and paten cover of 1576. Of its six bells, one is attributed to Robert Hendley of about 1500 and two are by Edward Neale, of 1683.

Visiting

A Church Near You lists the church as open, with guidebooks or notes for visitors, a ramp, accessible parking and a hearing loop. Holy Communion is at 11am on the second Sunday of the month and Morning Praise at 11am on the fourth, with Morning Prayer at 9.15am on Mondays. We found no public toilets in the village; the nearest are in Bourton-on-the-Water. The village is busy at popular times, and walkers recommend arriving early.

Getting there

The church is in the middle of Lower Slaughter (GL54 2HR), beside the Slaughters Manor House. A Church Near You lists parking at the church; otherwise walkers report street parking on Copsehill Road, which fills at weekends, and the district council has no car park in the village. Coaches are barred from the village except to drop off at the hotels. No timed bus calls, but the Robin, a minibus you book ahead, serves both Slaughters.

On foot, three of our walks come through the village close by. Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter starts at the Slaughters Country Inn, a few steps from the church, and follows the River Eye past the mill to Upper Slaughter. Bourton, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter is the loop from Bourton-on-the-Water, and Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters and Naunton goes on over the hill to Naunton.

Nearby

The Old Mill is at the top of the village, and The Slaughters Country Inn is along the lane. About a mile up the river in Upper Slaughter are St Peter's Church, with the mortuary chapel of the family of the diarist Francis Witts, the castle mound and the Manor House. Down the Eye, St Lawrence's Church stands in Bourton-on-the-Water.