St Edmund's Church, Shipston-on-Stour

St Edmund's Church stands on Church Street in Shipston-on-Stour, the market town on the River Stour that belonged to Worcestershire until 1931. Its west tower is fifteenth century; the rest was rebuilt in 1855 by G E Street, one of the great Gothic Revival architects. It is listed Grade II*.

History

For most of its life St Edmund's was a chapel of Tredington, the mother parish to the north, and only became a parish church of its own in 1719. The Prior and convent of Worcester chose its chaplain in 1299, and in 1268 Henry III had granted the Prior a Saturday market and a June fair at Shipston.

The old church

Notes made by Prattinton in 1812 describe the medieval church Street replaced: a chancel, a chapel and a nave divided from a north aisle by round arches, which suggests an early building. The seventeenth-century antiquary Habington saw raised tombs there to Thomas White, who died in 1631, and John White, who died in 1632.

Street's rebuilding

In 1855 everything but the tower was taken down and rebuilt to Street's design, in the style of the fourteenth century: a chancel of one bay with a five-light east window, an aisled nave of five bays, a north vestry and a porch. The tower was kept: three stages of fifteenth-century stonework with gargoyles, a coped parapet and two-light belfry windows.

The bells

The Victoria County History, published in 1913, recorded six bells, all by Matthew Bagley in 1754 except the third, of 1774. There are still six, but five of them are now by John Taylor and Co of Loughborough, cast in 1979; only the tenor, Bagley’s of 1754, remains. A curfew bell charity from the will of William Horniblow paid a ringer to ring one of the bells morning and evening at set hours.

What to see

Inside, look for the Victorian craftsmanship Street brought to a country town.

• The nave arcade of pointed, chamfered arches on round piers, under a scissor-braced roof
• A stone pulpit with traceried panels in the thirteenth-century manner, and a six-sided font with a cornice of carved flowers
• In the chancel, a large sedilia under a Tudor arch and a piscina
• Victorian stained glass in the east window and the east window of the south aisle chapel
• The wall tablet with an obelisk and bust to John Hart, High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1739, who died in 1747 aged 73; its inscription calls him a great promoter of manufacture in his native town, where shag and plush weaving was once the trade

Visiting

St Edmund's is open through the week for private prayer, and entry is free. The Sunday Eucharist is at 10.30am and there is a midweek service on Wednesdays at 10am, each with coffee afterwards, and on the fourth Sunday a family Café Sunday. On the second Sunday there is Book of Common Prayer Evensong at 4pm, with tea beforehand at 3.30pm, the parish website says. The parish website promises step-free entry and disabled access throughout the church. It gives no set opening hours, so ring the parish office before a special trip.

Getting there

The church is on Church Street, Shipston-on-Stour (CV36 4AP), a short walk from the High Street. The free Bridge and Mill Street car parks (CV36 4AW, up to 72 hours) are about 150m away. Stagecoach bus 50 runs between Stratford-upon-Avon and Shipston about seven times a day Monday to Saturday and six on Sundays, four or five of them going on to Chipping Norton, and the 51 and 51A run to Moreton-in-Marsh station about five times a day, Monday to Saturday.

On foot, the Shipston-on-Stour, Burmington and Barcheston walk starts on Mill Street, about 150m from the church, crosses the Stour to Burmington and comes back through Barcheston.

Nearby

Across the river and a short walk south-east, St Martin's at Barcheston has a Norman doorway and the alabaster tomb of the Willingtons, on the same walk. St Mary's at Ilmington, about 6 miles north-west by road, is a Norman church with carved mice on its pews. In the town, Mrs Browns Tea Rooms is close by, and the Black Horse is a pub with a Thai kitchen.