St Martin's Church, Barcheston

St Martin's Church is the church of Barcheston, a small parish across the Stour about half a mile south-east of Shipston-on-Stour. It was built in the twelfth or early thirteenth century, gained its tower later in the Middle Ages and keeps a Norman south doorway and the alabaster effigies of William Willington, a wool merchant who died in 1555, and his wife Anne. It is listed Grade II*.

History

The church began in the twelfth or early thirteenth century as a nave and chancel. Historic England's listing has a south aisle and the north-west tower added in the fourteenth century, and the church altered again in the seventeenth; the Victoria County History says the tower was largely rebuilt in the fifteenth century, and that it still leans markedly to the west.

The Willingtons and the Sheldons

William Willington, a wealthy merchant of the Staple, the company that ran England's wool exports, bought the manor of Barcheston in 1507 and held it until his death in 1555; he made his will on 28 March 1555. He and his wife Anne lie in effigy on an alabaster chest tomb in the south aisle, a monument Wenceslaus Hollar engraved for Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire of 1656. The manor passed through a Willington daughter to the Sheldon family, and Barcheston has long been called the home of the Sheldon tapestries: the Victoria County History says a workshop weaving tapestries was set up in the manor house in about 1560, run by Richard Hyckes and later his son Francis. Which of the surviving Sheldon tapestries, if any, were woven here we have not found recorded.

Repairs and restoration

In 1869 the church closed for a year for repairs to plans by the architect Ewan Christian. Alfred Groves of Milton, near Chipping Norton, did the work for £1,050: new roofs over the chancel, nave and aisles, new seats and the removal of a gallery. Stripping the plaster revealed a Norman doorway in the east wall of the north aisle. The church reopened on 1 March 1870, and the pews of that year are still in place. There was a further restoration in 1894, and in 1905 a descendant, John R Willington, had the family tomb cleaned of paint and dirt and rebuilt.

What to see

Begin at the south porch, which shelters the Romanesque doorway, three orders of moulding with decorated capitals. Look on a buttress of the south aisle for a scratch dial, the mass clock that told the priest the time of service. The walls are of finely jointed limestone under stone slate.

Inside:

• The chancel arch, its capitals carved with trumpet scallops and nailhead
• A wagon roof over the chancel with carved flower bosses, and two fifteenth-century benches
• The octagonal font, with ball flower on its base and carved heads round the bowl
• In the south aisle, the Willington tomb with its alabaster effigies, a brass to Hugh Humphrey of 1530, and a wood and marble memorial of 1675 to William Brent, with lions' heads and an angel
• Memorials to Thomas Taylor, rector, who died in 1716, and Elizabeth Smith, who died in 1799

The two small upper rooms in the tower were once said to be anchorites' cells; the Victoria County History calls them fifteenth-century priests' chambers, and local historians think the anchorite story wrong.

Visiting

The church does not publish opening times, so it may be locked; the churchyard and the outside can be seen at any time. Ask the parish or in Shipston before you go if you want to see the tomb. Parking is easiest in Shipston. The South Warwickshire churches site lists regular Holy Communion or Morning Prayer and festival services here, and says a new pipe organ was installed in 2019 and the church holds organ recitals and concerts through the year.

Getting there

Park in Shipston-on-Stour, at the free Bridge and Mill Street car parks (CV36 4AW, up to 72 hours), and walk the half mile to Barcheston. On foot, the Shipston-on-Stour, Burmington and Barcheston walk comes back through the village on its way to Mill Street, passing about 90m from the church.

Nearby

Back in Shipston, St Edmund's Church has a fifteenth-century tower and a nave by G E Street. North-west, St Mary's at Ilmington is a Norman church with mice carved on its pews. For tea after the walk, Mrs Browns Tea Rooms is in Shipston, and the Black Horse is a pub there.