St Barnabas's Church, Snowshill

St Barnabas is the parish church of Snowshill, a small village up on the wold above Broadway with 159 people at the 2021 census. It was rebuilt in 1864, with a three-stage west tower and a clock, and it keeps a fifteenth-century font. The church and the cottages round it appear in the film Bridget Jones's Diary. It is listed Grade II.

History

There was a chapel at Snowshill long before the present building. In 1557 the Crown granted the manor of Stanton and the free chapel of Snowshill to John Elliot, who sold them on the same year to Thomas Doleman, and the parish registers begin in 1572. For centuries Snowshill was served from Stanton: in 1923 it was a perpetual curacy joined to the rectory of Stanton, and the two still form one parish.

The church of 1864

The old church was replaced in 1864 by the present one, in the Early English style, of well-squared coursed stone close to ashlar under a stone slate roof: a west tower, a nave, a chancel, a north vestry with an octagonal stone chimney and a south porch. The listing suggests the porch may have been added after 1879. Maps of 1883 give the dedication as St George; by 1903 the church was St Barnabas.

On film

Snowshill was Bridget's parents' village in Bridget Jones's Diary, released in 2001: VisitBritain says her taxi passes St Barnabas on the way to their house, and Tewkesbury Borough Council's conservation area appraisal records that the church and the cottages round it were used as the location in 2000. Our guide to Cotswold film and TV locations has more.

What to see

The church is small and plain inside, so the details reward a slow look.

• The font, the oldest thing in the church: fifteenth century, octagonal, with quatrefoils on the bowl and blind arcading on the stem
• The pulpit, made of Jacobean panelling on a twentieth-century base
• The nave roof of four bays with arch-braced collar trusses, and the wide chancel arch
• Five stained glass windows, all in memory of the Marshall family
• In the churchyard, the monuments of the Warren and Warne families, listed separately

Visiting

St Barnabas does not publish opening times, and services are held only from time to time, so it may be locked; the outside and the churchyard can be seen at any time. The village is busiest on days when Snowshill Manor is open, and quietest early in the morning. There is no bus to Snowshill.

Getting there

By car, Snowshill is 2.5 miles south of Broadway by road. Park at Pipers Grove car park on the Broadway road just north of the village (WR12 7JU), a council car park with 25 spaces for which the council lists no charge; the National Trust's car park is for visitors to the manor. The nearest stations are Moreton-in-Marsh, about 7 miles away, and Evesham, about 8 miles.

On foot, the Snowshill and Snowswood walk, 2.1 miles (3.4km) from Pipers Grove, finishes past the church, and the Stanton, Snowshill and the edge walk comes down into the village beside it before climbing back to the Cotswold Way.

Nearby

Next door is Snowshill Manor and Garden, Charles Wade’s house of collected craftsmanship, given to the National Trust in 1951. Cotswold Lavender has its fields at Snowshill, open for a few weeks in high summer when the lavender flowers. Over the hill, the Cotswold Way passes the Iron Age fort of Shenberrow Camp and drops to Stanton, with its church of St Michael and All Angels and its village cross. Down in Broadway, St Eadburgha's is the old parish church outside the village.