Bucknell St Mary today

Church Service Details

History

The church in Bucknell dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (of the Assumption) is believed to have been first built in the 12^th century (in about 1140).  A certificate of Bishop Roger de Clinton mentions the building of chapels throughout the county especially a line of such chapels (later parish churches) following the boundaries along the Teme Valley e.g. Bedstone, Bucknell, Stowe and Llanfair Waterdine.

St Mary's Churchyard (panorama) Click inside the above picture, hold and drag the view to pan around use + & - keys to zoom in or out

Before 1176 Andrew de Stainton, the then Lord of Bucknell gave the church to the Abbot and Convent of Wigmore Abbey.  At that time he was charged with grave misdemeanours in King Henry II's court so that he could no longer remain publicly in England.  Andrew de Stainton came into the chapter of the Canons of Wigmore Abbey and, in the presence of Sir Walter Folioth, Archdeacon of Salop, gave them the church of Bucknell "in pure and perpetual alms".  The condition of the gift was that the Abbot and Convent of Wigmore should conceal and help the Lord of Bucknell until he could get out of the kingdom and into Scotland and care for his wife Maud de Portz until his return.  This the Canons agreed to do and did.

The church is a building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle, vestry, south porch and a western tower with a wooden spire containing a clock and three bells.

BUCKNELL, St. Mary (1868-1870)
groundplan created by Thomas NICHOLSON (b. 1823 - d. 1895 of Hereford)

The original Church, consisting of at least nave and chancel, was probably re-built in the 14^th century. It was 'restored' in 1870 at a cost of £2000, when the high pews and the gallery were removed and the north aisle organ chamber and vestry added. The style may be described as Transitional, with a definite Byzantine effect here and there. This applies mainly to the Chancel and aisle arches with their carved capitals. The western bell turret was also rebuilt and surmounted by a slated spire.

Font detail

The Font in the Church is rudely carved on the round basin with interlacing cords and a face of a lion, a medieval symbol of resurrection and therefore very appropriate for a font. The face is thought by some to be Norman work but the interlacing earlier and Saxon. The base is modern and of Transitional form.

The south, east and west walls could be 14^th century. The roof of both nave and chancel are old. The nave roof has five trusses, the central one having tie and collar beams, the others collars only. The chancel roof is similar but all the parts are smaller and the trusses have collars only. 

On the sides of the nave are eight heads which look modern.  An old tablet, no longer in existence, which used to be against the east wall of the nave on the left side of the arch, a record of which is in the British Library in London, stated the 'new Communion Table' was bought in 1681.

St Mary's Church interior (panorama) Click inside the above picture, hold and drag the view to pan around use + & - keys to zoom in or out

Near the organ on the north wall of the chancel is an arch which was a mediaeval Easter Sepulchre.  Before the Reformation the Altar Crucifix was covered with a linen cloth on Good Friday and placed on the floor under the arch until the Easter Vigil to symbolise our Lord's burial and Resurrection.  In this Easter Sepulchre arch are now a stone credence table and above it is an Aumbry in which is reserved the Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood for the use of the sick.  A light burns in front of the Aumbry to show the Presence of our Lord in His Sacrament.  This Aumbry and light was erected in 1980 in memory of the late Captain P Eccles.

On the south wall of the chancel, but visible only from the outside, is a plain pointed priest's doorway now blocked and a window near of two cupsed lights; these may date from the 14^th or 15^th centuries.

All other windows are modern, as are the south doorway and porch, also the high buttresses against the west wall. Below the old window in the chancel a sedile was built and a stone carved pulpit replaced the wooden one of 1661.

All the Stained Glass is modern!

The Registers date from 1598, The oldest is covered with a torn page from the Pre-Reformation Latin Missai or Altar Book.

The list of Vicars goes back to 1285 when the living was in the Patronage of the Abbot and Convent of Wigmore in Herefordshire.  In 1762 the advowson was purchased under Dame Margaret Slaney's Trust by the Worshipful Company of Grocers and today the Grocer's Company exercise this patronage.

In 1991, the benefice of Bucknell with Buckton, Llanfair Waterdine and Stowe was united with that of Chapel Lawn to create the benefice of Bucknell with Chapel Lawn, Llanfair, Waterdine, and Stowe. The first incumbent was the Rector of Bucknell. The right of presentation to the new benefice is exercised jointly by The Earl of Powys, The Grocers' Company, and Mr. J. Coltman Rogers.

Adjacent to the front porch is a Weeping Pear tree, known locally as the 'Devil's Pear Tree'.

The Bells & Clock

The bells hang in a timber structure which was built during the restoration of the Church in 1871 and is within the west end of the nave.

The clock in the middle level of this structure, is a two-train clock made or supplied by Bezant of Hereford dated 1870, and the enamelled dial on the exterior south face of the turret bears this name as well.

The three bells, hung in the upper part of the tower structure were exchanged in 1871 for 2 new bells cast by Mears and Stainbank of London. the details of the bells are as follows:

The three bells are chimed on Sunday for 45 minutes before the service, then the 1^st and 2^nd for 10 minutes; finally the 1^st for 5 minutes
 

List of Incumbents

Bedstone St Mary today

This watercolour was painted by Rev. Williams on 21 June 1791.
© Shropshire Archives, 6001/372/3 (264/16411)

St Mary's Church Bedstone has the perfect setting for a country church. It nestles among pretty cottages, their varied black and white, stone or brick walls and tiled or thatched roofs contrasting with the warm red sandstone walls of the church. Its proud little shingled spire is a local landmark, visible from many, unexpected angles. It reminds us that people have come to this place for many centuries to worship God, and to seek his help in their lives.

Bedstone, St Mary (1877-1879) groundplan
created by Frederick RobertsonKEMPSON (b. 1838 - d. 1923 of Cardiff )

St Mary's church Bedstone c 1910

The walls of the present church have stood there for some eight hundred years, and the plan of the church is that of a typical Norman church, with a Nave and a smaller Chancel, divided by a wall pierced by a rounded Chancel Arch. This plain arch dates from the 12^th century, as do the round-headed windows at the east end of the north wall of the Chancel, and at the east end of the south wall of the Nave. Windows like them were the largest the church had in those early days, which must have made the interior very dark and mysterious.

A semi-circle of stones visible on the outside of the south wall of the chancel indicates where a door for the priest existed in the earliest building.

The plain, tub-shaped Font is also of the 12^th century, though it stands on a newer, 19^th century base. It has a simple semi-circular band of decoration round its middle, and you can see where a lock was fitted to close the lid so that water which had been blessed for Baptisms could not be taken away.

Extensive repairs took place in 1851, and Kempson's of Hereford restored the entire church in 1879 at a cost of around £1,200. The round-headed west door, and all the windows in the building, apart from the old ones already mentioned, were built into the ancient walls then. The shape of the arches and the zig-zag ornament are copied from genuine Norman work. The roofs were also rebuilt at this time. A new pulpit was made, and a new piscina, where the Communion vessels can be washed, was inserted to the right of the altar.

The four windows in the north wall of the Nave are by Kempe, and commemorate the Reverend Joseph Henry Brown, who was rector here for 21 years, 1877-99. Mr Brown also installed the East Window around the time the church was restored in 1879. in memory of his wife, Annie, who died in 1872 when he was Curate at nearby Aymestrey.

There are two plain 19^th century memorials over the Chancel Arch, and several to members of the Ripley family in the Nave. The memorial paid for by the officers of HMS Royal Oak was originally erected in Lightcliffe near Halifax. When the family moved to Bedstone, South Shropshire in 1879 the memorial was taken with them and erected in Bedstone Church at the east end of the south wall of the Nave:

"Alfred Ripley, midshipman R.N who was drowned in the 18th year of his age in H.M.S. Captain when that ship capsized in the Bay of Biscay on the night of Septr.6 1870. This monument is erected as an expression of affectionate regret by the officers of H.M.S. Royal Oak in which he had served for 2½ years & from which he had exchanged four days before his death."

Alfred was the sixth son (of eleven children) of the Yorkshire wool dyer and politician, Sir Henry William Ripley. 

Originally on HMS Royal Oak, Alfred transferred to HMS Captain just three days before she foundered. First news of his loss was in a telegram from Gibraltar to the Admiralty dated 10^th September and reproduced in The Times on 12^th September 1870.

His mother, wife of the First Baronet, had travelled to the docks (thought to be Plymouth) to meet the ship several days beforehand – but of course he never returned. 

Church Service Details


Services at Coxall Baptist Church are at 2.30pm every Sunday.

 

Revised: 18 March 2008