St Benedict Biscop Church, Wombourne

St Benedict Biscop Church, Wombourne
Church of St Benedict Biscop
52.536349°N 2.183246°W / 52.536349; -2.183246
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
History
Status	Active
Consecrated	1867
Architecture
Functional status	Parish church
Heritage designation	Grade II listed
Designated	27 June 1963
Architect(s)	George Edmund Street
Architectural type	Gothic Revival
Years built	1866 - 1867
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of Lichfield
Archdeaconry	Archdeaconry of Walsall
Deanery	Trysull
Parish	St Benedict Biscop, Wombourne
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Rev. Preb. Julia Cody

St Benedict Biscop Church is a parish church in Wombourne, Staffordshire. It is part of the Anglican Smestow Vale team ministry comprising the parishes of Wombourne, Trysull, Swindon, Himley and Bobbington, in the Diocese of Lichfield.

The dedication to St Benedict Biscop, 7th century founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria, is unique in England. The church is a grade II listed building designed by George Edmund Street in Gothic Revival style and constructed 1866 - 1867.

History

A settlement at Wombourne is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and there has certainly been a church on the site for more than 1,000 years. Its foundation may have been linked to the Battle of Tettenhall fought on 5 August 910, during which the allied Anglo-Saxon forces of Mercia and Wessex defeated an army of Northumbrian Vikings. If so, the intention would have been to provide a site to pray for the souls of the dead. The precise location of the battlefield remains a mystery, indeed it is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Wednesfield. 18th century antiquary Richard Wilkes postulated that Wombourne itself had been the site of the battle, though with little evidence his theory is widely discredited.

Nothing remains of the church's pre-Conquest structure, which would most likely have been made from wood. William White's 1834 History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Staffordshire suggested that the church was (re)built by the Priors of Dudley around 1170. While it is possible that some 12th century fabric survived into the 19th century, today the oldest extant part of the church is the medieval west tower, which dates to the 14th century, and corresponding spire added sometime during the subsequent two centuries.

The industrial expansion of the Black Country from the mid-18th century bought rapid population growth to the village, when Wombourne become a centre of the local nail-making industry. By the early 19th century the small medieval church was deemed insufficient for the expanding number of parishioners and a decision was taken to rebuild. The medieval building would however be recorded in a drawing by Thomas Peploe Wood in 1837, shortly before demolition.

In 1840 a new church was constructed in the briefly fashionable Strawberry Hill Gothic style, retaining the medieval tower and spire. However, within 20 years the new building would be deemed unsuitable by vicar William Heale, who held the incumbency from 1848 to 1897.

Heale engaged the famous architectural practice of George Edmund Street to demolish what - in ecclesiastical terms - was still a brand new building in order to erect a larger replacement in a more academic Gothic Revival style. Building work began in 1866 and was completed in time for consecration by the Bishop of Rochester in 1867.

In 1888 a new clock was installed in the tower in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria the previous year. It is equipped with two dials to the south and west faces of the tower and has a full set of Westminster chimes.

To accommodate Wombourne's expanding population, in 1957 a modern sister church dedicated to the Venerable Bede was built on the other side of the village.

Architecture

Interior view of nave and chancel

Sited within a substantial churchyard on the northern side of Wombourne's historic village green, St Benedict Biscop is built of pink Staffordshire sandstone with a plain tiled roof. Its plan consists of a nave, north and south aisles, a north chapel, a south porch, a chancel with a north vestry and organ chamber, and a west tower with spire.

The oldest extant part of the church is the 14th century west tower and corresponding spire. The tower has a two-light west window with pointed head, clock faces on the south and west sides, stepped plinth, three molded string courses and a crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Rising above, recessed within the parapet, is a soaring octagonal spire with four crocketed corner pinnacles and three tiers of lucarnes with ogee heads.

In the 16th century a north aisle was added to the church, parts of which may remain in situ despite the two 19th century rebuilds.

Street's design for St Benedict Biscop employs the conceit of incorporating elements from different stylistic periods in order to imply that the new church had in fact evolved piecemeal over the centuries. As a result, the south aisle is equipped with Early English-style lancet windows, the chancel with windows in the Decorated style, and the north aisle with windows to a Perpendicular design. An inscription carved into the gable above the south porch quotes from the Book of Revelation 21:25, that ‘THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT BY DAY’.

Interior

Inside, Street's arcade has stiff leaf capitals with painted images of the instruments of the passion recessed in six roundels between each arch. Street also designed the notable whitewashed sandstone pulpit with stiff leaf carving and the polychrome paneled ceiling in the chancel. Glazed Minton tiles on rear wall of chancel frame a painted reredos, made to Street's design by Clayton and Bell, showing the Crucifixion to the centre flanked by saints.

1821 memorial to Richard Marsh by Francis Chantrey

Few fittings remain in the church from prior to Street's 1867 rebuild. A fine Neoclassical wall monument to Richard Bailey Marsh of Lloyd House is located in the north aisle. It depicts in marble a kneeling woman in mourning next to an urn and medallion portrait of Marsh. It is the work of Francis Leggatt Chantrey and dated 1821. It would have been reinstalled twice during the two 19th century rebuilds. The font meanwhile, situated by the south-west entrance is likely the only survivor of the 1840 church. In 1905 it was crowned with an elaborate spire-shaped oak cover.

On south wall is a late-medieval alabaster relief carving showing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, donated in the late 19th century by Thomas Shaw-Hellier of the Wodehouse.

Stained glass

St Benedict Biscop is blessed with a considerable collection of fine stained glass. The five-light east window in the chancel was commissioned from Clayton and Bell as part of the 1866-1867 rebuilding. Though faded, it depicts Christ Enthroned to the centre, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St Christopher to the left and St John the Baptist and St Paul to the right. On the lower register, St Peter and St John the Evangelist occupy the central light, flanked by the four patron saints of the British Isles, St George of England, St Patrick of Ireland, St Andrew of Scotland and St David of Wales. To the far left are images of St Benedict Biscop and St Cuthbert, and on the far right, St Lawrence and St Stephen.

Both windows on the south side of the chancel, and the window at the east end of the south aisle that depicts scenes from the Passion, are also by Clayton and Bell and formed part of the same 1866-1867 commission.

Seven windows in the nave and an eighth located in the tower base are all from the studio of Charles Eamer Kempe. Depicting various saints, they were added piecemeal during the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, primarily as memorial commissions.

The Lady Chapel has two windows by Graham Chaplin that form a single commission, showing the Holy Spirit during Annunciation and Pentecost, installed in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium. Chaplin also designed the 2005 St Benedict Biscop window in the west wall of the north aisle. It contains images of both the church in Wombourne and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, founded by St Benedict Biscop in AD 674–5 as one of the two churches of the double monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey.

Bells

St Benedict Biscop has a ring of eight bells. Six were cast in 1744 by Henry Bagley III, and are inscribed with the names of the donors. Two trebles were added in 1890, originally cast by James Barwell and recast in 1996 by Taylor of Loughborough. All eight bells were re-hung in 1953 and again in 1997.

See also

• Listed buildings in Wombourne