Details
SPETCHLEY
648/4/759 CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
11-FEB-65
GV II*
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Parish church of C14, with C17 tower and family chapel with monuments, and C19 glass by Hardman.
MATERIALS: Grey lias rubble with local sandstone dressings, tile roofs.
PLAN: Nave with lower and narrower chancel, south chapel, embraced west tower and west porch.
EXTERIOR: The C18 west porch is timber-framed on a dwarf wall of hand-moulded brick. The round-headed west doorway is probably C17 and has a continuous chamfer, and later ribbed door. Above it is a 2-light west window. The C17 tower rises 2 short stages above the nave roof, with embattled parapet and small square-headed bell openings with louvres. The nave south wall has a pointed doorway, blocked behind the door which retains plain strap hinges. A tall cusped window is left of the door and, to its right, are single-light and 2-light Decorated windows. Openings on the north side correspond with the south side, although the window at the west end is blocked, and the doorway is blocked behind a door with strap hinge. There are angle and a central freestone buttresses, between which are later, larger, rubble-stone buttresses. The chancel has a C19 3-light Perpendicular east window. On the north side is a late C16 4-light mullioned and transomed bay window with ovolo mouldings. To its right is a single-light window. The Gothic-survival south chapel has an embattled parapet with pinnacles. In the west wall is a Tudor-headed studded door, under armorial bearings in a recessed surround. The south wall has two 2-light windows and the east a 3-light window.
INTERIOR: A vestibule has been created beneath the tower, with partition across the west end of the nave that incorporates a door to the tower stair on the south side and a cupboard on the north side. The partition includes panel doors from the vestibule and a 3-light window above them with intersecting tracery, looking into the ringing chamber. The nave has a plaster barrel ceiling and 2 tie beams. A trefoil-headed piscina is in the south-east corner of the nave. The double-chamfered chancel arch is C14. The chancel has a plaster barrel ceiling with one tie beam. A wide moulded timber lintel spans the entrance to the chapel, which has similar moulded reveals incorporating a sunk roll moulding. The chapel has an ovolo-moulded joist-beam ceiling. Walls are scribed plaster. The nave has a floor of C19 tiles, with stone-paved sanctuary and C19 decorative tiles in the chapel.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The big round post-medieval font is on a round stem. Early C19 benches have simple poppy heads. The polygonal panelled pulpit, painted blue, is of similar date. In the sanctuary is a wooden communion rail on iron standards, and early C19 panel reredos (behind which C16-C17 wall painting has been discovered). The chief interior feature is the outstanding collection of funeral monuments. In the bay window of the chancel is a late C16 tomb chest behind iron railings, with heraldic shields in relief in the reveals of the window. It was intended as the tomb of John Slade (d 1597), who was eventually buried elsewhere. The space between chancel and chapel is occupied by the monument, possibly by Samuel Baldwin, to Sir Rowland Berkeley (d 1611) and his wife Katherine, who purchased Spetchley Park in 1606. It has effigies on a tomb chest with inscription panels, corner obelisks set diagonally, and coffered arch on square fluted Ionic pillars, with achievement. On its east and west sides iron railings and gates divide the nave from the chapel. The principal monuments in the chapel are to Sir Robert Berkeley (d 1656), sergeant-at-law, who has a tomb chest with effigy in judge¿s robes, and an inscription panel with achievement against the wall behind. Thomas (d 1693) and Anne (d 1692) Berkeley have a big wall monument attributed to James Hardy, with apron, inscription panel framed by Ionic pilasters, with broken pediment and achievement. Robert Berkeley (d 1694) has a large Baroque monument attributed to Grinling Gibbons, with mourning cherubs on a sarcophagus, and inscription panel with drapery, framed by panelled pilasters and entablature. Robert Berkeley (d 1804) has a wall monument with sarcophagus by W. Stephens & Co. There are 3 C19 funeral hatchments, of Sir Robert Berkeley (d 1804), Robert Berkeley (d 1874) and Henrietta Sophia Berkeley (d 1857). In the chancel is a wall tablet to Anne Smyth (d 1638), with Corinthian columns and entablature with achievement. There are C17 brass plaques in the chancel floor, and grave slabs of 1719 and 1762. Stained glass windows are by Hardman of Birmingham. In the chapel the east window shows the resurrection (1874), the south-east window the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene and disciples (1876), and the south-west window shows SS Robert and Catherine. In the chancel the north window shows the Annunciation (1860).
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The stone churchyard wall has dates 1629 and 1714.
HISTORY: The church is of at least C13 origin, but the oldest parts of the present building are the C14 nave and chancel. The south chapel was built in 1614 by Sir Rowland Berkeley, a Worcester wool merchant who had become the owner of Spetchley Hall. The tower is also probably of the C17, below which an entrance vestibule was created. The porch was added in the C18. Restoration in 1857 was by Henry Rowe, and retained earlier plasterwork. The church has been declared redundant and has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust since 1987.
SOURCES:
R. Sowden, All Saints Church, Spetchley, 1999.
A. Brooks and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, 2007, pp 597-98.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of All Saints, Spetchley, is listed Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* For its surviving medieval fabric in the nave and chancel.
* For the architectural interest of its early C17 family chapel and tower.
* It has a fine collection of monuments of C16-C19.
