St. John the Baptist, Strensham Guidebook

The Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is the Historic churches, due to their age, often national charity protecting historic churches have uneven and worn floors. Please take Church of St John at risk. care, especially in wet weather when floors and steps can be slippery. We have saved over 340 beautiful buildings which attract more than a million visitors a the Baptist year. With our help and with your support Help us do more they are kept open and in use – living once Strensham, again at the heart of their communities. To protect these churches, and others like These churches are scattered widely Worcestershire them, we need your help. If you enjoy your through the length and breadth of England, visit please give generously, using a Gift Aid in town and country, ranging from ancient, envelope in the church you visit, see our rustic buildings to others of great richness website www.visitchurches.org.uk about and splendour; each tells a unique story of becoming a Supporter, or contact our people and place. All are worth visiting. fundraising team on 020 7213 0673. Many churches are open all year round, others have a keyholder nearby. Keyholder Nearby are the Trust Churches of churches are easy to access – simply follow St Mary Magdalene, Croome d’Abitot instructions displayed at the church or call 4 miles W of Pershore off A38 and A4104 the Trust on 020 7213 0660 during office St Lawrence, Evesham hours Monday – Friday. In town centre We strongly recommend checking our Pendock Old Church website www.visitchurches.org.uk for the 5 milesWof Tewkesbury off A438 most up to date opening and access details, St Swithun,Worcester directions and interactive maps. Church Street, off High Street, in city centre We warmly welcome visitors and we hope this guidebook will encourage you to explore Photographs by David Bagley and these wonderful buildings. © Crown copyright. NMR. 1 West Smithfield London EC1A 9EE Tel: 020 7213 0660 Fax: 020 7213 0678 Email: [email protected] £1.00 www.visitchurches.org.uk Registered Charity No. 258612 Spring 2010 © The Churches Conservation Trust 2010 Strensham, Worcestershire Church of St John the Baptist, Strensham | 3 Church of St John the Baptist by John Comins who has been engaged for many years with the National Trust and other landscape and architectural conservation groups, and is a keen researcher in local history Introduction The village of Strensham the destruction of the castle. This house was demolished in 1824 to make way for the The church of St John the Baptist stands on The name Strensham is derived from the classical villa built to the design of George a ridge looking eastwards over the River Avon Old English Streongham meaning ‘strong Maddox for the Taylor family and stood in a towards the great mass of Bredon Hill and village’ – ‘ham’ being a common word for a well-wooded park with fine views over the westwards to the Malvern Hills. It is now village. lake to the Malvern Hills. After the Second alone, except for the former rectory and two The manor of Strensham was owned, World War Strensham Court became derelict; modern houses, one of which is converted according to the Victoria County History , its demolition following a fire in November from the old school room. The present by Pershore Abbey in the 9th century, being 1974 is much to be regretted. However, village lies some distance away, wholly granted in the 11th century to Westminster some good domestic buildings remain, separate and much disturbed by the Abbey. This manor became known as Nether principally the 18th-century Moat Farm in nearby motorway. It was not always so. (Lower) Strensham. Later it passed through the style of William III, and the almshouses Until its destruction in the civil wars of the various lay hands until in 1298 it was sold to founded by Sir Francis Russell in 1697. 17th century, Strensham Castle lay only James Russell. A second manor – Over By 1795 the Worcestershire historian 500 yards (460m) to the west, and (Upper) Strensham – was also owned in Dr Treadway Nash, author of Collections for archaeological excavations have shown medieval times by Westminster Abbey. a History of Worcestershire published in 1781, that the land between it and the church was After several changes in ownership it was had acquired the manors of Upper and filled with buildings up to the end of the acquired by the Russells in the early 17th Lower Strensham partly through purchase 14th century, when the settlement seems to century, thus uniting the two manors. The and partly through the marriage of his brother have been abandoned. last male Russell died in 1705 after which the Dr Richard Nash, to Frances Ravenhill, Strensham was the seat of the Russell manors passed to other members of the granddaughter of Sir Francis Russell. family from the late 13th century up to the family before being sold in 1817 to John Taylor, A decline in the size of congregations and death of the last direct descendant some five a Birmingham banker. the impossibility of funding the necessary hundred years later. The Russells, as befitted The Russells’ occupation of Strensham repairs led to the church being declared their position as one of Worcestershire’s was centred around their castle or fortified redundant, followed by its vesting in The leading families, left notable memorials which manor house, for which a licence to crenellate Churches Conservation Trust in August 1991. lift Strensham out of the common run of or fortify was granted in 1388. Since then the Trust has initiated an extensive parish churches. A print published in Nash’s Worcestershire programme of repairs, including re-rendering shows the manor house of Upper Strensham and limewashing the exterior walls of the to have been a Jacobean building with church, retiling the roofs, repairs to the The tower from the south Georgian additions; it may have become the panelling and pews and conservation of the Russells’ principal seat in the village before monuments and cleaning of the hatchments. 4 | Church of St John the Baptist, Strensham Church of St John the Baptist, Strensham | 5 A team of local bell-ringers carries out heavy fine and his castle was razed, and secular building in the district. The recent struck by the coloured floor tiles, the range of maintenance work on the bells, which are ‘notwithstanding which’ (comments Nash) programme of conservation has retained, 16th-century pews, the painted panels of the used regularly to train people in the art of ‘when the Order of the Royal Oak was where this has been possible, or replaced a gallery and the chancel packed almost to change ringing. intended to be instituted his estate was large proportion of the original lime rendering overflowing with monuments and brasses. valued at £3000 per annum’. The last male which has always protected this soft stone, Russell, Sir Francis, died in 1705 leaving but a full record of the structural elements Furnishings three daughters. With the death of his has been made. The pews on both sides are of linenfold design, The Russells granddaughter in 1774 the connection of the On the south side of the churchyard may about 1540, and appear to be unaltered with family with Strensham was finally broken. be seen the base and socket of a medieval the exception of a large family pew on the Although their influence rarely extended to stone cross. south side of the nave, most likely the Russell the national stage, the Russells’ long years of pew erected in the early 17th century. ownership of Strensham and much other Interior Prominent on the chancel wall are a large property gave them lasting status in the The church The interior, well lit by the six windows, is royal coat of arms of George III (early 19th county. handsomely proportioned with its broad nave century) and two mid-19th century funeral James Russell is recorded as having set off by the whitewashed barrel roof and hatchments commemorating John and purchased the manor of (Nether) Strensham Exterior massive tie beams, one of which has an angel James Taylor. in 1298, presumably the same James Russell The church consists of a west tower, nave poised to fly and carrying a shield of arms of The stained glass is mainly late 19th century who was, according to Nash, given licence to without aisles, chancel and a small early- Russell and Lytton. The eye is immediately and early 20th century with some Georgian build an oratory in 1272. The first tangible 19th-century vestry on the north. record of the family is the brass memorial in The earliest parts of the building, the nave Pulpit the church to Sir Robert Russell, who died in and the chancel, appear to date from the 1390. His son, Sir John, was Master of the 14th century, with the tower being added Vestry Horse to Richard II. later in the same century. There is evidence Pews Pews There followed a succession of Russell of much rebuilding over the years, affecting knights and baronets, prominent in local the chancel in particular. New windows were Tower Gallery over Nave Chancel affairs during the 16th and 17th centuries. inserted in the nave in the 15th century. Font Most notable was Sir William, created a The east wall of the chancel is supported by Pew Pews baronet in 1634 and a prominent supporter no less than three buttresses, doubtless a Pews of Charles I. As Royalist governor of Worcester strengthening required by the proximity of he attracted severe treatment from his the steep river bank.

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