Towers& Spires
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7 2 9 7 Towers& Spires 9 11 6 4 3 Worcester 8 12 11 3 42 OR MILE E LO T NG ROU 25 S H MILE O E R T T ROU 1 5 2 12 3 10 1 10 4 6 5 8 3 Produced by Sustrans FourPoint Mapping for ChurchCare. Cartography © Sustrans FourPoint Mapping.Text © Tim Bridges, Photographs © TudorBarlow (Flickr) and Aidan McRae Thomson (Flickr) . All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording or A cycling tour otherwise, without the permission of the publisher and copyright owner. The representation of a track or a path is no evidence of a public right of way. Users of all routes shown of churches around Worcester on this map do so entirely at their own risk. ChurchCare and Sustrans FourPoint Mapping accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. Towers& Churches along the route 8 Bradley Green - St John the Baptist 2 Claines - St John the Baptist This isolated building at the southern end of the straggling Spires village, stands in a field close to a former Victorian school. Its Located at the centre of what was once a very large parish which included much of what is now northern Worcester, this ‘Decorated’ style is typical of churches built during the 1860s, medieval sandstone church was restored and enlarged in the this simple Victorian building is a successor to an 18th- A 42-mile cycling tour of churches century brick built church which had itself replaced an earlier around Worcester early 1800s including the porch and vestry by Aston Webb in 1887. It has a rather severe scraped stone interior but there medieval chapel. Most notable is the ‘Bromsgrove Guild’ west is still much medieval detail and interest. rose window which is the memorial to the men of the parish his is one of a country-wide series of cycle killed in the First World War. tours linking our magnificent cathedrals 3 Salwarpe - St Michael 9 Hanbury - St Mary Close by Salwarpe Court, the building was considerably with some of the remarkable parish Located on an Iron Age hillfort, only traces of its medieval T restored in the 19th-century. The interior is both a surprise origins are visible. The box pews in the nave are an excellent churches surrounding them. Each tour will use and a delight. Inside the church reveals much of the demonstration of the adaptation of a medieval building so building’s late Norman origins and a host of intriguing items the cathedral as a start and finish point and take it could be used for 18th-century ‘Book of Common Prayer’ and remnants of previous liturgical uses, all of which indicate in a number of our most outstanding churches. worship, all of which is in distinct contrast to George Street’s the building’s rich history associated with the ‘great and the later (1860) ‘Victorian Gothic’ choir stalls and altar in the good’ of Worcestershire. This cycle route takes you past just a few of the chancel. remarkable churches in the diocese. It will give you a clear 4 Droitwich - St Andrew 10 Himbleton - St Mary Magdalen sense that the church buildings have been shaped by This church has intriguing traces of alterations and changes Dating from the Norman period, the setting of this church is generations of faithful worshippers and by forces beyond of which the most radical was when its tower was much delightfully located at the end of a long lane of timber-framed the local community. Churches serve as repositories of reduced in 1911 due to major structural instability. To the buildings at the northern end the village. Traces of its Norman the stories of those who have lived and worked in the area east of the tower is a chapel which was dedicated in 1491 to origins are visible together with later medieval work including and provide evidence of the political, religious and social St Richard de Wych, also known as St Richard of Chichester. the font. There is some surviving early medieval glass in the St Richard was born in about 1197 in the manor house on the top right corner of the east window of the chancel plus some changes that have occurred in this part of England since site of the recently closed nearby Raven Hotel. the earliest Christian communities. more 15th-century glass in some of the other windows. There are traces of medieval wall painting in the south transept but 5 Droitwich - St Augustine these are insignificant compared to the remains of the royal 1 The church lost its nave in the Civil War when in 1646 coat of arms (Elizabeth I?) on the east wall of the chancel. Worcester Cathedral royalist troops attempted to remove roundhead soldiers The medieval cathedral priory was the focal point of religious by setting fire to the building. Internally the church is 11 Crowle - St John the Baptist life in the shire. As the wealth of the cathedral priory confusing because it has been re-orientated but the heart of Only the porch of the building is medieval, the tower and the increased so the cathedral and associated the building is the crossing where the original chancel and rest of the church were rebuilt in in two stages between 1881 buildings grew in size, grandeur and number. north transept meet. Many of the fittings were given by John and 1885. Some of the medieval features were incorporated Phase after phase of improvements and Corbett, the ‘Salt King’ of Droitwich in the 19th-century. into the Victorian restoration. Of greatest interest is the enlargements continued until the dissolution limestone lectern which was found in 1845 buried the of the monasteries. The cathedral had a 6 Huddington - St James churchyard. The lectern dates from around 1200 and is turbulent history during the Reformation and Much of the medieval church was rebuilt and restored in thought to have come from the chapel of the court (which the 16th- and 17th-centuries left their marks 1900 although traces of its early beginnings remain visible used to be next door). It is likely the lectern was buried at the on the building which was in poor condition albeit relocated to new positions, including the rood screen time of the Reformation. by the end of the 18th-century. During the and fragments of medieval glass. Please park your bicycles 19th-century there were extensive repairs, by the main gate at the road or in the yard to the east (left 12 Oddingley - St James restorations and alterations. side) of the church and then walk along the drive and across A church is first recorded here in 1288, the medieval building www.worcestercathedral.co.uk the lawn to the church gate. was partially rebuilt in the mid-1800s and its setting is enhanced by the nearby canal. A great number of details 7 Grafton Flyford - St John the Baptist from the 14th-century to the 18th-century are to be found While the sandstone tower is a substantial looking structure including a medieval timber arch, medieval stained glass the main body of the church constructed of blue lias and 17th-century hour glass stand from pulpit. Oddingley is limestone is eroding badly since the Victorians scraped off most notorious for the murder of the rector George Parker in its protective external layer of lime render. The late medieval 1806, after a dispute about tithes. The murderer escaped but timber bell frame is of considerable significance and there some 25 years later, a skeleton found in a nearby barn was are two recently restored 16th-century paintings showing the identified as the person hired by a local farmer to shoot the symbols of St Mark and St John. rector. Towers& Woodgate OR 8 3 3 Doverdale A Spires Sytchampton42tctchahammpp oonn MILE E L T O U Upper NG RO 25 Wychbold S Bentley H MILE Sharpway O E R T A Gate T ROU 4 Worcester 4 2 Hampton Oldfield Lovett B 4 8 0 3 9 A A 9 1 4 Uphampton 4 9 A38 Ombersley 5 Holt A449 Fleet A4133 A41 Key A4 B4065 3 1 33 3 4 B 4090 Towers and Spires cycle route (42miles) Great Droitwich Spa on-road / traffic-free Pool R Hanbury Shorteriv route (25 miles) e r on-road / traffic-free S e B4090 v A M5 Suggested direction of travel 4 e 4 r 9 n National Cycle Network B4090 on-road / traffic-free Woolmere Droitwich Green National Cycle Network 3 route number Spa Primsland Notable gradient A38 (arrow points downhill) Salwarpe Worcester and Church of interest Hadzor Birmingham Canal Railway with station At this crossroads head Feckenham to Huddington if you wish r Sa to ride the full 42-mile ive lw R a route, or to Crowle for the Bradley r A38 p e shorter 25-mile option. Green Hawford Grimley M5 8 Martin Hussingtree Fernhill Oddingley Heath Earl's Common 12 2 Claines 10 Stock Wood A Stock A443 4 A 5 3 4 8 Green A4 5 49 3 Hallow 6 HimbletonHimHiHimb A4 49 M5 Northwick A449 Sale Public Houses A449 Green 1 The Mug House, Claines B4639 Huddington 0 5 Tibberton 6 5 4 2 The Gardeners Arms, B B4482 Vines Lane, Droitwich Spa A38 Barbourne Warndon 3 The Galton Arms, Harrow Road, Himbleton Brickfields B4 204 Crowle R 11 0 5 i 5 8 M Café v 5 3 4 6 e B r Worcester 4 B S Woodgreen e 7 v 1 Jinney Ring Craft Centre e B4637 r Worcester 6 Dines n 63 A 4 A Hanbury Road, Hanbury Foregate3 B 4 Grafton Kington 8 Green 5 49 Street 37 3 6 8 4 B4 Flyford A B4206 A Worcester 422 Please check opening times before you go.