Due to the small population of the parish St. Peter’s has been closed and reopened a number of times during the last 150 years. It finally ceased to hold any regular services in the 1950s.

Nowadays it is owned by the Churches Conservation Trust, and remains a consecrated building, although services are only held here once a year.

The church originally served the nearby medieval village which was abandoned some time during the 14th century. The church continued to serve the villages of Flecknoe, Sawbridge, and Nethercote. However, a smaller church was built in the late 19th century in the village of Flecknoe which is about 2-3 miles away as the crow files. The building was paid for by the railway company in 1891 as compensation for the disruption caused at Wolfhampcote. The railway itself was closed to passengers in 1952 but carried freight until 1963.

The pews in the foreground are medieval as can be seen by the low shelf which is for resting elbows, not books. The date of these pews is thought to be 14th century but there is some evidence for an earlier 11th century date. The font is Anglo-Saxon. The octagonal pulpit with inlaid panels is dated 1790.

The chancel contains a modern pointed traceried five-light window, and the altar rails are also modern. The floor is paved with a number of memorial slabs from the 18th century, and the walls contain 19th century memorials to the Tibbits family.

On either side of the chancel arch are half-round moulded corbels. The steep-pitched king-post roof in the chancel consisting of three trusses, and is probably 14th century.

A C14 ogee-headed piscina with circular basin is inset into the south wall of the north chapel, indicating that an altar was once there. The north aisle has a memorial cross to John Truslove who died aged 16.

The sanctuary contains memorial slabs and a brass memorial to Frances Benyon wife of parish minister (died 1687).

Tags: brass, font, peter, pews, pulpit, tower

The parish church of St. Peter’s Dunchurch, Warwickshire, was extensively restored in 1908. It was rebuilt in the 14th century from an earlier church and the tower was added in the 15th century. Very little remains of the earlier church except for the 13th century south wall of the chancel, piscina, and the base of the arcade pillars.

The East window is by Herbert Bryans a former student Charles Eamer Kempe. The church contains a number of memorial windows to those that fought in the 1914-1918 war. In particular is a window and plaque dedicated to Frank Robert Harbord, vicar of this parish who was killed at Ypres France on August 8th 1917.

Other memorials to those that fougt in the 1914-1918 war are to the boys and masters at Dunchurch Hall preparatory school, and to Harold John Houldsworthy 1919.

Tags: peter, stained glass, tower

14th century parish church of St. Peter and St. Clare, Fenny Compton. Extensive remodeling of the aisle and arcade occurred late in the century when the tower was added. The clerestory was added in the 16th century, however there is no trace of the original 14th century flat roof. All the windows are modern stonework, except for those in the north clerestory which are 16th century. The roof was restored in 1879.

The communion rails have turned balusters of the 17th century.

This Victorian memorial window in the north wall is dedicated to a Thomas Payne an engineer who built an embankment across the Glaslyn estuary at Porthmadog. Porthmadoc itself is built on the land reclaimed as a result of the embankment.

Tags: clare, peter, stained glass, tower

Parts of St. Peter’s church are early 12th century, with the tower being added in the later part of the century, the church was valued at £10 in 1291.

By the late 15th century the medieval village was deserted. The Public Records Office has a document from 1498 where a jury states that 60 occupants of the village were driven out:

weeping to wander in idleness…[and] perished of hunger.
A Social History of England, 1200-1500 (p127)

The modern village dates from the mid Victorian period.

The village and estate was owned by the Spencer family. Wormleighton was the former manor house for the Spencer’s. They were owners in 1469 and bought the lordship of Wormleighton from the Copes in 1507. Their money came from sheep farming, and by the 1600s the estate had some 20,000 head.

From the early 13th century churches installed a rood (choir, or chancel) screen to separate the congregation from the clergy. This followed the following the exposition of the doctrine of transubstantiation at the fourth Lateran Council of 1215, after which the clergy were obliged to protect the sacrament from irreverant access or abuse. Prior to this period the chancel had curtains which were drawn across the altar at specific points in the Mass. However, the nave of the church was often used for secular activities and some permanent division was felt necessary.

This particular screen is from the 15th century ornately carved and hidden high up on the left hand corner is a carving of a man wearing spectacles.

The plaque above the door is a memorial to Diana Spencer.

The Victorian glass below is set into a 13th century lancet window at the western wall is dedicated to Richard William Rann. The stained glass window above is set into the 14th century south wall. However, the glass itself is Victorian and was dedicated to Rev. Robert Maynard (1814-1869), who was parish priest at Wormleighton for 27 years.

The floor of the nave contains medieval tiles, one of which has the impression of cat paws.

Church website.

Tags: peter, stained glass, tower