Burrington, Herefordshire

Burrington
Herefordshire
St George's Church, Burrington
Location
Grid reference:	SO442721
Location:	52°20’39"N, 2°49’9"W
Data
Population:	138  (2011)
Post town:	Ludlow
Postcode:	SY8
Local Government
Council:	Herefordshire
Parliamentary constituency:	North Herefordshire

Burrington is a small village in the far north of Herefordshire, close to Leintwardine, with which it shares a civil parish ('Leintwardine Group Parish').

The village os to be found six miles south-west of Ludlow (across the county border in Shropshire).

The parish church is St George's.

History of church and parish

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that the manor had been held by Earl Edric, known as Edric the Wild, around whom many legends subsequently grew.

The present church dates from 1864, when an earlier structure was rebuilt. It boasts possibly the finest collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century cast iron grave slabs in the country.

Little is known about the date of the original church on the site. An unsigned drawing of 1842 shows it to have been a much lower structure than the present building, consisting of nave, chancel and wooden south porch. At the west end was a wooden belfry with a shingled broach spire. All windows, including the three light east window, were square headed with hood moulds, suggestive of a date in the early sixteenth century. An unusual feature was a small blocked opening high in the east gable, also with a hood mould, the purpose of which is unclear. The chancel of the old church was longer than that of the present building, with the grave slabs originally being placed inside. A large dormer window probably gave light to a west gallery. The exterior of the church was rendered and limewashed, giving it an appearance more tyical of churches further west, into Wales.

The 1864 Rebuilding

The Churchwardens' Accounts, which survive from 1833, suggest that fairly regular expenditure was necessary to maintain the building, particularly the roof, belfry and glazing, and it is possible that this provided some of the impetus to rebuild.

The cost of rebuilding the nave was borne entirely by the local landowner, Mr A. Boughton-Knight of Downton Castle, while that of the chancel was met by the Vicar and a number of subscribers. There was probably a disagreement between Knight and the Vicar, Philip Hale, which resulted in the use of different architects for the two parts of the building.

For the nave, Knight employed the Shrewsbury architect Samuel Pountney Smith, who in 1861 had already built him a new church at Downton. Pountney Smith was a competent, and at times original, local architect who had been responsible for a number of rebuildings and restorations in Shropshire. The chancel was the work of a nationally known architect, George Frederick Bodley, who had earlier designed a new vicarage at Burrington. Bodley, whose finest works may be seen at Hoar Cross, Staffordshire and Pendlebury, Lancashire, was married to a lady from Kinnersley and carried out a number of minor commissions in Herefordshire.

A memorandum in the Parish register written by Rev. Philip Hale draws attention to the shortening of the chancel. It states that the original chancel had been extended eastwards, and had become the joint responsibility of the vicar and the parish. By returning it to the original dimensions, the anomaly had been removed. It would appear that the vicar was also able by this means to snub the Knight family by banishing their ancestral graves to the churchyard. Further evidence of this disagreement is provided by a note that the chancel screen was the property of the vicar, even though the arch under which it was erected was part of the nave. Unfortunately no record of this dispute has yet appeared in either the Knight papers or the parish or diocesan records. The parish magnanimously contributed the sum of twelve pounds to purchase "an altar, altar coverings and linen, also a surplice, Bible and Altar Service Book."

The work was completed with great rapidity, and the church today appears substantially as it would have done in 1864. It was necessary to carry out major repairs in the 1930s, but these did not affect the appearance of the building.

Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

The pressure to amalgamate small rural parishes affected Burrington earlier than most. During the incumbency of Rev. W. H. Ashton (1929–1934) it was joined with Downton, and under Rev. F. I. Turney (1941–1949) Aston and Elton were added to the benefice. Subsequently, in 1976 Burrington became part of the united parish of Wigmore Abbey.

In 1981 the tower was found to be unsafe, and the whole village became involved in a successful campaign to raise the necessary sum of £10,000. By 1987 the work was completed, the wooden structure having been re-seated on concrete beams. At the same time the interior was entirely replastered and redecorated, and the cast iron grave slabs re-sited for easier viewing. Continuing improvements have included a set of striking kneelers embroidered by members of the parish.

The churchyard contains a single Commonwealth war grave of an airman of the Second World War.

Description

The external appearance of the church shows no indication that it was the work of two architects. It was designed in the Early 'English Gothic' style of the thirteenth century, with lancet windows except for the three light east window which has simple plate tracery. The building is much higher than its predecessor, and the wooden belfry with which it is surmounted provides a slight echo of the former structure.

The interior is plain, the nave and chancel being divided by the wooden screen of 1864, which is also executed in a plain thirteenth century style. The original retable behind the altar is of stone, consisting of three arches in which the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments are inscribed.

The belfry contains three bells, one of which, the treble, is a rare survival of a mediæval long-waisted bell. The tenor was cast in 1727 by Abraham Rudhall III and is inscribed "Prosperity to this Parish". The third bell is of similar design and age.

The Monuments

Burrington is famed for its fine series of cast iron 17th and 18th century grave slabs situated outside the east end of the chancel., a type of memorial is associated with areas of early ironfounding, atypical of Herefordshire, but Bringewood Chase was a local centre of ironfounding even from Elizabethan times.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Burrington, Herefordshire)

References

• "A Short History & Guide to St.George's Burrington" by Martin Speight