St Mary the Virgin's Church, English Bicknor, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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St Mary the Virgin's Church, English Bicknor (1)

St Mary the Virgin's Church, English Bicknor (2)

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Alf Beard/Phil Draper

Church Crawler's
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St Mary the Virgin's Church, English Bicknor

St Mary the Virgin's Church,
English Bicknor, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.
Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in the 12th century, and we understand it is still open.

The Memorial Inscriptions of English Bicknor have been transcribed by Herefordshire Family History Society.
Kelly's Directory of 1923 tells us "the church of the Virgin Mary is a building of stone in the Norman and later styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and a low embattled western tower, containing 5 bells and a clock. The stained east window of the south aisle is a memorial to Henry and Mary Ann Davies. In the north aisle are two ancient monuments with recumbent figures, supposed to date from 1305. The church was thoroughly restored in 1908 at a cost of about £1,322, and a stained window erected to the late John Burdon. There are sittings for 350 persons".
The living had then been held since 1905 by the Rev. Curling Finzel Doddrell M.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge, who was also the rector of Welsh Bicknor.
According to the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp.101-117 (English Bicknor) the church stands in the outer bailey of a Norman castle. It was recorded from 1221, when, during the minority of the lord of Bicknor, the Crown presented to it, and it remained a rectory. The advowson descended with the manor until the mid 17th century.
At the time of the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/577/1/10/16), the return records free seating for 190, and 172 "other" sittings, a total of 362. It was completed by the aforesaid John Burdon, Rector, whose address was Coleford.
In 1852, the north-eastern corner of the parish was included in the district created for a new church at Lydbrook. In more recent times (1972), the benefice was united with Christ Church, Berry Hill, and land at Hillersland; and Mailscot, including Symonds Yat rock, was added to the ecclesiastical parish.
There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference SO5813015811. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

St Mary the Virgin's Church, English Bicknor shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in English Bicknor shown on a Google Map.
Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for English Bicknor, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.

Information last updated on 30 Dec 2014 at 14:42.

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Further Information

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This Report was created 23 Dec 2024 - 18:23:15 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

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