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St Barbara's Church,
Elmley Road, WR11 7SW,
Ashton under Hill, 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 before 1071, and we understand it is still open.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 8: Cleeve, Deerhurst and Tibblestone, and the lower divisions of Tewkesbury and Westminster (1968), pp.245-250 (Ashton under Hill), records a church at Ashton by 1071, when the church in Beckford (to which it was annexed) was granted to the abbey of Cormeilles. It remains chapel of ease in the present day.

The church is dedicated to St Barbara, patron saint of armourers, gunners and blacksmiths. The dedication first appeared in the 18th century - it was called St Andrew's in the 12th and 16th centuries. The earliest part of the building is the Norman south doorway. "It has single shafts with scalloped capitals, a plain recessed tympanum, and ball ornament on the outer order of the arch".

The description in Kelly's Directory of 1923 is of "a building of stone in the Early English style, with traces of Perpendicular work, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, small north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 5 bells" [the sixth bell was added in 1946]. In 1868 it was enlarged by incorporating the school-room formerly attached to the north aisle. There are several mural tablets to the Baldwyn family, dating from 1816 to 1857. The east window and three other chancel windows are stained. Records of marriages and burials date from 1586, and baptisms from 1596.

The living was then (in 1923) a chapelry, annexed to the vicarage of Beckford, in the gift of the Martyrs Memorial Trust, and held since 1912 by the Rev. William John Margetts, who lived at Beckford.

Set at the entrance to the church, in a grassy triangle, outside the lych gate, is an ancient stone cross on a square base mounted on a 3-step plinth. The cross shaft is octagonal, with a shield relief on the east side, and is said by the British Listed Buildings website to be complete except for the top, which has been replaced by a sundial. "The cross has survived in a good and almost unaltered condition and is prominently situated at the main southern approach to the village".

Ashton under Hill is now in Worcestershire, it was transferred (with Beckford) from Gloucestershire in 1931.

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 SO9967037709. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Barbara's Church, Ashton under Hill shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Ashton under Hill 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 Ashton under Hill, 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 8: Cleeve, Deerhurst and Tibblestone, and the lower divisions of Tewkesbury and Westminster (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)

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.