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St Mary's Church,
Church Road,
Aston Somerville, 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 13th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes Aston Somerville as a village and parish, 2½ miles east from Hinton station on the Ashchurch and Evesham branch of the Midland railway, and 5 south from Evesham. The church of St Mary was said to be "a building of stone in the Norman and Traditional styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch, and an embattled western tower, with crocketed pinnacles, containing a clock and 2 bells". Inside, on the floor of the church, is an ancient recumbent stone effigy of a knight in armour, supposed to represent one of the Somervilles. There is a medieval carved oak chancel screen, mural monuments to the Somerville, Head and Crowther families, and at the west end an ancient slab re-used and inscribed to Benjamin Parry, of London, goldsmith, d.1785. The parish records date from 1660.

Aston Somerville is a small parish, reflected in number of parishioners attending services at the time of the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/389/1/4/6). The Church had 96 sittings, with an average attendance of 18 at morning services, and 33 in the afternoon (including Sunday Scholars). There was no evening service. The return was completed by the Rector, George Head, who gave his address as "Aston Somerville, Evesham". Nevertheless it is now a Grade I Listed Building - for which the British Listed Buildings website provides the additional detail that it dates from the 13th century. Their account also mentions a marble cartouche in the chancel, with cherubs' heads, a skull and shield of arms, to Mrs. Rebeca Parry (d.1704), and John Parry (d.1714); and an octagonal font, carved with ropework and other decoration "and appears to be re-tooled, possibly made from a re-used piece of stone".

The parish is bordered on the east by Childs Wickham and Buckland, and on the west by the River Isbourne, and the parishes of Hinton on the Green, and Sedgeberrow. It was transferred from Gloucestershire to Worcestershire in 1931, but remains in Gloucester Diocese.

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 SP0474237865. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Mary's Church, Aston Somerville shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Aston Somerville 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 Aston Somerville, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• 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.