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St Michael & All Angels Church,
Badminton House Estate,
Great Badminton, 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 1538, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes St Michael's Church as a modern building of stone in the Classic style, consecrated in 1875 [sic], consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles and a western tower with pinnacles, containing 3 bells. It has a highly enriched ceiling and handsome monuments to former dukes and other members of the Beaufort family. In July 1855 Field-Marshall Lord Raglan, who died in the Crimea on June 28th, during the siege of Sebastopol, was buried here. The chancel was added in 1875, at a cost of £1,750, and a fine marble monument to Henry, 1st Duke of Beaufort, who died January 21, 1699, has been transferred here from the Beaufort chapel at Windsor Castle, where it was originally placed. The font is of beautifully veined marble. The parish register dates from 1538.

In fact, Kelly's date of '1875' appears to have been an early "typo", since the British Listed Buildings website says "1785 by Charles Evans of London, after Gibbs' St Martin-in-the-Fields" but concurs that the chancel (and apse) was (were) added in 1875. Also worthy of note, in the lengthy 'BLB' account is that the 1st Duke of Beaufort's monument was by Grinling Gibbons; that there are 'horse-box' pews; and that the church was constructed on a new site, 15 yards to the east of an earlier medieval church.

In 1923, Badminton House was the seat of the Duke of Beaufort, "a large and noble building in the Classic style, situated at the southern extremity of a park, consisting of about 1,500 acres". It was purchased by the Somerset family from the Botelers towards the close of the 16th century, but has been much altered, enlarged and improved since that time, and (in 1923) consisted of three sides of a square, facing respectively east, north and west. The church is attached to the east side of the square, indicating that originally it was very much an "estate church", intended for the occupants of Badminton House, and those who worked on the estate only. To continue the description of the estate from Kelly: the park is well timbered, principally with oak and elm trees, some of which are of very large dimensions, including two celebrated oaks, the "Fitzherbert", and "Duchess"; large herds of red and fallow deer quietly roam or rest beneath the shade of their widely spreading branches, the whole forming a picture truly noble and magnificent... New stables, containing 60 boxes and 20 stalls, were erected in 1884".

Today, the environment may have changed, but it seems inevitable that as part of the Badminton Estate - the home of Badminton Horse Trials - its Church retains a somewhat privileged status. By arrangement with the Vicar, it can be used for weddings and blessings - for details and some magnificent photographs see Great Badminton Church webpage on the Badminton Benefice website.

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 ST8068482862. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Michael & All Angels Church, Great Badminton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Great Badminton 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 Great Badminton, 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)
• You may want to visit Badminton Benefice website for present-day information.

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.