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St Leonard's Church,
Lower Lemington, 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 11th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes Lemington as a civil parish, on the Warwickshire border, 2 miles north-east from Moreton in Marsh station on the Oxford and Worcester branch of the Great Western railway and 5 south-by-west from Shipston on Stour. St Leonard's Church was described as "a small but ancient building of stone, of the Early Norman period, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a turret containing one bell". On the floor within the communion rails is a brass to Charles and Peter Grevill, c.1636. There are 80 sittings. The parish register dates from 1685. The living was then a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the lord of the manor, Lt.-Col. Sir Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills bart. O.B.E. and had been held since 1903 by the Rev. Arthur William Fox Norton B.A. of Jesus College, Cambridge, who resided at Moreton in Marsh.

According to the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 6: Slaughter hundred, and the upper divisions of Tewkesbury and Westminster hundreds (1965), pp.216-220 (Lower Lemington), "Lower Lemington may have originally formed one parish and township with Upper Lemington, later in Todenham parish, and both places were called simply Lemington until the 16th century". Further, there appears to have been a church at Lower Lemington by the 11th century, and in the earlier 12th century the chapel of Lemington was confirmed to Tewkesbury Abbey. "The chancel arch is thought to be Saxon, and the plan of the Saxon church, with some of its fabric, appears to have survived".

Fifteen people were enumerated at Lower Lemington in 1086; today, according to St David's Church website, there are only a handful. Nevertheless St Leonard's remains open, and is now Grade I Listed - see the British Listed Buildings website (under Batsford) for details.

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 SP2189834526. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Leonard's Church, Lower Lemington shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Lower Lemington 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 Lower Lemington, 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 6: Slaughter hundred, and the upper divisions of Tewkesbury and Westminster hundreds (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
• Information provided on the St David's Church website. (verified 2019-01-24)
• 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.