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St Lawrence's Church,
A44,
Bourton on the 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 in the 12th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes Bourton on the Hill as a parish and village, 2 miles west from Moreton-in-the-Marsh [sic] station on the Great Western railway, 30 miles from Gloucester and 9 south-west from Shipston-on-Stour. St Lawrence's Church is described as "a building of stone, in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of three bays, aisles, north and south porches, and an embattled western tower containing a clock placed in 1904, at a cost of £110 and 6 bells". The south wall of the chancel retains a piscina, with canopy, and the piers of the south aisle are Norman. In 1898 the chancel was restored and reseated with oak benches, the organ renovated and a new oak pulpit placed in the nave, and in 1893 the north gallery and the old high pews were removed and the church was re-seated with open oak sittings.

The east window was filled with stained glass in 1912 by Mr. and Mrs. D'Esté East, in memory of the late Sir James Buller East bart. The parish register, which dates from 1554, records that Sir Thomas Overbury kt. who was poisoned in the Tower of London in 1613, and Sir Nicholas Overbury kt. who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James and Charles, were buried here in 1643, "the latter being upwards of 100 years old".

The living was then a rectory, which had been held since 1906 by the Rev. Edmund Theodore Murray B.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge. Dr. Warnford, in 1856, left a sum of £1,000 (invested in Great Western Railway stock), the interest on which was to be applied to the medical relief of the poor of the parish. There was also a retreat for aged men and women, established in 1831, which consisted of four tenements, each inmate receiving £20 yearly, and £10 in addition for repairs to the houses.

The Tithe Barn at Bourton House, said to be one of the finest stone barns in England, bears a date of 1570.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/406/2/2/1) was completed by the Rector, Sam. Wilson Warneford. He remarked that there was "sufficient Room & accomodation for both the poor & the Rich - About ½ of the Inhabitants of the Parish are considered to attend".

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 SP1752932514. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Lawrence's Church, Bourton on the Hill shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bourton on the 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)