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St Margaret's Church,
Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire.

Cemeteries

This Church has/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 1800, but we don't know whether or not it is still open.

The entry for Welsh Bicknor in Littlebury's Directory of Herefordshire, 1876-7 tells us that St Margaret's Church is "a small but exquisitely beautiful building, situated on the bank of the river Wye. It occupies the site of the former edifice, and was erected in 1858 from the designs of Mr. Thomas H. Rushforth, of Regent street, London, at a cost of £2,680, the whole of which was defrayed by the late rector and Stephen Allaway, Esq." It consists of nave (in the Norman style), chancel with vestry attached, south aisle, western porch, and tower (in the Early English style). The interior is adorned with beautiful stained glass by Clayton & Bell, of London, while the pulpit, reading desk, font, &c., are splendid specimens of carving in Caen stone, inlaid with different-coloured marbles and alabaster. The organ was built by Gray & Davison, of London, and is a fine-toned instrument. The altar table and chancel stalls are of carved oak. There are 96 sittings in the body of the church, all free. The only ancient monument is an effigy, supposed to be that of the Countess of Salisbury, nurse to Henry V. It occupies a niche in the east wall of the aisle.

The Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/577/2/1/1) tells us a little about the earlier church. It was said to be consecrated "before 1800", to have 25 free sittings and 40 "other" sittings. Evidently, the church would be full, as the expected attendance on March 30 to morning service was 65. An additional remark gives a flavour of the times, as it says that the "Congregation Varies. In fine Weather there are frequently above 200 in attendance ~ many coming across the River Wye from Lydbrook". The return was completed by William W Deering, the Curate, whose address was "Welsh Bicknor, Ross, Herefordshire".

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/was located at OS grid reference SO5922917673. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Margaret's Church, Welsh Bicknor shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Welsh Bicknor 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)