St Lawrence's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the centre of the town of Evesham,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. It stands close to All Saints Church, and to the bell tower of the former

Evesham Abbey Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof. According to the monastic history, Evesham came through the Nor ...

History

St Lawrence's Church and its neighbour All Saints were built by the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks of Evesham Abbey in the 12th century. The first documentary evidence of the church is in 1195, and it was dedicated by the Bishop of St Asaph in 1295 (probably a re-dedication following the Battle of Evesham in 1265). The church was significantly rebuilt in about 1470, replacing the earlier church. From 1659 it ceased to have its own

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

and was served by the clergy of All Saints. The fabric of the church deteriorated and by the winter of 1718 it had become unusable. Repairs started in 1737, but these were done badly, and the roof collapsed in 1800. The church was abandoned. In the early 19th century, Edward Rudge commissioned the architect Harvey Eginton, who carried out a major re-building in 1836–37. This included adding a north aisle in a similar style to the south aisle, and rebuilding the roof. During the 20th century, the size of the congregation declined. In 1978 the parish of St Lawrence united with that of All Saints, and St Lawrence's was declared redundant. It was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Churches Conservation Trust the following year.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in stone with slate roofs. Its plan consists of a four- bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with a clerestory and north and south aisles, and a two-bay

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

. The aisles are almost as wide as the nave and continue beside the chancel, with the east end of the chancel protruding beyond them to form a short

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

. At the west end is a tower with a porch, and there is a chapel on the south side. The tower has diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es, and a stair turret to its southeast. On the west side is a

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

doorway, over which is a large four-light window. The top stage contains two-light bell openings. At the top of the tower is a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

with pinnacles, and it is surmounted by a short spire. The Perpendicular east window is large, with six lights, almost filling the east wall of the chancel. There are

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s at the east and west ends of both aisles, which contain three-light Perpendicular windows. In the north aisle are three-light Perpendicular windows, an

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinat ...

-arched

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ted doorway, a pierced parapet, and crocketted finials. The chapel projects from the south side of the church, with diagonal buttresses, a pierced parapet, and a five-light transomed south window. Stained glass in St Lawrence's Church, Evesham (5130)

Stained glass in St Lawrence's Church, Evesham (5130)

Interior

There is no chancel arch. Between the nave and the aisles are four-bay arcades, with Tudor-style arches carried on lozenge-shaped piers, and there is a three-bay arcade between the chancel and the chancel chapels. The stone reredos dates from 1838 and consists of canopies over inscriptions of the Creed, the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

and the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

. There are carved screens between the chancel and the aisles dating from about 1900. The Jacobean communion table was donated to the church in 1610. The wooden pulpit is polygonal. It dates from 1906, and contains carved figures of the Four Evangelists, Bishop Egwin, and Saint Lawrence. The font is

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and consists of an octagonal bowl on an octagonal stem. The south chapel has a stone fan vaulted rood and a floor of

encaustic tile Encaustic tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colours but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern appears inla ...

s. It contains a copy of the medieval font. In the east window is stained glass of 1862 by

Thomas Willement Thomas Willement (18 July 1786 – 10 March 1871) was an English stained glass artist, called "the father of Victorian stained glass", active from 1811 to 1865. Biography Willement was born at St Marylebone, London. Like many early 19th centu ...

, which includes depictions of the

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

, the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

, and coats of arms. The windows in the north and south sanctuary walls are by Gibbs. The east window in the south aisle dated 1847 is by O'Connor, and the east window in the chapel is by Hardman & Co. In the north aisle are three windows from the early part of the 20th century by

Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...

, and there are other windows from later in the 20th century by Evans and Co. of Smethwick, Paul Woodroffe of Stroud, A. L. Wilkinson and

Francis Skeat Francis Walter Skeat (3 December 1909 – 31 August 2000) was an English glass painter who created over 400 stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals, both in England and overseas. Skeat was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow ...

. The two- manual organ was made by Nicholson of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

in 1867.

Notable burials

Anne Rudge Anne Rudge (29 October 1761 – 1 September 1836) was a British botanical illustrator who illustrated the works of her husband, the botanist Edward Rudge and her son, the barrister and antiquary Edward John Rudge, among others.

(1761–1836), botanical illustrator *

Edward Rudge Edward Rudge (27 June 1763 – 1846) was an English botanist and antiquary. Life He was the son of Edward Rudge, a merchant and alderman of Salisbury, who possessed a large portion of the abbey estate at Evesham. He matriculated from Queen' ...

(1763–1846), botanist and antiquary

References