St Mary the Virgin, Holwell. This guide is for the use of visitors to the church while in the church. After your visit please leave it for those who follow.
Before the Churches: Maybe the ghosts walk Holwell parish... legions of Roman soldiers on the Akeman Street...crossed by Deadman s Walk where coffins were carried from Holwell chapel to the parish church at Broadwell. Holwell is an ancient place, Stone Age henges were built nearby and a Saxon shrine was probably built alongside the well, now the village pond. Holwell was part of Broadwell parish until independence in 1850. The Story of the First Churches in Holwell. After the Norman Conquest the de Limesi family owned Broadwell including Holwell after dispossessing the Saxon owner, Cristina, daughter of Edmund the Exile who was Edward the Confessor s brother. The de Oddingseles succeeded the de Limesi family in 1197 and held the estates until 1564. One of them built a chapel-ofease at Holwell in around 1200 and a drawing of it hangs in the church. Note the double Sanctus bell-cote; a Sanctus bell was rung as the sacrament was taken to inform the feudal peasant congregation assembled outside the church. This chapel fell into disrepair. In 1804 William Hervey bought Broadwell Manor, 2000 acres, and much of Filkins and Broughton Poggs. He also bought Bradwell Grove. He pulled down the existing house and employed the celebrated local architect and builder, Richard Pace and Sons, to build the present one (right) in the neo-gothic style. The house is now the centre of the Cotswold Wildlife Park and owned by the Heyworth family. The Property of Holwell Church 2
William Hervey applied to the diocese in 1842 to pull down the ancient and ruinous edifice which was the older chapel-of-ease, even though a note in the Bodleian Library, together with the picture on the previous page, described it as a chapel of considerable antiquity with a Norman doorcase to the north. Hervey built his own church (right) in 1845 with a graveyard which made the long Deadman s Walk obsolete. The church was called St Peter s and Holwell became a parish in 1850, independent of Broadwell. William Hervey s church did not last long; the next squire to occupy Bradwell Grove, William Henry Fox, pulled it down in 1894 to make way.. The Shill and Broadshires Benefice Guide The Present Church...for the present church( below left) which was built and consecrated as St Mary the Virgin on 16th July 1895. It was the gift of Squire Fox, a typical Victorian autocratic squire, tall and bearded, a bachelor who treated his employees as his family. Fox s father had made a fortune from umbrella manufacture having patented the collapsible umbrella frame. Fox died in 1920. The Property of Holwell Church 3 No expense was spared in building the present church, W.E.Mills of Banbury draughted the plans and Alfred Groves of Shipton-under-Wychwood built it. W.H.Fox is commemorated in the east window (pictured later). It is interesting to note that 1895 is after the great era of Victorian restorers who built, repaired and modified other churches in the Benefice and nationally. Copying medieval designs, called neo-gothic styles, was still normal. The internal walls are bare stone and flush pointed, also stone is flush with windowreveals showing that no plaster has been cut away. Corbels are carved and used to support the roof, as in medieval churches. But Victorians frequently tiled the nave and the chancel and raised altars. Even flat floor chancels were raised and tiled by Victorian restorers.
The ornate tiled Nave floor leads up to the tesselated (mosaic) chancel floor and the altar. Tiled designs typical of the Victorian restorers. The next squire, Colonel Heyworth-Savage, of Bradwell Grove gave the altar with gilded angels in memory of his son, Lt. Col. R.F.Heyworth, who died of his wounds in North Africa in 1941. The Property of Holwell Church 4
This detail, left, is from the East window which commemorates Squire Fox who built this church. It is in a very traditional style as used by many stained glass artists of the Arts and Crafts era. Other glass in the church has the popular Victorian feel to it; the type used often in Victorian and Edwardian houses everywhere, as shown by this design of stained glass used in the South Transept (above) and other windows. The Kirkland pipe organ in the north transept was specifically built for this church in 1895. It is regularly maintained and still played for services. Although brick and some stone may have been used from the previous churches on this site, the diocese ordered that all woodwork should be sawn up and given to the poor as firewood or burnt on a bonfire (in 1894). The Property of Holwell Church 5
Saved from the bonfire:- Only the Flemish panels in the pulpit survive from the 1200's chapel-of-ease. The Pulpit s Own Story. Charles Trinder arrived in the village about 1625 and built much of the farmhouse (left) north-east of the church. John, his eldest son, built the large barn in the centre of Holwell in 1650. He was a Roman Catholic who had to flee Flanders in 1689. He probably brought back the Flemish panels, above, now built into the pulpit. Two further panels of Isaac being sacrificed and St. John being beheaded were saved from the bonfire in 1894 and hung on the wall behind the pulpit. Sadly they were stolen in 1976. Charles Trinder retired to Westwell and lived in the Manor as a tenant of Christ Church, Oxford. He is buried in Westwell churchyard and a memorial to him and his family adorns the wall of Westwell church. The sources of information for this guide have been the information which existed in the church at the time of preparation, Richard Martin s The Parish of Broughton-cum-Filkins publication and A.S.T.Fisher s comprehensive local histories. Thanks and acknowledgement is given to these authors for their work. Photographed and produced by Derek Cotterill, 2007. The Property of Holwell Church 6