Hope Bowdler St Andrew – A Victorian Gem in the South Shropshire Countryside

A Short Guide to Hope Bowdler Church

Edward Baty

First publ. December 1973 (December Magazine – Cardington, Rushbury, Hope Bowdler & Eaton-Under-Heywood, pp.5ff – revised February 2011)

The Present Building

Hope Bowdler Church Tower

(drawn by Bryan Mostyn 1974)

Hope Bowdler Church lies in the sheltered valley or “hope” that gives it its name, a quiet small dale which faces south and is protected from the north by the heights of Ragleth, Hope Bowdler Hill, and Caer Caradoc. The small parish church typifies the beauty which simplicity of design and care for detail can give to any architectural work.

The Accounts for Rebuilding

We are fortunate in that detailed accounts for the rebuilding of the church and its tower together with the boundary walls have survived to this day (1973). Judging by the builder’s accounts and bills, the practice of altering the specification of building works was just as prevalent in Victorian times as in the twentieth century!

The builder of Hope Bowdler’s new church was ‘Samuel Nevett Esq.’ of Ironbridge and his estimates were based on the plans of ‘S. Pountney Smith Esq. Architect’ of Shrewsbury. The old church was to be taken down and rebuilt on the old foundations. The appearance of the old church can be gauged from a sketch of it made in 1859 by the Revd. J. Brooke and to be found on the wall by the font in today’s church.  Another version is to be seen in the watercolour by the Shropshire artist John Homes Smith somewhat earlier, also displayed in the church…

The Rebuild – Victorian Simplicity

The new church stands on flat ground in its gentle and sheltered low valley or “hope”, attractive and solid in appearance, and hanging together in simple consistency as a single composition best appreciated from the churchyard on the south side of the church. It fits well into the landscape and with its pyramidal roof to the tower has a distinctly, although perhaps not intended, “Norman-French” look about it.

The stone use was to be at the discretion of the builder, Grinshill, Hoar Edge or Soudley stone. In the end the choice was the local, greenish-grey, Soudley stone, graced with a material hewn from the surrounding landscape… It is a stone beloved of fossil-hunters and geologists, especially students and the younger generation.

The building cost £1,306 7s. 0d. increased beyond the original estimates of £827 for the church and £300 for the tower.

Settling the Account

The works were carried quickly by today’s standards. The estimate was dated ‘October 21st 1862’ and the final account ‘Michaelmas 1863.’ Although the works were done expeditely, the account was settled slowly, much more the style of things I experienced when working as a chartered quantity surveyor in the 1950s and early 1960s. The architect certified the account on 23rd December 1863. It was not settled until 27th January 1864.

The reason for this was a dispute over work to the internal stonework; an ‘overcharge’ of £40 appears in the accounts at one end of 1864, disappearing finally when the account is paid. The following letter from the builder to the Rector explains what had happened:

‘January 18th 1864

Ironbridge’

Dear Sir,

I duly received the cheque of £125 with thanks.

I have seen Mr. Smith, as regards the bill he says the dressing of the Stone inside the Church must be left to you, as it was no order of is (sic),

You’re Obedient

Samuel Nevett.

Revd. R.G. Benson.’

(The ‘Mr. Smith’ mentioned is, of course, the architect)

It is clear that the Rector had asked for extra work to the dressing of the stonework inside the church without, however, informing the architect that he had done so. The interior is of beautifully dressed stone and not plastered.

Fund-Raising – 1859 style

The means of funding this enterprise would not astonish us today … they borrowed the money on mortgage. The Rector mortgaged his glebe with the ‘Queen Anne’s Bounty’ to the extent of £700. The churchwardens (also acting as ‘Overseers of the Poor’) mortgaged, of all things, the rates. This latter loan was not paid off until the 1880s. That they did this is an example of how closely identified were the secular and sacred arms of affairs in the parish, it being difficult sometimes to distinguish where one ended and the other began. This was compounded by so many people occupying both civil and ecclesiastical office at the same time.

Modern Furnishings

Although the church looks very much as it did when first built, apart from the electric light and the twentieth century .organ, several items belong very much to recent times. Once more the Benson family helped the parish with new hedging to the west side of the churchyard, and by providing a modern church safe.

An ‘English-weight Drive Tower Clock’ was positioned by a faculty grated in December 1962. Also connected with the tower are a set of hand-bells whose ringers graced local events and toured abroad in the latter half of the twentieth century, appearing for several years at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen.

Perhaps it is appropriate to end this account of Hope Bowdler’s church with a note of two items of furniture, a flower stand and the lectern. The former, presented in memory of Mr. Morris a parishioner from Church Stretton reminds us of the craftsmanship of its maker, and the skills in the floral arts and the enthusiasms of its users.  The inscription on the latter reminds us once more of the essence of this delightful, small, country church with its simplicity and dignified rural setting and of the contribution one particular family has made to its ongoing welfare. It reads:

‘Laus Deo. In grateful remembrance of the Harvest of AD 1871 this lectern was given by the parishioners of Hope Bowdler. Riou G. Benson Rector

Thos. Wilding)

Phil. Haynes) Churchwardens.

The Stained Glass

A Short Guide to Hope Bowdler Church

Edward Baty – publ. September 1973 (“September Magazine – Cardington, Rushbury, Hope Bowdler & Eaton-Under-Heywood, pp.5ff)

Dean Cranage wrote of Hope Bowdler Parish Church in 1895: ‘There is some good modern glass in one of the north chancel windows.’ His reference is to the excellent window by C. E. Kempe portraying Hope Bowdler’s Patron Saints, Andrew. Simon Peter’s brother. This window was dedicated in 1888 to the memory of Ralph Augustus Benson of Lutwyche and his wife Henrietta Selina.

Much of the stained glass in Hope Bowdler Church has been placed there in memory of members of the Benson family, and much of that is by the above-mentioned C. E. Kempe. Kempe was a noted stained glass artist whose work is very well represented in Shropshire. Indeed this county is fortunate in its wealth of good Victorian stained glass, notably the work of David Evans in St. George’s, Shrewsbury, of William Morris at Meole Brace, and of Kempe himself at many places in the county.

Hope Bowdler has some excellent work by Kempe, all executed before he started to use the wheatsheaf as his ‘trademark. To view the three eastern-most windows on the North side of the church is to see the excellence of Kempe’s work … the charm of the pastoral scene by Lake Galilee as Simon Peter is asked “Lovest thou me/” (a window in memory of the Revd. Riou George Benson who died on 18th January 1896), the strength of St. Andrew’s portrait described above, and the peaceful repose of Our Lady described as ‘Mater Dei’ and shown crowned as Queen of Heaven in a window, placed in position also in 1896, by Riou George Benson in memory of his parents Moses George Benson and his wife Charlotte Riou.

Other Benson family windows are to found on the South side of the Nave to the east of the entrance to the Church and in the West wall of the tower. The Holy Child is portrayed in memory of ‘Mary, wife of Riou George Benson (Rector) died 8th October 1913.” Fittingly it stands opposite her husband’s memorial, above the new organ console. In the tower a lancet window with good solid colours showing Christ giving a blessing – placed there by Riou George Benson in 1866 to the memory f Phillip Henry Riou Benson the son of Moses George Benson of Lutwyche. The two pieces of clear glass in this window are said to be the result of a stray stone hurled by one of the then Rector’s grand-children. Needless to say the reported punishment was – as one would expect from Victorian days – salutary, summary, and sharp!

Two more windows from this series need mention. Both are on the South side of the Nave. They flank the doorway with solid Edwardian worth. The first is to the memory of Queen Victoria placed there by her grateful subjects in 1901. This window portrays St. John the Divine and has the legend ‘Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life‘ … a loyal and pious hope of the late Queen’s pious subjects. Two or three years later the series of major windows was completed with a picture of the Good Shepherd in memory of Henrietta, the wife of George Alexander Goolden, who died on 3rd August 1903.

The windows described so far are of interest to any student of late Victorian art. The standard is high, almost without exception, and shows the artistic taste of a particular Victorian family over a number of years.

There is one modern window in the Church- in the middle of the North side of the Nave … a window showing Christ blessing and in memory of Edward Riou Benson (1865 – 1930). The difference of style between this and the other windows is marked. The colours are thinner, admitting more light into the Church. The general composition is more the work perhaps of a draughtsman rather than a painter – using lines rather than colour for his effect. This was the general trend in the twenties and thirties until quite recent times.

There are two more Victorian pieces in the stained glass of Hope Bowdler Church … the East window with its scenes of Our Lord’s life and teaching and a window in the tower dating from 1830.

The east window is typically mid-Victorian and perhaps more valuable for the variety of its teaching than for artistic merit of its design. The donor was the Revd. George E. Curtis, Rector from 1852 to 1860 in memory of his Irish parents.

The South window of the tower shows the heraldic device of Sir C. P. Stanier of Loppington who was Patron of the living and is dated 1830.

The above account might lead the reader to feel that Hope Bowdler has little to offer except solid Victorian worth. Not so! A corrective of great charm was made in 1967 by the generosity of the Benson family. In the western-most window of the North side of the Nave is a collection of fragments of glass and glass panels from the Collection of former Rector Riou Benson. Some glass if very ancient, thirteenth and fourteenth century – perhaps from Little Malvern in neighbouring Worcestershire. It is “Grisaille” glass on which the figures and pattern are painted in flat monochromes. Other glass in this window is from the nineteenth century … a copy of an earlier panel depicting St. Martin … some Swiss enamelled and painted glass. Last … and most appropriately at the bottom of the window, a simply painted horse, taken from the crest of the Benson family.

Addenda

For a recent video of a visit to Hope Bowdler Church CLICK HERE