# St Benedict Biscop Church, Wombourne

St Benedict Biscop Church is a parish church in Wombourne, Staffordshire. It is part of the Anglican Smestow Vale team ministry comprising the parishes of Wombourne, Trysull, Swindon, Himley and Bobbington, in the Diocese of Lichfield.
The dedication to St Benedict Biscop, 7th century founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria, is unique in England. The church is a grade II listed building designed by George Edmund Street in Gothic Revival style and constructed 1866 - 1867.

## History

A settlement at Wombourne is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and there has certainly been a church on the site for more than 1,000 years. Its foundation may have been linked to the Battle of Tettenhall fought on 5 August 910, during which the allied Anglo-Saxon forces of Mercia and Wessex defeated an army of Northumbrian Vikings. If so, the intention would have been to provide a site to pray for the souls of the dead. The precise location of the battlefield remains a mystery, indeed it is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Wednesfield. 18th century antiquary Richard Wilkes postulated that Wombourne itself had been the site of the battle, though with little evidence his theory is widely discredited.
Nothing remains of the church's pre-Conquest structure, which would most likely have been made from wood. The oldest part of the church is the medieval tower, which dates to the 14th century and is presumably the only surviving part of what by then was a stone edifice. In 16th century a north aisle was added, parts of which may remain in situ.
The industrial expansion of the Black Country bought rapid population growth to the village, Wombourne becoming a centre of the local nail-making industry. By the early 19th century this meant that the small medieval church was insufficient for the expanding number of parishioners. In 1840 a new church was constructed in the briefly fashionable Strawberry Hill Gothic style, retaining the medieval tower.
However, within 20 years the new church would be deemed unsuitable by vicar William Heale, who held the incumbency from 1848 to 1897. He engaged the famous architectural practice of George Edmund Street to demolish what in ecclesiastical terms was still a new building and erect a replacement in a more academic Gothic revival style. Building work began in 1866 and was completed in time for consecration by the Bishop of Rochester in 1867.
Street's design uses elements of different periods to imply that the new church has in fact evolved piecemeal over the centuries. As a result, the south aisle is equipped with Early English-style lancet windows, the chancel with windows in Decorated style, and the north aisle with windows to a Perpendicular design. Street's soaring octagonal spire, recessed above the embattled parapet of the tower, has three tiers of lucarnes with ogee heads.
Few fittings remain from prior to Street's rebuild. A fine marble wall monument in the north aisle to Richard Bailey Marsh, d.1820, depicts a mourning woman next to an urn and medallion portrait of Marsh. It is the work of Francis Chantrey and would have been reinstalled twice during the two 19th century rebuilds. The font meanwhile, situated by the south-west entrance is likely the only survivor of the 1840 church. In 1905 it was crowned with an elaborate spire-shaped oak cover.
Street's arcade has stiff leaf capitals with painted images of the instruments of the passion recessed in six roundels between each arch. Street also designed the notable whitewashed sandstone pulpit with stiff leaf carving and the polychrome paneled ceiling in the chancel. Glazed Minton tiles on rear wall of chancel frame a painted reredos, made to Street's design by Clayton and Bell, showing the Crucifixion to the centre flanked by saints.
On south wall is a late-medieval alabaster relief carving showing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, donated in the late 19th century by Thomas Shaw-Hellier of the Wodehouse.
The church is blessed with a considerable collection of fine stained glass. East window in chancel is shows Christ enthroned flanked by the patron saints of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The window at the east end of the south aisle shows the Passion. Both are by Clayton and Bell and formed part of the 1866-67 commission. Seven windows in nave, and an eighth in tower base, are by Charles Eamer Kempe, all showing various saints, were added piecemeal during the second half of the 19th century.
The Lady Chapel has two windows by Graham Chaplin that form a single commission, showing the Holy Spirit during Annunciation and Pentecost, installed in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium.