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St Laurence, Queenhill, Worcestershire

Location
(52°1′39″N, 2°12′14″W)
Queenhill
SO 861 366
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Worcestershire
now Worcestershire
medieval Worcester
now Worcester
  • G. L. Pearson

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Description

Built of rubble throughout with squared stone dressings. Nave and chancel and W tower. Restoration, including saddleback top of tower by Scott in 1885. 12thc. sculpture is found in the drastically remodelled S doorway, the font base and a window-head reset inside the nave.

History

Queenhill was a berewick of the manor of Ripple and held before the Conquest by Ailric who was the brother of Briteah, Bishop of Worcester. Soon after the Conquest it was evidently seized by William Earl of Hereford for he gave the tithes to the abbey he had founded at Lyre (Eire). He must have granted the manor to Ralph de Bernai, one of his followers, who is said to have been tenant of Queenhill after the Conquest. The whole of Earl William's estate was forfeited by his son Roger in 1074, and at the time of DS Queenhill was in the hands of the king, who held it of the bishop, this being one of the few manors which the king so held. Queenhill was a chapel of Ripple. It became the church of the newly formed parish of Queenhill in 1880.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Interior Decoration

Miscellaneous

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The resetting of the S doorway has resulted in a clumsy mess. Not only was there a mix-up of the voussoirs, but the builders could not even get the point of their two-centred arch central. Stratford (Pevsner) suggests a date before 1175 for the S doorway and the comparison of the decoration on the window-head with Rock seems to support this.

Bibliography
The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Worcestershire, vol.III. London 1913, 488, 494-96.
C. J. Bond, 'Church and Parish in Norman Worcestershire' in J. Blair (ed.) Minsters and Parish Churches: The Local Church in Transition 950-1200. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph 17. Oxford 1988, 119-58, 127, 129, 134, 150.
N.Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Worcestershire. Harmondsworth 1968, 46, 247.