The Church today
The Church of St. John the Baptist, Beckford has been the physical and spiritual centre of our village since the 12th Century and remains an active place of worship with services being held on most Sundays of the year, as well as on the
great festivals of the Christian faith.
Details of these services can be found
in the Beckford Group Parish Magazine
(Click here); or on the Bredon Hill
Group Rota (Click here). We will be
delighted to welcome you to any of our
services.
The building and its history
​
The presence of St John the Baptist's church in Beckford is announced by its massive tower, clearly visible across the vale, from the Cotswold escarpment. Approaching the building through the lychgate, erected in 1922 as the village's memorial to the dead of the Great War, one gains a splendid view of this ancient church from the south-east, set in a large churchyard which contains a number of old memorials, three of its chest tombs being Grade 2 listed.
The porch, which was added to the original structure in the 15th century, is crowned by the remnant of a sundial and has served to protect the fascinating tympanum, dating from the mid-11th century, when the main body of the church was built. This is thought to represent the animal creation worshipping the Trinity – represented by the eye of God the Father at top left, the cross of Christ and, perched on its right-hand spar, the dove of the Holy Ghost - flanked by curiously hybrid animals.
Though this building was erected about 1140, there is documentary – but no structural - evidence of an earlier church on the site. Interestingly, a visiting historian recently asserted that, in his opinion, the bearded faces flanking the south door beneath the tympanum are evidence of an earlier (Saxon) building, as Norman faces were usually devoid of facial hair. For the moment this must remain no more than a fascinating conjecture.
Inside the Grade 1 listed church, one's attention is drawn to the wonderful barrel roof and to the great west window which replaced two – or perhaps three – original windows, the remains of which can still be seen on either side. Only two original Norman window embrasures remain and these face each other across the western end of the nave. Elsewhere the windows reflect the changing fashions of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The font is from the 15th century and still bears faint evidence of original paintwork.
Turning eastwards, the view is dominated by the magnificently-decorated tower arch, originally the chancel arch, which bears extraordinary and rather mysterious carvings on the northernmost pillar. In the 13th century the church was extended to the east to provide a larger chancel and the original chancel became the base of a low tower, crowned with a wooden spire. This deteriorated and was removed in 1622, when the tower height was increased.
The east window is a 17th century replacement, with late 19th century memorial glass, and the south-westerly window was formerly a lowside window – a fact which is clearly seen outside where the infill of red brick is at reckless disregard for the surrounding stonework. Other windows here date from the 13th century construction. To the north of the sanctuary a chantry chapel was built (necessitating the blocking of a window – its outline still visible) and was later converted to the present vestry.
We are fortunate that the church has largely escaped the depredations of “restorers” of the Victorian era and remains in essence, true to its original construction. A former archdeacon thought it the finest church in his archdeaconry and it does hold much of interest in spite of its initially rather plain interior. It certainly repays a visit by those interested in early ecclesiastical architecture and in features such as the headstone to the east of the porch, which remembers Benjamin Dyer and his wife Sarah: she being daily “letter carrier”, walking to Tewkesbury and back every day with the village mail, thereby walking some 90,000 miles in the course of 19 years until her death in 1838!
