St Bartholomew's Church Whittington, Cheltenham UK
We are only a small community, and are always on the lookout for more volunteers to help us run our events, where you will always find a warm welcome (and often a lot of home-made cakes!) If you would to find out more about our upcoming events please get in touch.
Easter sunday at 11am 2024
will see our usual Easter Day service, to be taken by Sue Lord at Whittington Church
Our hymns will be :
205 Jesus Christ is risen today
216 The day of resurrection
667 I danced in the morning
218 Thine be the glory
Children - we need help to ring the bell before the service.
and volunteer readers please - we'll forward the reading
Reminder - we also have our "Last Hour at the Cross" service on Friday at 2pm.
See you there!
Charlie and Jane
Wardens
Carol Service on 20th December 2023 at 7pm WHITTINGTON CHURCH GL54 4HF.
CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT
Yppotryll at Whittington
Medieval Music Concert on 28th August
Alfonso the Wise compiled some 400 songs in honour of the Virgin Mary. The Cantigas de Maria (late 1200’s) form one of the most substantial collections of medieval music. Somewhat later, at the monastery of Montserrat near Barcelona, some of the songs sung by the pilgrims was written down in what is now referred to as the Llibre Vermell.
Selecting songs from both these collections, and also some of the earliest English music that we have, Yppotryll will give you a flavour of the kind of music that might have been heard at the time of the Knight and his Lady who are commemorated in the memorials at Whittington.
Yppotryll (a mythical creature from the medieval imagination) is:
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Karen Jones: soprano/paltery
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Rachel Tedd: recorders/gemshorn/dulcimer/voice
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Simon Pickard, psalteries/harp/clavicytherium etc.
First wedding post-lockdown held on 4th July 2020
On July 4th Colin led the first wedding of the summer in Whittington Church. Mr and Mrs Hansen were married amid a sea of flowers, surrounded by their closest family and friends showing that it can be done! Alternate pews were kept empty, households grouped together and the guest list was tiny, but the day went with(out) a hitch and Colin is looking forward to welcoming more couples to the Church over the coming months.
If you would like to get married at Whittington Church, please contact Rector Colin Randall via our contact page.
Eight year Roof Project complete and Round Two grant application signed off by the HLF
In May 2020 the church team submitted an evaluation report for the Roof Project to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and recieved the fantastic news that Round Two of the funding required to complete the eight year project has been granted.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Document summary:
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Timeline of the works
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Aim and objectives - a eight year journey
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Work carried out
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Participation aims
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What activities did we do?
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Profile and publicity
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Qualitative feedback
To celebrate the years of work and generous grants from the HLF, a stone has been installed at the Church to commemorate the project and it's completion.
Archaeological Report
St Bartholomew's Church, Whittington
"Dr George Nash was commissioned to undertake an archaeological watching brief at the parish church of St Bartholomew’s Church, Whittington, Gloucestershire (Grid Ref: NGR SP 01320 20670) (Figure 1). The watching brief monitored the machine-excavation of six lengths of trenching within the churchyard (See Figure 2 - labelled Trenches 1 to 6). A further trench was excavated within the eastern section of the churchyard in order to accommodate a French drain. The trenches are for a drainage system designed to divert surface rainwater from the roof sections into a French drain (labelled Trench 7 in Figure 2.
St Bartholomew’s Church dates to the 12th century and is within an archaeological sensitive area with a Grade 1 Listed house to the west of the churchyard and several Scheduled Monuments to the east and south of the site (see Table 1). In addition, a group of five stone monuments and a preaching cross stand within the eastern section of the churchyard – all are Grade II listed structures. East of Whittington Court Lane are the subsurface remains of a DMV and the Roman Villa.
The groundworks phase, undertaken by Splitlath Building Conservation Ltd. included the excavation of a series of linear trenches which run parallel with the elevations of the church. The specification for the groundworks phase (as well as the conservation work on the roof sections) was supervised by Arnold Bartosch Ltd. (Contact: David Arnold)."
Please CLICK HERE to read the full report.
2017 Condition and Recommendation Report
The Three Effigies
St Bartholomew's Church, Whittington
Prepared by Sally Strachey Historic Conservation, commissioned by David Arnold of Arnold Bartosch Ltd on behalf of The PCC of St Bartholomew's Church, Whittington, Gloucestershire. CLICK HERE to read this report.
The Executive Summary of this report is as follows:
"The current location of the three effigies at ground level in a damp environment has resulted in excessive levels of moisture with associated salts and biological growth over the carved surfaces. St Bartholomew’s church is currently undergoing a development stage plan following a grant from the HLF in March 2017. The scope of works is concentrating on a comprehensive programme of works to the roof, rainwater goods and drainage to improve the damp conditions of the church interior. However, the survey identified that in association with the overall improvements it is a matter of urgency to raise all three effigies off the ground and isolate them from the surrounding fabric. All three effigies would benefit from being raised off the floor to increase the air flow, reduce the risk of impact damage and increase visibility. It will be essential to insert a DPM beneath the new plinth to isolate the monument from the raised levels of moisture at floor level. The materials of the plinth need to be carefully considered in order to be compatible with the limestone effigies and the design must ensure that the effigies are represented with both authenticity and visual impact."
An evening of Christmas songs with
"The Commander in Chief"
A mixture of sacred and secular Christmas songs played by the fantastic Berit Hagen on Saturday 14th December at Whittington Church!
Berit Hagen is an internationally acclaimed artist known as "The Commander in Chief". Berit is a bel-canto trained opera singer, a very versatile vocalist and guitarist and is equally at home performing heavy metal and classical repertoire.
The evening was part of Whittington Church's re-opening celebrations after the church's extensive roof repairs.
Follow the links below to watch Berit singing White Christmas on the evening, plus an additional sit down with our own Revd Colin Randall to discuss her faith! (links to You Tube).
"Hard Hat Tours" of restoration works for Village Fete
One of the attractions at this year's Village Fete was "Hard Hat Tours" of the church restoration works, kindly guided by Splitlath Building Conservation (https://www.splitlath.com/). For a small donation visitors were kitted out and shown the ongoing roof works and the interior of the church. It was an exciting opportunity for everyone to see what incredible progress Splitlath are making, (although a certain four legged visitor was decidedly underwhelmed and needed a snooze mid-tour!)
Andoversford children place time capsule in Church roof
Three children, Olly, Tyler and Lily, from Andoversford School visited the Roof Repair project at St Bartholomew’s Church, Whittington on Tuesday. They placed a time capsule in the roof which will be opened when the roof is next repaired many years in the future. The capsule contained photos of the children and other items they chose.
The children also learned about repairs to historic buildings including the need to look after any bats present. They loved going up the scaffolding and took a very keen interest in all that was going on which was explained by Splitlath Site Manager, Darron Price
July 2019
Whittington Show, Sept 2018
Whittington Show, Sept 2018
Jazz Evening with "Stolen Chocolates"
Weddings and Christenings
The Church
