St Kenelm's Church

The church of ST. KENELM consists of a chancel 26 ft. 6 in. by 19 ft., nave 54 ft. by 19 ft. with south aisle 10 ft. wide, south porch and west tower 16 ft. square. All measurements are internal.
The western half of the north wall of the nave appears to be of early 13th-century date. The chancel was entirely rebuilt in the 14th century and the west tower added early in the following century. The south aisle was built during the first half of the 16th century. Considerable alterations were made to the church in the 18th century, when the existing west door was inserted, a west gallery built and a plaster ceiling added. The two latter disappeared when the church was restored in 1873, when a modern south porch took the place of one built in 1815. At the same time the clearstory and the upper parts of the nave and chancel walls were rebuilt.
The chancel is structurally undivided from the nave and has a 14th-century east window of three trefoiled lights with clumsy tracery and a double-chamfered string-course at the sill level. In the north wall is a three-light pointed window of the same date, the central light being carried up to the head. To the east of it is a modern piscina. In the south wall is a blocked priest's door with a moulded external label and further west a three-light window uniform with that on the north. The east wall has been refaced externally and has modern diagonal buttresses at the angles.
The nave has three restored lancet windows in the north wall and between the second and third is a blocked north door with a segmental pointed head. Only the western part of this wall appears to be ancient and two straight joints visible externally indicate the extent of the 13th-century work. On the south side an early 16th-century arcade of four bays opens into the south aisle. The chamfered arches are four-centred and low; they rest on piers with moulded bases and capitals, the latter bearing roughly carved ornaments. On the east respond is a rose and shield, on the first pier a rose, tun, shield inscribed T and two objects resembling dice boxes; the other piers and respond have shields, some charged with crosses and roses. Above this arcade is a clearstory of four square-headed windows, each having two lights with four-centred heads. The south aisle has an early 16th-century east window of two lights under a four-centred head, and in the south wall are two similar windows. Between them is a doorway with a four-centred head with carved spandrels. It is fitted with a more ancient door, cut down to fit its present position. The south porch is a modern timber erection on a stone base. The pent roof of this aisle retains the original moulded principal rafters and purlins, with curved struts against the walls and carved head bosses at the main intersections.
The west tower is three stages high with an axis deflected considerably to the north of that of the nave. It is a large and handsome structure of coursed rubble with ashlar buttresses and is now in a condition of serious decay. The tower arch of two orders is lofty and pointed, the inner order is semi-octagonal with moulded capitals and bases. The pointed 15thcentury west window is of three trefoiled lights with a transom and traceried head. Below it is an 18thcentury doorway. The tower is supported by diagonal buttresses of six stages, stopping below the parapet string, and in the south-west angle is a vice now entered from an external door. The second stage has small single-light openings and the bell-chamber is lighted by a pointed window of two trefoiled lights in each face. It is finished with a plain parapet with small pinnacles at the angles and a low pyramidal tiled roof.
The communion table dates from the 17th century and has good turned legs. Between the nave and chancel is a modern oak screen, but the traceried heads of the side compartments are all of the 15th century. The font in the south aisle is also of the 15th century with moulded base and octagonal bowl; four faces bear the symbols of the Evangelists and the others have quatrefoils, two with a rose in the centre and two with a face. Under the tower is a parish chest with conventional flowers chip-carved on the top and front; it bears the inscription, ' Arrmel Greene Gent, John Gale Chvrch 1681 Wardens.' In the north window of the chancel are some remains of 14th-century glass in the heads of the side lights and a few old quarries remain in the eastern window on the north of the nave. The main roofs of the church are modern and tiled. Covered by the existing chancel pavement are several tomb slabs to John Parkes, 1697, Anne wife of Richard Claridge, rector of Peopleton (d. 1676), and others.
There are six bells: the treble inscribed, 'Armell Greene, John Greene C. W., 1738 R.S.'; the second, 'God save Queen Anne 1703 R.S.'; the third,'Richard Sanders, Bromsgrove made us all six 1703'; the fourth, 'John Rudhall, Glocester fect. 1793'; the fifth by the same founder, 1805, and the tenor inscribed, 'Consider man when you hear me, that I ere long may ring for thee 1719.'
The plate consists of a cup, paten and a silvermounted glass flagon, all modern, the old plate having been stolen.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms and burials 1577 to 1772, marriages 1577 to 1754; (ii) baptisms and burials 1772 to 1812; (iii) marriages 1754 to 1812.
In the churchyard, near the south porch, is the base and part of the shaft of a stone cross probably of the 15th century.