English Heritage sites near Bayton Parish
WITLEY COURT AND GARDENS
7 miles from Bayton Parish
A hundred years ago, Witley Court was one of England's great country houses, hosting many extravagant parties. Today it is a spectacular ruin, the result of a disastrous fire in 1937.
EDVIN LOACH OLD CHURCH
10 miles from Bayton Parish
The ruins of an 11th century and later church built within the earthworks of a Norman motte and bailey castle, with a Victorian church nearby. The site of hundreds of years of worship.
LEIGH COURT BARN
14 miles from Bayton Parish
An outstanding display of English medieval carpentry, this mighty timber-framed barn is the largest cruck structure in Britain.
STOKESAY CASTLE
17 miles from Bayton Parish
Stokesay Castle is quite simply the finest and best preserved fortified medieval manor house in England.
WENLOCK PRIORY
17 miles from Bayton Parish
Tranquil ruins in lovely setting. Re-founded by the Normans as a priory. Unusual washing fountain with 12th century carvings, extravagantly decorated chapter house, topiary-filled cloister garden.
WIGMORE CASTLE
18 miles from Bayton Parish
One of the most important castles in the history of the Welsh Marches and major centre of power for over 500 years, hosting royalty on several occasions. Deliberately demolished during the Civil War.
Churches in Bayton Parish
St Bartholomew
Bayton
01299 896837
http://www.wyreforestwest.org.uk
St Bartholomew‘s dates from the mid 12th Centuary. This can be deduced from the fine drumshaped font with its ropemoulding, scrolls and longribbed leaves, the dogtoothed, rounded Norman arch over the South doorway and some Norman masonry. The original church was much smaller, the tower at the West end and the Chancel at the East being added later.
Sadly most of the preI9th Century features disappeaed during heavy "restoration" in 1818 and again in 1905 when the chancel was entirely rebuilt. Those who have survived are three massive oak tiebeams in the roof, the jambs of a blocked window in the South wall of the nave and some Jacobean panels incorporated into the pulpit and choir stalls. A photograph taken in 1905, before the restoration, shows thickly plastered walls and ceiling, box pews and a westend gallery. It is possible that the rounded plastered chancel arch covers the remains of a Norman one underneath.
The heraldic lozenge over the vestry door is the hatchment of Edmund MeyseyWigley. M.P. for Worcester (d. 1821). It was he who financed the building of the tower in 1818. This replaced a timbered bellturret similar to that of Mamble. Two further hatchments, both from Shakenhurst Hall, are temporily displayed on the West Wall. The belfry houses four bells. The earliest is the treble, 15th C., and is inscribed with the words. "SANCTA NECOLAEORAPRONOBIS" "Saint Nicholas pray for us". The other three are of the l7th C. There is a "scratch" sundial on the South wall of the tower
Is there any church in Worcestershire in a finer setting than Bayton? The view when you stand beside the tower is superb, a sweeping, unspoilt panorama streaching down to the Rhea Valley and then up to the Clee Hills and the Welsh Hills beyond. The slender spire of Cleobury Church rises from a fold in the hills and there are glimpses of the 16th Century Rhea Manor and the 18th Century elegance of Glebe House, Mawley Hall and Shakenhurst. The churchyard itself is beautiful and peaceful; one feels that Thomas Gray should have written his elegy here rather than at Stoke Poges!
No churches found in Bayton Parish