Shipton Solers

 

 Descend from the high wolds near the remote villages of Guiting Power and Hawling, down towards Andoversford in the valley below. If you follow the old Gloucester road, rather than the busy A40 you will approach the twin villages as travellers have for hundreds of years. A ribbon of houses that skirts the margins of an infant River Coln, the waters of which glister over two fords and through many a clear pool between clumps of yellow flags, dividing the two villages.

Shipton or 'sheep farm' was divided into two parishes in the middle ages each with it's own small church, though they are barely a mile apart. Shipton Oliffe long in the ownership of the Oliffe family grew in importance and when the two parishes were united in 1766 St. Mary's Shipton Solers fell out of use. By 1883 St. Mary's was reduced to a cow byre and only the intervention of the rector Charles Pugh and his wife saved the church for future generations.

St. Oswald, Shipton Oliffe, a small Norman church with 13th century additions, stands below the level of the road. Once owned by the Abbey of St. Peter, Gloucester the church has a 13th century west bellcote with two bells above two gothic windows inserted by H. A. Prothero in 1903-4. A blocked Norman north door gives evidence of the church's early origins while the Early English chancel has retained many of it's original features including an east window with a shafted rere-arcade. The chancel has an Early Decorated south window, a stepped sedilia and a rare Late Decorated canopied piscina. A 13th century south chapel is separated from the nave by a two-bay arcade inserted by Prothero in 1904. The church has a Perpendicular octagonal font, a pulpit by W. Ellery Anderson 1937 and a plaster 19th century Royal Arms. There is an area of wall painting above the chancel arch which may be early 13th century and other texts of the 17th and 18th centuries. The east window has stained glass by Burlison and Grylls. In the churchyard are an interesting collection of tea-caddy tombs.

St. Mary, Shipton Solers was probably consecrated in 1212 as this date was inscribed over the chancel, a discovery made during the sympathetic 1929-30 restoration by W.E. Ellery Anderson. A simple 13th century church of nave and chancel with a west bell-cote added in 1884, lengthened in the Perpendicular period. Most of the windows reflect this 15th century refurbishment although a 13th century lancet survives in the chancel. North and south doors face each other across the nave, the south door appears to be late medieval. When passing through the Early English chancel arch you step down into the chancel, an unusual feature probably a consequence of the sloping ground. Perpendicular king-posts support a wagon roof with carved bosses. Consecration crosses painted in red lead survive in both nave and chancel, possibly late medieval in date, the nave walls have post-Reformation biblical texts. The altar is a 13th century stone mensa found buried beneath the floor during the restoration work carried out in 1929-30. An elaborate painted reredos was carved by Ellery Anderson in 1929, oak panelling was fitted at this time. The nave has a Jacobean pulpit with tester and a modern hourglass stand (the original was stolen) which dates from the 1660 Restoration when sermons were meant to last for over an hour. At the west end of the nave is an octagonal 15th century font. There are a few fragments of medieval glass as well as several attractive 1930s windows by Geoffrey Webb whose web signature can be seen beneath a depiction of the Madonna and Child. Two of the windows have rebus designs, one depicting a house amongst fields of corn commemorates Ernest Fieldhouse while the other shows a ship and tun representing Shipton. St. Mary's is now in the able custody of The Churches Conservation Trust.

The Shiptons are near Andoversford 7miles from Cheltenam, just over an hour from Stratford-upon-Avon.

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Snowshill

High on the valley side clings the village of Snowshill, indeed you could believe that the houses are slowly sliding down the escarpment. The heart of the settlement is a square of 17th century cottages which surround the Victorian church and on a lower road the famous Snowshill Manor now in the hands of the National Trust. Although the views across the steeply sloping village are wonderful in the winter months with snowdrops pouring down the wooded slopes the bleak winds that tear through the treetops prove how apt a name Snowshill is. The sunken lanes that climb the ridge above the cottages lead onto the high wolds that were once the sheep downs, the medieval source of the Cotswold's wealth. Nowadays, the large fields scattered with broken stone grow billowing expanses of wheat with only the skylarks and the yellowhammers for company. Towards the peak of this open landscape is a blaze of purple lavender, the Cotswold Lavender farm that attracts many visitors in the summer months.
Although the church St. Barnabas was built in 1864 Snowshill is an ancient parish, the manor, tithes and chaplaincy of Snowshill and nearby Stanton were granted to the Abbey of Winchcombe by King Kenulf of Mercia in the early 9th century. It remained in the Abbey's hands until the Dissolution when it was moved from the Diocese of Worcester to the newly formed Diocese of Gloucester. There are tithe records as early as 1183 and several references to the chapel throughout it's history however no illustrations of the old church have been found.Descriptions of the medieval church by a Dr Parsons and the more famous Sir Robert Atkins both describe a small church with a west tower and battlements.
The present church cost £1700 but funds were not sufficient to provide a spire as originally intended and the window surrounds which should have been carved remain as square blocks of stone. The architect is unknown although Pevsner suggests Henry Day of Worcester, the windows are late 13th century Geometrical in style let into walls of unusual thickness. There are a few survivals from the original church, a Perpendicular octagonal font with quatrefoils with floral centres, a pulpit with Jacobean panels and a single bell cast in Bristol c1350 which bears the impression of a coin and the inscription "+ In the name on Trinite Gillis Belle Men Call Me". The church has several attractive stained glass windows, an east window of 1864 by Ward & Hughes, chancel north and south windows probably by Frederick Preedy c1870 and the west window also Preedy c1885. The churchyard has several 17th century table tombs and a churchyard Memorial cross by F.L. Griggs, 1923.
The village is also well known for the Manor c1500, remodelled c1600 and bought by Charles Paget Wade in 1919, who restored the ruinous building in the Arts and Crafts spirit. He used the Manor to display an eccentric collection of antiques including Japanese armour and church-wardens' staves, the property was acquired by the National Trust in 1951.

Lower Slaughter

A sharp crystal evening, golden sunlight casting long blue shadows. What a joy to arrive in Lower Slaughter and wander along the river with only the ducks, the jackdaws and a few hardy visitors for company. The jackdaws seem at home in the trees along the River Eye, occasionally descending to hop along the rooftops or to peer at discarded bread crumbs with their grey heads at an angle. Slaughter is thought to be a corruption of slohtre, a marshy place. Many visit Bourton on the water fewer travel an extra mile to see Lower Slaughter it’s smaller, quieter but equally picturesque neighbour.
Stone cottages line the north bank of the river with a small green at their centre, this miniature area of grass is known as The Square and has a Gothic drinking fountain as it’s only adornment.The clear stream water is only visible as it eddies round the piers of the low stone bridges that span it’s broad flow. Follow the canalised river to the upper end of the village and you will find a 19th century brick corn mill with white water crashing over the mill race and 15ft water wheel still turning with the flow. On the opposite bank towards the middle of the village are the Village Hall of 1887 and the National School by Edmund B. Ferrey 1871. Near where the road crosses the river the south bank is dominated by large and luxurious-looking hotel.
The church was rebuilt in 1866-7 by Benjamin Ferrey, the design draws on Early English and Geometrical Decorated styles and though it replaced a picturesque medieval building with a saddle-back tower the Victorian design sits well among the more ancient stone buildings that surround it. Only a Transitional Norman north arcade survives with scalloped capitals and waterholding bases joined by pointed double-chamfered arches. The church has a nave with a north aisle, chancel, south porch and a west tower with broached spire the tip of which was replaced in 1998. Elegant black marble shafts ornament the chancel arch but a similar use of marble in Ferrey’s east window was lost when Hoare and Wheeler provided a new east window and an Italian alabaster reredos depicting the Crucifixion in 1910. Next to the altar a 13th century piscina survives from the older church. The stone font and pulpit are part of Ferrey’s design and there are areas of floor tiling by Godwin. The east window has glass by James Powell and Sons and they provided the attractive design in the north aisle. The west window of the north aisle and the west tower window are by Clayton and Bell 1867. Most of the memorials in the church commemorate the Whitmore family who occupied the neighbouring manor House for more than 300 years. The west tower has six bells, one of c.1450 by Robert Hendley of Gloucester inscribed Santa Anna ORA Pro Nobis St.Anne pray for us. Two are dated 1683 by Edward Neale of Burford and three of 1867 by John Warner and Sons of London.
To the north-east of the churchyard is a 16th century dovecote which is said to have held 1000 birds.
Lower Slaughter lies just off the Fosseway near Bourton on the Water about an hour form Stratford-upon-avon

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