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St Leonard's chapel, Newland

Newland Fete, hosted by the Beauchamp Community and The Save the Children Fund, was held on Saturday 30th June 2012. Father Mark gave an interesting talk about the history of St Leonard's Newland which is the chapel of the Beauchamp Community. If you are interested in visiting churches this one is well worth a look. Here are some photos of the church together with brief notes based on Father Mark's talk and a booklet we purchased in the  church.

St Leonard's lies to the east of and is connected to the Beauchamp Community alms-houses (see photo above). The alms-houses were built for retired workers on the Madresfield Estate who had lost their tied cottages. These had been planned by Lady Charlotte Scott wife of the 3rd Earl Beauchamp, John Reginald Pyndar Lygon. She died in 1846 but it was not until 1864 that the almshouses and the chapel (1867) came into being. The wall paintings and stained glass windows were added over the next 20 years as gifts from individual benefactors.

Below you will see a photo taken inside the church.

The bowl of the font at the west end of the nave dates from the twelfth century and came from the old parish church of St Thomas the Martyr at Great Malvern which was built before 1269 and  demolished when parishioners bought The Priory at the time of the Dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII (circa 1542).

The wall paintings, or frescoes, tell many Bible stories. Not easy for tired old eyes to read especially as the inscriptions are in Latin, but there is a good description in the booklet about the church.

The south aisle near the altar leads into a cloister off which is a small 'mortuary' chapel (see photo below) where daily services are held.

To find out more about St Leonard's click here

Go back to Newland fete page

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