The History of the Church

The existence of a Church at Whittington in A.D. 816 is proved by a charter in which the King of the Mercian's granted Worcester's Bishop Deneberht and his Cathedral clergy exemption "from all but the three common dues and the King's food-rent at Hwitingtun".

By the sixteenth century Whittington was a Chapel of St. Peter's, Worcester under Richard Davis who was vicar of St. Peter's from 1524 to his death in 1556. In 1552 it was he and his Chapel Wardens John Staunton and William Staunton who obeyed the new Protestant Government and, in common with every church in the land, returned an Inventory of Church Goods. They said Whittington had:

"A chalice and a paten, silver outside but gold inside. Three vestments ,(one of damask, one of white fustian, one of white crewel) and two albs. A cope of green crewel. A surplice. A censure of brass. A copper cross. 
A pyx of Latten. Two little bells hanging in the church wall".
The paten and the chalice were taken, the silver ones that have survived are hallmarked 1570 and 1571.

Thomas Habington, of Hindlip (1560-1647), a godson of Queen Elizabeth 1, was preparing his survey of Worcestershire in the 1630's when he left us a glimpse of the interior of the Church at that time:
"Whittington, a Chappell attending St. Peter's Church, a mile distant from Worcester, hath no armes or funeralls, but in the east wyndowe presenteth a preyst, who by his habyte abd style should be a reader in scholes, being written Magistri Ricardi, the rest broken out. And in the north wyndowe of the body of the chappell is wel peynted in the glass a religious man prayinge, his clothing inwardly whyte and his outward habyte darke".

The  old-world spelling has been deliberately left unchanged.

The surviving registers date from 1653 when Henrie Staunton and Elinor Pinnock were married on May 2nd. The vicars and curates were ever changing, with a couple of notable exceptions. In 1753 George Boulter, who was vicar of Kempsey and also responsible for Norton Chapelry and Stoulton, came to an arrangement with Daniel Brooker of St. Peter's to go halves on the pay and employment of Richard Turner, his curate at Norton. For the next 29 years Richard Turner served "Whittington with Norton". The other stalwart of the same period was William Hughes, vicar of St. Peter's from 1757-85, he was apparently a merry man who took most of the Whittington Weddings.

The great yew tree, North of the church, goes back even further. Experts date yew trees by measuring their girth a yard or so above ground level. Worcester's expert Carleton Rea measured this one on December 23rd 1932 and reported to Herbert March that it was 13ft. 7ins. round. The average yew trunk adds a quarter of an inch a year to its girth, it therefore took root here in about 1280, north of an older previous church. Yews are poisonous to cattle, but were essential for the bows of the yeoman of England in the King's Wars. By an Act of Parliament in 1466 every Englishman in every parish had to own a bow made of yew, ash or hazel and had to practice archery at the parish butts once every Church Feast Day or pay a fine of a half-penny. The range could be up to 400 yards and many places still have areas called Butts - Worcester is no exception.

Anglican church-going reached its height in the 1840's onward with the Church of England rebuilding over 7000 old chapels and churches between 1840 and 1876. Whittington Chapel was rebuilt in 1844, under the supervision of Rev. George Lardner Foxton, who came to St. Peter's with Whittington in 1840, and Chapel Warden John Walker.

The Registers tell that on July 10th 1842 the vicar married William New and Mary Evans in the old church. On July 21st the wedding of John Bamett and Susannah Watkins was transferred to St. Peter's, "the chapel of Whittington having been taken down in order that it might be rebuilt". On Monday July 25th, St. James's Day, the comer stone of the new chapel was laid by the Rev. William Rose Holden, Chaplain of St. Oswald's Hospital in the Tything. Shortly after twelve o'clock, the procession led by the clerk of St. Peter's preceded by Mr. Perkins, the architect, Rev. G.L. Foxton, vicar of St. Peter's, the Rev. W.R. Holden and other members of the clergy "and a numerous train of the most respectable inhabitants of the parish of St Peter's and the Chapelry of Whittington" proceeded in order from the residence of the Misses Probyn to the churchyard; and "the preliminary arrangements being complete, the proceedings of the day at once commenced by the Rev. W. Holden reading a portion of the 102nd psalm". The Rev. W.R. Holden then proceeded to lay the foundation stone dedicating the chapel to St. Philip and St. James. When the ceremony was completed Hyla Holden Esq read the inscription upon the plate as follows:

IN THE NAME OF  
THE FATHER AND OF THE SON 
AND OF THE HOLY GHOST 
THIS CORNER STONE OF A CHAPEL
  DESIGNED FOR THE GLORY OF
THE HOLY UNDIVIDED
COEQUAL AND COETERNAL TRINITY
DEDICATED IN HONOUR OF  
ST. PHILIP AND ST. JAMES APOSTLES AND MARTYRS
AND ERECTED ON THE SITE AND IN THE PLACE OF  
THE ANTIENT CHAPEL LATELY STANDING
IN THE CHAPELRY OF WHITTINGTON
WAS LAID BY
WILLIAM ROSE HOLDEN CLK. M.A.
CHAPLAIN OF THE HOSPITAL OF
ST. OSWALD IN THE ADJOINING BOROUGH OF WORCESTER  
ON THE FEAST OF ST. JAMES
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MDCCCXLII
GEORGE LARDNER FOXTON CLK. M.A. VICAR

JOHN WALKER CHAPEL WARDEN
EDWARD PERKINS ARCHITECT

OTHER FOUNDATION CAN NO MAN LAY THAN THAT 
IS LAID WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST

Several newly struck silver and copper coins including a shilling and a half farthing dated 1842 were after­wards placed in a bottle deposited in the stone, and the plate soldered down. The large silver trowel used on the occasion was specially made by Mr. Skarratt of Worcester, at a cost of £5.13s., and bore the following inscription: -

Presented to the Rev William Rose Holden, M.A., on the occasion of his laying the first stone of the new Chapel at Whittington, July 25th 1842.

Rev. G.L. Foxton, M.A. Vicar
John Walker Esq. Chapel warden Edward A. Perkins Esq. Architect.

Following the ceremony the company retired to Walkers Place, the home of John Walker the Chapel warden, where a veritable feast was enjoyed by all. The celebrations continued well into the evening and all classes were wined and dined, with entertainment from the chapel choir, whilst labourers engaged on the church were supplied with a similar feast at the Swan Inn. Berrows Worcester Journal of July 28th 1842 gave details of the design.

"It will be built in the early English style of architecture, with four lancet windows on each side, a south porch, and a bell turret at the west end, a well proportioned Chancel 16ft. by 12ft. 6 ins., lighted by a triple lance window. The outside will be of blue lias stone raised on the estate of Benjamin Hooke, Esquire, of Norton and hammer dressed in a manner happily appropriate for a village church. The upper stage of the bell turret, cappings, cornices, string courses, windows etc. will be of stone from Elmley Lovett quarries".

After the demolition of the old building, the great yew tree, now suddenly visible to all, was giving cause for concern. The tree was already hollowing and its limbs were parting above the trunk. In an effort to save the tree, an iron collar was fitted around its two principal limbs.
An entry in the Chapel Warden's accounts dated April 8th 1843 states:

To W. Checketts  ½ a day in assisting to cramp the Yew Tree 1s. 3d. Paint for ditto 0s. 6d.
A century and a half later the Cramp is still there, in places the yew has grown over its iron collar, and the sixpenny worth of paint has flaked away!  

The new building took twenty months to complete and on Tuesday March 19th 1844 it was consecrated by 
Dr. Pepys, Bishop of Worcester. He, together with some thirty clergy robed in Whittington Lodge and in bright sunshine, at 1100am processed the few yards to the church porch for the legal formalities.
The Worcester Herald reported there were "upwards of 350 people present, principally consisting of elegantly dressed ladies". In his sermon the Bishop referred to Whittington as "a poor village", saying the object of the new church was that proper accommodation and opportunity might be given to the poor to hear the word of God. The total cost of the new church was about £1,100, but the committee were still some £280 short of their goal. The Bishop urged all those present to give and the collection that followed the sermon raised £91.16s.6d.

The Church contained 247 sittings of which 139 were free. The gallery was not built for an organ or musicians, but to provide free seats, and grants of £75 from the Incorporated Society and £100 from the Worcester Diocesan Church Building Society were given dependant on half the seats being free.
The inhabitants of Whittington had collected £480 and £80 was raised from the sale of materials
from the old Church. The new low-backed pews could be rented or reserved.
The Worcester Herald reported that following the service Miss Susan and Miss Charlotte Probyn entertained the clergy to lunch and sent every inhabitant of the village l lb of beef, to which the vicar added 'a half-quarter loaf' (2lbs.) The Com Laws had not yet been repealed and bread was incredibly expensive.
The Census of 1841 states that there were 59 houses and 282 people in the parish.

The 1844 church had been built without any 'office and robing-room' so in 1890 Mr. Waldegrave Stone provided one. The minutes of a meeting held on April 3rd 1891 say: 

  "Mr Garrard proposed and the Revd. R. Relton seconded and it was carried unanimously that thanks be given to Mr J. Waldegrave Stone for his valuable and munificent gift of a Vestiy to the Church".

An inscription on the Lych gate reminds us that it was erected "In memory of Parishioners and other Worshippers in this Church who served in the Great War 1914 -1918" and a tablet on the north wall of the nave records the names of those who lost their lives in the
First World War. In grateful memory of the following Parishioners who laid down their lives for their country in the Great War 1914 -1918

Private Rupert Henry Crowther
Private Thomas Henry Dorrell
Private Walter Henry Hughes
Private Lawrence William Jones
Private Harry Ledbury
Major Charles Davies Vaughan D.S.O.

"All these soldiers were honoured in their generation, 
and were a glory in their day".

In the Second World War, Whittington appears more fortunate than many villages, in that no parishioners lost
their lives as a direct result of this conflict.

The Victoria History of Worcestershire states that the chapel at Whittington was originally held by the Church of St. Helen in Worcester. It seems that towards the end of the 15th century Whittington was transferred to St. Peter's parish, where it remained until 1910, when it was annexed to the new parish of St. Martin's.  

In 1957 a new parish of Norton-with-Whittington was formed, these two rural parishes having similar requirements. The fashion for joining parishes in groups or teams encouraged the setting up in 1981 of a Worcester Team with St. Martin's, St. Mark's in the Cherry Orchard and Norton-with-Whittington. In 1986 Holy Trinity and St. Matthew, Ronkswood joined the Team, and Norton left it. At the same time Whittington's Chapelry became a second parish church in the parish of St. Martin with St. Peter, now having two churchwardens.