England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pendock Parish Church

The Parish

The parish of Pendock lies in the extreme southwest of Worcestershire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, too, is also rather close to its west. Pendock is located about 6 miles west of the town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and sits immediately south of the A438 road which links Tewkesbury with Ledbury in Herefordshire. Pendock is a rather unusual location it occurs in two separate roughly circular areas split apart by Berrow & Eldersfield parishes, the western area contains Pendock village, a tiny crossroads settlement, whilst the eastern segment, over 2 miles away, has the former parish church and Priors Court, a 17th century manor house, and very little else. Like most small rural places farming was the main economic activity with early gazetteers weighting it roughly 2:1 in favour of arable over pastoral methods. Modern developments have come to the parish, the modern M50 motorway passes directly through the parish almost passing the door of the former old church. The two halves of Pendock also are divided by a minor watershed, the eastern area draining east directly to the Severn, the western achieving the same end by way of the River Leadon, the Severn continues south to reach the sea through he outer Bristol Channel. Pendock is sited at around 30 metres above the sea, views northwest are dominated, however, by the great ridge of the Malvern Hills rising to 286 metres in Midsummer Hill. The two areas of Pendock combine to cover just under 1,200 acres and would have supported a population of close to 250 parishioners. Domesday Pendock was a larger settlement held by the Bishop of Worcester and mustering assets of 17 ploughs backed by typical meadows and woodland.

The Church

The parish church has been deconsecrated and has been managed by the Churches Conservation Trust since 1987, a new church, The Redeemer, serves the larger western hamlet. The church sits within a triangle of land formed between the A438, the M50 and the main access lane to Pendock, it is accompanied only by Priors Court. Like so many isolated small rural churches the parish church has ancient fabric untouched since the earliest stone-built churches. Pevsner places a date of c 1170 on both the nave and chancel with the northern doorway contemporaneous. The chancel arch was also Norman Romanesque but has been rebuilt since those early times using the original materials in the main. The western tower is late showing both Decorated styling in its western window but a Perpendicular arch to the nave, Pevsner does not assign a date to the pyramidal roof. The church had a timber porch added later still, probably in Tudor times but not a lot changed from then until the Victorian restoration of 1873 which not only renewed most of the windows but also added the northern vestry. The church can be readily seen from the lane where a prominent brown sign points the way along its access track, only those with 4-wheel drive are encouraged to tackle this rutted track with raised grass centre, the prudent parking at the entrance and approaching on foot. Trees stand to the northeast and southwest taking away some angles bit every other is available for the photographer.