England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Spetchley All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Spetchley lies in southern central Worcestershire roughly 3 mile east of city of Worcester. Spetchley sits on the A422 roas which links Worcester with Alcester in Warwickshire. Spetchley is an estate parish with the parkland estate of Spetchley Park dominating the parish acreage, the present house only dates from the early 19th century but the estate has existed since earliest times belonging to the Spetchleys until 1454. The park and gardens are open to the public and are a tourist attraction for the area. What passes for a village is merely a run of properties lining the A422 which marks the northern limit of the park. Like most estate parishes the needs of the estate dominated the local economy which here was farming with early gazetteers estimate 2:1 in favour of arable over pastoral methods. Modern developments have come to the parish, the railway line between Birmingham & Gloucester is deliberately routed east of Spetchley Park and once granted a station, now closed, to this tiny hamlet; to the west runs the modern M5 motorway keeping Worcester, for now at arms length. Spetchley is drained westwards by a meandering small stream, prettified in the park for landscaping purposes, which wends its way to the nearby Severn joining that mighty river for its journey to the sea and arriving through the Bristol Channel. Spetchley is sited at around 50 metres above the sea at the former parish church in generally flattish terrain where only a few spots breach the 60 metre contour. Spetchley parish was one of the smaller in its county covering merely 757 acres which would have supported a population of close to 150 parishioners. Domesday Spetchley was held by the Bishop of Worcester and was equally rural and humble offering just 7 ploughs backed by typical meadows & woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church was declared redundant in 1987 and is now managed by the Churches Conservation Trust, there is still access to the church. The church has its origins in the early 14th century with most of the main body, nave, chancel and chancel arch all being in the Decorated style of the first half of that century, it is not known whether the initial build included a western tower as that which sits here today was inserted into the western end of the nave as part of a major rebuild in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The tower is battlemented and also has a northern entrance protected by an open timber porch. Also added in the same era and recorded as completed in 1614 is the Berkeley Chapel, the Berkeleys acquired the estate from the Spetchleys, which is also battlemented in a similar fashion to the tower, it also reuses early 14th century windows. A typical but light Victorian restoration of 1857 refreshed the building. Parking for this church is rather tricky given it sits above a busy main road, it is better to use the car park for the park & gardens and walk the short distance. The churchyard stands well above road height, a steep flight of steps rises from the A422 into the churchyard, there are issues for the photographer from close neighbouring estate buildings but most angles are readily available