All Saints' Church, Ockbrook

All Saints' Church, Ockbrook

Lych Gate
Coordinates: 52°55′02″N 1°22′16″W / 52.91716°N 1.37123°W / 52.91716; -1.37123
Country United Kingdom
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Broad Church
Website www.allsaints.ockbrook.com
History
Dedication All Saints
Architecture
Heritage designation Grade II* listed building
Architectural type Gothic
Administration
Parish Ockbrook and Borrowash
Diocese Diocese of Derby
Province Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s) Reverend Tim Sumpter
Curate(s) Reverend Val Billings
Laity
Organist(s) Rhoda Salisbury

All Saints' Church, Ockbrook, is a parish church in the Church of England located in Ockbrook, Derbyshire.

History

Before the English Reformation, Ockbrook was a chapelry within the parish of Elvaston, cared for by a curate. Tithes of the benefice were paid to the monks at Shelford Priory.[1]

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Stanhope family took up residence at Elvaston and became patrons of the church. In the mid-16th century, Ockbrook became a parish in its own right.[2]

The tower is the oldest part of the church, dating from the 12th century, with 4 ft thick walls. The font is also Norman and was rescued and reinstalled in 1963 after 150 years outside in the vicarage garden.

The oak chancel screen dates from 1520, and was relocated from St Ursula’s Chapel, Wigston Hospital (or Wyggeston Hospital) Leicester in 1810, following the rebuilding of the chancel. The choir stalls were also installed at this time, and may originate from the same source.

The Pares family of Hopwell took over as patrons in the late 18th century and remain so to this day.

The building has had many changes and enlargements over the centuries which is evident in the overall appearance. The chancel was rebuilt by Thomas Pares in 1803. He added the Pares vault to the north of the chancel. The north aisle was built in 1814. The south aisle was added in 1835 at a cost of about £700[3] (equivalent to £62,170 in 2015),[4] with the gallery at the west end. In the 1890s new pinewood pews replaced the old box pews. The tower was restored in 1890 and 1927.

Parish status

All Saints' Church is part of a joint parish with St. Stephen's Church, Borrowash.

Monuments and memorials

There are several monuments to the Pares family of Hopwell Hall. There are monuments by Sir Richard Westmacott dating from 1805, 1823 (Mary Pares), and 1824 (Thomas Pares).[5]

Chancel

South aisle:

Nave:

Stained glass

Churchyard

The churchyard contains war graves of five army personnel of World War I and a Royal Air Force officer of World War II.[6]

Organ

The Pares family vault was erected in 1803. An enamelled brass plaque to the west of the organ records that Joseph Birkinshaw converted the Pares family vault into an organ bay in 1928.

An organ may have been installed at the time of the restoration and rebuilding of the church in 1835. Work on the organ was carried out in the 1900s by J.H. Adkins and in 1960 and 1998 by Henry Groves of Nottingham. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Organists

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to All Saints' Church, Ockbrook.
  1. History, topography, and directory of Derbyshire. T. Bulmer & Co, Bulmer T. and co. 1895
  2. A history of All Saints' Church, Ockbrook: including a brief account of the early origins of the village and parish. J. W. Harnan. 1971. ISBN 0-9502209-0-6
  3. A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848)
  4. UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  5. The Buildings of England. Derbyshire. Nikolaus Pevsner.
  6. CWGC Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from casualty record.
  7. Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 2 August 1879
  8. Derby Daily Telegraph - Thursday 13 March 1890
  9. Derby Daily Telegraph - Saturday 14 March 1896
  10. Derby Daily Telegraph - Wednesday 10 April 1901
  11. Derby Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 24 February 1903
  12. Derby Daily Telegraph - Monday 7 February 1938
  13. Derby Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 17 July 1945
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.