Church and Community
The manor of Newland, Worcestershire, then a part of the great manor of Powick which was a fief of Westminster Abbey, was given to Great Malvern Priory by Gilbert, Abbot of Westminster (d.1117) and this was confirmed by King Henry I of England and by Pope Honorius III in 1217. In King Henry’s charter Newland was not mentioned by name, but Woodsfield and Limbarrow are, and illa nova assarta (‘that newly cleared land’) is taken to refer to it. The ‘new land’, being more cultivable than the slopes around the Priory, was presumably ‘assarted’ from the forest some time around 1100.
The monks of the Priory established a grange at Newland, Worcestershire, probably the site of the present Grange Farm, and nearby they built a small chapel first mentioned by Pope Honorius in 1217. The chapel, which may have been rebuilt in the fourteenth century and which was reconstructed in its present position in 1875, was described as ‘an interesting timber and plaster building, rectangular in plan, measuring internally about 55ft by 14ft, with north porch and a square bell-turret at the west and surmounted by a short broach spire’; it was dedicated to St Leonard, though some sources give it as St Michael. Throughout the mediaeval period it was taxed with the church of Great Malvern. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a monk from the Priory said Mass alternately at Newland and at Woodsfied chapel in Powick, and in 1540 the stipendiary curate of Newland is mentioned among the monks of Great Malvern. An inventory carried out by order of Edward VI indicates that it had a surprisingly large supply of vestments and furnishings.
Before the Dissolution the Prior of Great Malvern granted the manor of Newland to his nephews William and John More, but they held it only till 1568. It then passed through at least five families till it was acquired by Earl Beauchamp in 1809. The advowson of the chapel was granted in 1554 to Lord Lumley along with that of Great Malvern, but since it was ‘a Chapelry and Perpetual Curacy’ of Great Malvern it was ultimately vested in the Vicar of Great Malvern. In 1608 there is mention of the Church House at Newland and, until 1960, at the south-east corner of Newland Green and close both to the Grange and the old chapel, there stood an old half-timbered cottage which belonged to the benefice and was known as the Old Vicarage. In the early eighteen-forties, Charlotte, the wealthy daughter of John Henry Scott, first Earl of Clonmell, and first wife of John Reginald Pyndar, the third Earl Beauchamp of Madresfield, formed a plan to found almshouses for retired workers on the Madresfield estate who had lost their tied cottages. She died in 1846, leaving her husband the large sum of sixty thousand pounds to carry out her intentions. He, in his will, left this sum to implement his wife's scheme, but this proved to be a protracted and frustrating process.
After the third Earl’s death in 1853 there were various legal delays and obstructions, and the effective life of what is now the Beauchamp Community began with an Order of the Court of Chancery dated 26 March 1859 sanctioning a ‘Scheme for the management of the Beauchamp Hospital at Newland, Worcestershire’. One of the provisions of the scheme was that ‘for the purpose of procuring a place of Worship for the Almspeople’ the Trustees might purchase and procure to be vested in themselves the advowson of Newland and then ‘to repair and enlarge or rebuild . . . the Church of Newland, so as to make the same available as a Place of Worship for the Almspeople’. The Trustees were to appoint a priest to be Chaplain to the Almshouses, at an annual stipend not exceeding £200 a year, and this Chaplain Should read Prayers every Morning in the Chapel, and should perform there every Sunday Two full Services according to the Ritual of the Church of England (at One of which at least a Sermon be preached,) and should perform One full Service at least, with a Sermon, on every Christmas Day, Good Friday, Ascension Day, and Twenty-First November; and that he should also celebrate in the Chapel the Holy Communion on Twelve Days at least in each Year, of which Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Ascension Day should be Three. The community should also include a Clerk, a Porter and a Matron, while the pensioners were to be ‘poor persons of good religion and moral character, and members of the Church of England, who have been engaged in agriculture, and have been reduced to poverty by sickness, misfortune or infirmity’. They must be at least 55 years old, and wives (who must be over 50) might reside with their husbands. They must regularly attend daily prayer in the church, and were to wear at church and outside the precincts ‘a distinctive dress to be provided at the expense of the charity’.
The Trustees soon discussed plans for acquiring the advowson of Newland so that a joint appointment might be made of Incumbent of the parish and Chaplain/Warden of the Almshouses. This proposal proved to lead into another legal quagmire which resulted on 20 August 1860 in The Beauchamp Charity Act – ‘An Act to enable the Trustees of Lord Beauchamp’s Charity to purchase the Right of Nomination to the Chapelry of Newland in the County of Worcester, and to vest in them the Site of the Church or Chapel of Newland’. Although the advowson of Newland was vested in the Vicar of Great Malvern, indirectly the patrons of Great Malvern had an interest in Newland and the Act provided for the Trustees to pay £700 to the Court of Chancery for the purchase of the advowson. In 1860, Newland was separated from the parish of Great Malvern by the Trustees' purchase of the advowson (patronage) of Newland. This enabled them to make a joint appointment of Incumbant of Newland and Warden of the Beauchamp Community, as the Almshouses were to be called. The Trustees also obtained permission to demolish the old chapel and replace it with a new parish church which was also to serve as the chapel to the new community.
In September 1860 the Building Committee, believing that the existing church would be too small to accommodate the almspeople, suggested that rather than rebuild the church on its present site, it would be much better to build a new church ‘suitable for its double character’ (as both parish church and also chapel of the Almshouses) on a new site adjoining the Almshouses, where it would be ‘readily accessible to the parishioners without entering the precincts of the Almshouses’. This too was approved by the Trustees and, since hitherto Newland parishioners had been buried at Great Malvern, they also discussed plans for the provision of a graveyard for the parish on the site of the old church (after its demolition) together with an adjoining piece of land to be given by Earl Beauchamp. In 1861, on the recommendation of Dr.E.B.Pusey, the Rev.James Skinner was appointed as the first Vicar of Newland and Warden of the Beauchamp Community.
On 22 October 1862 the Bishop of Worcester consecrated the new graveyard and Countess Beauchamp laid the foundation stone of the Almshouses and the new church. Berrow’s Journal carried a full account of the occasion, but the writer deplored the planned demolition of the old church, ‘hoped that the interesting little structure will be reserved as there are but one or two other specimens of ancient timber churches of this kind in the diocese’ and asked ‘could it not be allowed to remain as a mortuary chapel?’. In January 1865 the Standing Committee were ‘requested to see to the removal of the Old Church, and the erection of a lych-gate [at the grave-yard] with old materials’. On 20th September, however, Lygon wrote to Skinner, Mr Hopkins came over today, and after some consultation it appeared that the best way of dealing with the old church would be to move the chancel against the temporary cloister and make it good for a Dead House. This would cost little more than the Lych-gate, and would give us something we really want instead of a merely ornamental appendage. There would remain material enough for a lych-gate, and perhaps the old porch might be adapted to some such use.
This suggestion was put to the Trustees, and on 9th November of that year they resolved ‘that in lieu of the lych-gate to the burial ground a Dead House be erected out of the materials of the chancel of the Old Church’. The old church was duly demolished in 1866, and some of its materials were used as agreed for the Dead House, later known as the Mortuary Chapel and now as the Cloister Chapel. At the same time a large stone cross (still prominent in the graveyard) was erected on its site. This was designed by James Skinner and made by Forsyth of Worcester. The Latin inscription translated reads
To God, the best and greatest, our Saviour, who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross. As a sacred memorial of the Chapel of St Leonard, Newland, since the fourteenth century still standing but lately pulled down, upon whose altar here the priests of Newland during five centuries were wont to celebrate the Holy Mysteries; of them the last and least J.S. dedicated this cross. Erected by the munificence of the faithful AD 1866.
The monks of the Priory established a grange at Newland, Worcestershire, probably the site of the present Grange Farm, and nearby they built a small chapel first mentioned by Pope Honorius in 1217. The chapel, which may have been rebuilt in the fourteenth century and which was reconstructed in its present position in 1875, was described as ‘an interesting timber and plaster building, rectangular in plan, measuring internally about 55ft by 14ft, with north porch and a square bell-turret at the west and surmounted by a short broach spire’; it was dedicated to St Leonard, though some sources give it as St Michael. Throughout the mediaeval period it was taxed with the church of Great Malvern. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a monk from the Priory said Mass alternately at Newland and at Woodsfied chapel in Powick, and in 1540 the stipendiary curate of Newland is mentioned among the monks of Great Malvern. An inventory carried out by order of Edward VI indicates that it had a surprisingly large supply of vestments and furnishings.
Before the Dissolution the Prior of Great Malvern granted the manor of Newland to his nephews William and John More, but they held it only till 1568. It then passed through at least five families till it was acquired by Earl Beauchamp in 1809. The advowson of the chapel was granted in 1554 to Lord Lumley along with that of Great Malvern, but since it was ‘a Chapelry and Perpetual Curacy’ of Great Malvern it was ultimately vested in the Vicar of Great Malvern. In 1608 there is mention of the Church House at Newland and, until 1960, at the south-east corner of Newland Green and close both to the Grange and the old chapel, there stood an old half-timbered cottage which belonged to the benefice and was known as the Old Vicarage. In the early eighteen-forties, Charlotte, the wealthy daughter of John Henry Scott, first Earl of Clonmell, and first wife of John Reginald Pyndar, the third Earl Beauchamp of Madresfield, formed a plan to found almshouses for retired workers on the Madresfield estate who had lost their tied cottages. She died in 1846, leaving her husband the large sum of sixty thousand pounds to carry out her intentions. He, in his will, left this sum to implement his wife's scheme, but this proved to be a protracted and frustrating process.
After the third Earl’s death in 1853 there were various legal delays and obstructions, and the effective life of what is now the Beauchamp Community began with an Order of the Court of Chancery dated 26 March 1859 sanctioning a ‘Scheme for the management of the Beauchamp Hospital at Newland, Worcestershire’. One of the provisions of the scheme was that ‘for the purpose of procuring a place of Worship for the Almspeople’ the Trustees might purchase and procure to be vested in themselves the advowson of Newland and then ‘to repair and enlarge or rebuild . . . the Church of Newland, so as to make the same available as a Place of Worship for the Almspeople’. The Trustees were to appoint a priest to be Chaplain to the Almshouses, at an annual stipend not exceeding £200 a year, and this Chaplain Should read Prayers every Morning in the Chapel, and should perform there every Sunday Two full Services according to the Ritual of the Church of England (at One of which at least a Sermon be preached,) and should perform One full Service at least, with a Sermon, on every Christmas Day, Good Friday, Ascension Day, and Twenty-First November; and that he should also celebrate in the Chapel the Holy Communion on Twelve Days at least in each Year, of which Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Ascension Day should be Three. The community should also include a Clerk, a Porter and a Matron, while the pensioners were to be ‘poor persons of good religion and moral character, and members of the Church of England, who have been engaged in agriculture, and have been reduced to poverty by sickness, misfortune or infirmity’. They must be at least 55 years old, and wives (who must be over 50) might reside with their husbands. They must regularly attend daily prayer in the church, and were to wear at church and outside the precincts ‘a distinctive dress to be provided at the expense of the charity’.
The Trustees soon discussed plans for acquiring the advowson of Newland so that a joint appointment might be made of Incumbent of the parish and Chaplain/Warden of the Almshouses. This proposal proved to lead into another legal quagmire which resulted on 20 August 1860 in The Beauchamp Charity Act – ‘An Act to enable the Trustees of Lord Beauchamp’s Charity to purchase the Right of Nomination to the Chapelry of Newland in the County of Worcester, and to vest in them the Site of the Church or Chapel of Newland’. Although the advowson of Newland was vested in the Vicar of Great Malvern, indirectly the patrons of Great Malvern had an interest in Newland and the Act provided for the Trustees to pay £700 to the Court of Chancery for the purchase of the advowson. In 1860, Newland was separated from the parish of Great Malvern by the Trustees' purchase of the advowson (patronage) of Newland. This enabled them to make a joint appointment of Incumbant of Newland and Warden of the Beauchamp Community, as the Almshouses were to be called. The Trustees also obtained permission to demolish the old chapel and replace it with a new parish church which was also to serve as the chapel to the new community.
In September 1860 the Building Committee, believing that the existing church would be too small to accommodate the almspeople, suggested that rather than rebuild the church on its present site, it would be much better to build a new church ‘suitable for its double character’ (as both parish church and also chapel of the Almshouses) on a new site adjoining the Almshouses, where it would be ‘readily accessible to the parishioners without entering the precincts of the Almshouses’. This too was approved by the Trustees and, since hitherto Newland parishioners had been buried at Great Malvern, they also discussed plans for the provision of a graveyard for the parish on the site of the old church (after its demolition) together with an adjoining piece of land to be given by Earl Beauchamp. In 1861, on the recommendation of Dr.E.B.Pusey, the Rev.James Skinner was appointed as the first Vicar of Newland and Warden of the Beauchamp Community.
On 22 October 1862 the Bishop of Worcester consecrated the new graveyard and Countess Beauchamp laid the foundation stone of the Almshouses and the new church. Berrow’s Journal carried a full account of the occasion, but the writer deplored the planned demolition of the old church, ‘hoped that the interesting little structure will be reserved as there are but one or two other specimens of ancient timber churches of this kind in the diocese’ and asked ‘could it not be allowed to remain as a mortuary chapel?’. In January 1865 the Standing Committee were ‘requested to see to the removal of the Old Church, and the erection of a lych-gate [at the grave-yard] with old materials’. On 20th September, however, Lygon wrote to Skinner, Mr Hopkins came over today, and after some consultation it appeared that the best way of dealing with the old church would be to move the chancel against the temporary cloister and make it good for a Dead House. This would cost little more than the Lych-gate, and would give us something we really want instead of a merely ornamental appendage. There would remain material enough for a lych-gate, and perhaps the old porch might be adapted to some such use.
This suggestion was put to the Trustees, and on 9th November of that year they resolved ‘that in lieu of the lych-gate to the burial ground a Dead House be erected out of the materials of the chancel of the Old Church’. The old church was duly demolished in 1866, and some of its materials were used as agreed for the Dead House, later known as the Mortuary Chapel and now as the Cloister Chapel. At the same time a large stone cross (still prominent in the graveyard) was erected on its site. This was designed by James Skinner and made by Forsyth of Worcester. The Latin inscription translated reads
To God, the best and greatest, our Saviour, who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross. As a sacred memorial of the Chapel of St Leonard, Newland, since the fourteenth century still standing but lately pulled down, upon whose altar here the priests of Newland during five centuries were wont to celebrate the Holy Mysteries; of them the last and least J.S. dedicated this cross. Erected by the munificence of the faithful AD 1866.
