Sutton-under-Brailes, St Thomas a Becket Church

St Thomas a Becket Church, Sutton-under-Brailes

It is hard to imagine a more beautifully situated country church than St Thomas a Becket, in the Warwickshire village of Sutton-under-Brailes. The church stands on a rise of ground, surrounded by attractive cottages in Cotswold stone, with a thatched cottage to the rear of the churchyard.

History

We know that there was a manor at Sutton in Saxon times, for it is recorded as belonging to the Priory of Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire. By the time of the Domesday Book the manor belonged to the monks of Westminster Abbey and was an island of Gloucestershire, surrounded on all sides by Warwickshire.

Henry VIII gave Sutton to his secretary, William Petre, and the Petre family held it for almost 250 years. The parish was finally transferred to Warwickshire in 1840.

The church interior

Highlights

The first thing you notice about the church is the unusual layout, with the striking two-stage tower standing almost in the middle of the south nave wall and serving both as a bell tower and an entrance porch.

The nave dates to the 12th century, as evidenced by a round-headed north doorway. The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century and the tower added around 1340. The nave as heightened in the 15th century when a clerestory was added.

Medieval carved bracket head

The church was heavily restored in 1879, when the 13th-century chancel arch was rebuilt. Over the chancel arch is a stone carving of the Madonna and Child. This is thought to have formed party of the medieval rood screen. To the south of the chancel arch is a medieval piscina, indicating that there must have been an altar there.

In the chancel is another 13th-century piscina and stone brackets that once held statues of saints.

William Wilkes memorial, 1803

There are few memorials inside the church. One attractive wall tablet caught my eye, however. It dates to 1803 and commemorates William Wilkes whose epitaph suggests that he died of a fall, perhaps while out riding:

In perfect Health I went from home,
Not thinking that my Glass was run.
The Earth is nothing, Heaven is all;
Death has not hurt me by my Fall.
Dear Friends, pray weep for me no more
I am, no Lost, but gone before,
All Flowers grow, but fade away,
More sudden Death does Life decay.

Harriot Carrett memorial, 1806

On the south wall of the chancel is another memorial, this time to Harriot Carrett, who died in 1806 at just 25 years old. Like William Wilkes [above] she seems to have died suddenly:

My sudden call may teach mankind,
In constant readiness to be;
And store the everduring mind,
With precepts for Eternity;
This world shall pass this body die,
Corrupt return to common clay;
The soul uninjur'd mounts on high,
To realms of Everlasting day.

Another wall tablet remembers Reverend L. Willis, rector of Sutton-under-Brailes, who died in 1823.

The octagonal font dates to the 1879 restoration.

It is worth taking your time to read the wooden charity boards in the tower entrance. One, dated 1907, records the bequest by Richard Badger, Esq., of £1,000, invested in 'various stocks'. Half of the income was to be used to maintain and repair the church and the other half used to buy coal to be distributed to the 'deserving poor of the parish' on St Thomas Day [21 December].

In the churchyard is a striking table tomb to John Thornitt, dated 1675. Thornitt left a bequest of £10 for the poor of the parish.

1675 table tomb

Visiting

There is no obvious place to park for visiting the church, and we found it difficult to find parking in general. We eventually parked just off the village green, near the war memorial, and walked to the church.

The church was open when we visited and, as far as we can determine, is normally open to visitors. If you are in the area of Sutton-under-Brailes, do take the time to visit the wonderful nearby church in Cherington.