The history...
The Church of St Nicholas Queenhill with Holdfast.
Exterior:
Queenhill Church is a Norman re-construction. The main south doorway to the Church from the *porch is late 12th Century, with fourfold recesses and chevron moulding decoration. This was probably reset in the 14th Century. It seems originally to have had two elaborately moulded round-arched splays, the outer having shafted jambs with a pelleted label [drip stone]. The jamb shafts have scalloped capitals, but their bases have disappeared, and the pointed arch was inserted later.
On the north side of the nave opposite, but only visible from the interior, is a blocked up 12th Century doorway with a round headed arch that has been renewed. In the early 20th Century, the recess housed a stove and a chimney is visible from the exterior.
*Edward Elgar drew inspiration for his oratorio, the ‘Apostles’ (1902-3), from visits to nearby Longdon Marsh, and he often visited Queenhill Church on his bicycle. On one occasion, he was reduced to tearing down the Births Marriages and Deaths list from the wall of the porch to note down a sudden thought on the back of it.
Interior:
The chancel was reconstructed in the 13th Century and the exposed tie beams in the Nave are probably 14th Century; a fragment of an 11th Century Saxon inverted round-arched window, with two incised rosettes, has been built into the wall above the Knottesford Memorial.
The altar table is Jacobean; the oak baluster Chancel rail is 17th Century, but the horizontal top is 19th Century; and the Rood Screen is an excellent example of late 15th Century woodwork in a fair state of preservation.
The chancel was reconstructed in the 13th Century and the exposed tie beams in the Nave are probably 14th Century; a fragment of an 11th Century Saxon inverted round-arched window, with two incised rosettes, has been built into the wall above the Knottesford Memorial. (see below)
The altar table is Jacobean; the oak baluster Chancel rail is 17th Century, but the horizontal top is 19th Century; and the Rood Screen is an excellent example of late 15th Century woodwork in a fair state of preservation.
Memorials:
Churchyard:
Many members of this small farming community lie at rest in the Churchyard, the oldest memorial still standing being a small thick stone with a scrolled top close to the Chancel door. Now practically worn smooth, it is inscribed ‘Margrit, the daughter of John Prosser…buried 30 day of October 1697.’
To understand many of the headstones in the churchyard and of the memorials inside the church one has to know that in the eighteenth century there were two families of importance in Queenhill and Holdfast, apart from a non-resident Lord of the Manor and other non-resident landowners. They were the Knottesford and Barnes families. The Knottesfords had an estate in Holdfast based around what is now Holdfast Manor. The Barnes family had a small estate at Queenhill, with a house called “Barnes’ House”, for many centuries. The actual location of the house is not known.
The eighteenth century saw marriages between the two families, and those mentioned on the memorials inside the church are underlined, see above.
William Tennant, one of seven members of his family buried at Queenhill, had a very distinguished career in the Royal Navy.
Admiral Sir William Tennant (1890-1963) was born in Upton. He took control in World War II of the evacuation of the Army in 1940 from the beaches of Dunkirk. He was captain of the battle-cruiser Repulse, sunk by the Japanese in 1942. He commanded the huge British and American artificial Mulberry harbours for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, later becoming Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Fleet. After retirement he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire.
Several members of the Roberts family also lie buried in Queenhill’s Churchyard, and the names of two are recorded on the War Memorial inside the Church.
Annie Holihead, a family member, wrote about her early life during the latter part of the Dowdeswell era:
‘I was born on 6 September 1893 at Queenhill, the first child of Henry and Harriet Roberts. Eleven more children followed me into this world to be brought up in a small cottage, the boys occupying one bedroom and the girls another, and our childhood was happy …The Squire was a good man and only charged £4 per year for rent and rates.
The Dowdeswells had bought up much of the property around Queenhill and had enclosed the whole within a ring fence. They employed a lot of the villagers from Bushley and Queenhill and had a reputation for being very good to their workers…They modernised all the cottages and farmhouses…The Ham at Tewkesbury belonged to them and the old Squire owned the toll house by the Mythe Bridge. He paid off the dues and, because they were relieved of tolls, the parishioners presented him with a gold watch…
But life wasn’t all work. We went to Church in those days, dressed in our best dresses and met up with all our friends. The farmers and landowner had their own seats. All the children learned their Catechism [principles of Christianity]. If everyone knew and tried to keep the Commandments there would be less trouble in the world.’
