COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
‘At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath’ (Matthew 12: 1) … walking through fields in Hopwas, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 12 July 2026).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Walking through the fields near Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Matthew 12: 1-8 (NRSVA):
1 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ 3 He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’
The Bread of the Presence in the Temple depicted in the Kupa Synagogue in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflections:
Summer is a beautiful time of the year in the countryside, with ripe fields of green and yellow under blue skies. In the past few weeks, I have walked through ripe fields and meadows by Stony Stratford and Winslow in Buckinghamshire, near Lichfield, Tamworth and Rugeley in south Staffordshire, in Oxford, and I have passed through beautiful fields on bus journeys in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire and Norfolk.
As I read this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 12: 1-8), I imagine Christ and his disciples walking through fields of green and gold such as these when they are confronted with the bureaucratic rules of the day and are accused of breaking the Sabbath.
Christ responds by stating that plucking grain on the Sabbath does not profane sacred writ. In doing so he reinterprets the Torah and clarifies the true nature of sacred endeavour.
Matthew 12:1-8 may be a retelling of Mark 2: 23-27. An analysis of this passage shows:
• verses 3-4 are an historical analogy found in I Samuel 21: 1-6, where David’s hunger supersedes the Law;
• verse 5 is a reconfiguration of Numbers 28: 9-10 and Exodus 35: 3;
• verse 7 is a reworking Hosea 6: 6: ‘For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings’ (NRSVA).
The reference to David’s story (I Samuel 21: 1-6) associates the temple with the alleviation of hunger and makes the point that hunger supersedes form and tradition.
Hosea 6: 6 repeats the principle that human need is pre-eminent over tradition.
Christ presents his own teachings not as a replacement for Torah but as a guide to its fulfilment. Ultimately, the Torah is to reflect God’s character of love, mercy, and generosity, and human need has priority over religious observance. Mercy was, and is, more in line with God’s intentions for the Sabbath rather than the strict obedience of the Sabbath demanded at the time.
This morning’s Gospel reading offers an interesting challenge to oppressive bureaucracy and rule-making, an important insight at a time when oppressive rules and regulations are being made day-by-day by capricious decision-makers in the White House.
This passage also offers insights into how Christ looks to a future beyond both Torah and Temple. It is a reading that looks forward to a new era of mercy, beyond compliance to the narrow interpretations of laws and regulations.
Fresh bread welcoming guests at the Captain’s House in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Friday 17 July 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 12 to 18 July 2026 (pp 18-19), is ‘The Land of the Highlanders’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Most Revd Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 17 July 2026) invites us to pray
Lord God, strengthen your Church in the Highlands as it ministers across great distances. Sustain our leaders, clergy and congregations with perseverance and hope.
The Collect of the Day:
Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water:
refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect
Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The site of Saint John’s Chapel, Hopwas … now green space and a disused burial ground on Hints Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
When I was visiting Saint Chad’s Church in Hopwas in recent days, I noticed the old font in the churchyard, on the south side of the church. The font is a surviving reminder of Saint John’s Chapel, a chapel-of-ease on Hints Lane that was replaced when Saint Chad’s was built in 1879-1881, along with the bell that still tolls in Saint Chad’s Church.
I decided a few days ago to go in search of the site of Saint John’s Chapel, and found the old churchyard on Hints Lane, less than half a mile west of the Tame Otter.
This is a very small cemetery off a quiet road. A few of the gravestones are very worn, only a few of them can be read and there is no sign to describe the former churchyard. The small rectangular plot of land is surrounded by a low wall, with just a small metal gate.
Saint John’s Chapel was built as a chapel-of-ease for Tamworth parish in 1836. There are no signs to indicate that a church once stood on the site, although some of the legible gravestones indicate it continued to be used as a burial ground until the early decades of the 20th century.
The font from Saint John’s Chapel is on the south side of Saint Chad’s Church, in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
When the Revd William MacGregor (1848-1937) was appointed Vicar of Tamworth in 1878, he gave Saint Editha’s Church a major facelift, had its bells recast, and built two churches, at Glascote and at Hopwas. He believed that Saint John’s chapel, built over 40 years earlier was too small to cater for the growing population of Hopwas. But when he sought land to build a new church, he was opposed by Sir Robert Peel who argued that the population was not large enough.
Nonetheless, MacGregor managed to secure a site for his planned church from the Revd TK Levett of Packington Hall in 1878, with additional land donated by Herbert Dean. The church was designed by John Douglas and consecrated in 1881.
The original chapel structure may have survived a little longer after the font and bell were moved up the hill to the new Saint Chad’s, for the Tamworth Herald reported on 16 April 1898 that the holy table from Saint John’s was made use of in the new workhouse chapel in Tamworth.
All that remains of Saint John’s today may be a handful of stones in among the graves in the former churchyard in the centre of the village. Even the tree planted to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday has wilted and seems to have died.
Hopwas Methodist Church on Hints Lane was built in 1888 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Two other traditions, the Methodists and the Roman Catholics, have also had a long presence in Hopwas, alongside the Church of England.
Francis Wilson (1835-1917) introduced Methodism to Hopwas three months after he moved to the village in 1866. When his cottage on School Lane became too small for the growing congregation, a new chapel was built in 1888 on Hints Lane on the other side of the village, a little further west along Hints Lane. Hopwas Methodist Church has been in the heart of the village ever since.
Hopwas Methodist Church is part of the Tamworth and Lichfield Methodist Circuit, a collection of six churches in Tamworth, Lichfield, Alrewas, Hopwas, Shenstone and Stonydelph. The Revd Joanna Thornton is the Superintendent Minister, and Sunday services in Hopwas are at 10:45 am. On a fifth Sunday in the month, a joint service alternates between Hopwas Methodist Church and Saint Chad’s Church.
Hopwas Methodists met for oover 20 years in the home of Francis Wilson, from 1866 to 1888 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
In the past, Hopwas also had an interesting Roman Catholic presence. Local tradition says that Catholics in the area attended Mass in the chapel in Comberford Hall until the Comberford family moved away in 1671, although that date ought perhaps to be as late as 1718, when Catherine Comberford died.
The Catholics in the area were then served by visiting priests from Pipe Hall, the home of the Weld family, who were descended from the Comberfords through the Heveningham family, and from Oscott College. The Revd Dr John Kirk of Holy Cross, Lichfield, took charge of what was called the ‘Hopwas Congregation’ in 1801, and the congregation met in houses until 1815.
However, I have yet to identify those houses. It would be interesting if there is any continuity in that Catholic tradition between the houses used by the congregation in those years and the two houses in Hopwas still owned by Catherine Comberford when she died in 1718.
The ‘Hopwas Congregation’ of Catholics met in houses in Hopwas from 1801 until 1815 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The Birch family gave a small plot of land at Coton in 1815, and Father Kirk built a small chapel. The chapel opened on 15 August 1815, when the preacher was the recently-ordained Dr Henry Weedall (1788-1859), later President of Saint Mary’s College, Oscott.
For 50 years from 1826, the Revd James Kelly was in charge of the Tamworth mission. A new church and presbytery were built in 1829-1830 ‘entirely through his exertions’, although other accounts suggest that the energetic Father Kirk also remained involved, and that the new church in Tamworth was partly endowed by John Talbot (1791-1852), 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, who lived at Alton Towers, who commissioned AWN Pugin to build many churches in Staffordshire, and who was once ‘the most prominent British Catholic of day’.
In the 1820s, Kirk also built Holy Cross Church on Upper Saint John Street, Lichfield, which was later enlarged and rebuilt in 1832 by the Lichfield-born architect Joseph Potter (1756-1842).
A piece of land in central Tamworth was acquired from Sir Robert Peel, and Kirk’s Lichfield friend Potter was commissioned to design a neoclassical church with an attached presbytery, although it is possible that the church was designed by Joseph Potter jnr.
The foundation stone was laid on Good Friday, 17 April 1829, and the church was opened on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, 24 June 1830, by Bishop Thomas Walsh (1777-1849), Vicar Apostolic for the Midland District, when a choir from Oscott College sang.
Saint John’s Church, Tamworth, was remodelled and extended and given a distinctly post-war character in 1954-1956, and its brick exterior makes it look like a 20th century church. Its story has developed quite separately from the ‘Hopwas Congregation’ that met in houses in Hopwas from 1801 to 1815, or its distant predecessor in Comberford Hall a century or more earlier.
Comberford Hall … local tradition says a Catholic congregation met in the private chapel of the Comberford family before moving to Hopwas (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Saint Chad’s Church in Hopwas, Staffordshire, was designed by John Douglas (1830-1911) and built in 1879-1881 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
My 10-mile walk through the countryside in south Staffordshire last week, starting at the Moat House in Tamworth, brought me to Wigginton and Saint Leonard’s Church, along Comberford Lane and Wigginton Lane to Comberford and the banks of the River Tame, and then along Coton Lane to Hopwas.
Before returning to Tamworth, I stopped to see Hopwas and Hopwas Hayes Wood, climbed up the hill to Saint Chad’s Church, walked along the canal towpaths beside the Tame Otter and the Red Lion, and had a late lunch in the Tame Otter.
Saint Chad’s Church, tucked under the woods, was built in 1879-1881 to replace the earlier Saint John’s Chapel, built as a chapel-of-ease for Tamworth parish in 1836. Saint John’s churchyard can still be seen on the right-hand or west side of Hints Lane, walking up from the Tame Otter, just beyond Hopwas Methodist Church.
Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas, was built on the initiative of the Revd William MacGregor (1848-1937), Vicar of Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The Revd William MacGregor (1848-1937) who was, without doubt, Tamworth’s ultimate ‘champion of the poor’ and the very embodiment of the Victorian ‘slum priest’. He was a curate in Hopwas, outside Tamworth, in 1872-1876, and then Vicar of Saint Matthias’, Liverpool, in 1877-1878. But he returned to Tamworth and the Diocese of Lichfield when he was appointed Vicar of Tamworth in 1878 at the age of 30.
When he was the Vicar of Tamworth (1878-1887), MacGregor gave Saint Editha’s Church a major facelift, had its bells recast, and built two churches, at Glascote and at Hopwas. Saint John’s was too small to cater for the growing population of Hopwas, but when he sought land to build a new church, he was opposed by Sir Robert Peel who argued that the population was not large enough. However, the Revd TK Levett of Packington Hall gave an acre of land as a site for a new church in 1878, and Herbert Dean later gave additional land to ensure the church had an open setting.
The foundation stone was laid in 1879 and Saint Chad’s was consecrated on 23 April 1881 by William Dalrymple Maclagan (1826-1910), Bishop of Lichfield (1878-1891) and later Archbishop of York (1891-1908).
The foundation stone was laid in 1879 and Saint Chad’s was consecrated in 1881 by Bishop William Dalrymple Maclagan of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
This brick and timber-framed ‘chocolate-box’, Arts and Crafts church on Hopwas Hill is in the shadow of Hopwas Hayes Wood. It has been praised by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘an ingenious and entertaining building’. It was designed by the architect John Douglas (1830-1911) of Chester and is now a Grade II listed building.
The architect John Douglas (1830-1911) of Chester also designed many of the interior fittings, including the choir stalls, pulpit, pews and sanctuary rail. As an architect, Douglas designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and north-west England, particularly on the Eaton Hall estate.
Douglas designed 500 or more buildings, built at least 40 new churches or chapels, restored, altered or renovated many more churches, and designed fittings and furniture for the interiors of his churches. His other works include houses, farms, shops, banks, offices, hotels, a hospital, drinking fountains, clocks, schools, public baths, a library, a bridge, an obelisk, cheese factories, and public conveniences. Most of his work was in Cheshire and North Wales, although there are some in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Scotland.
Inside Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas, facing east towards the High Altar, choir and chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
His architectural styles were eclectic. He worked during the period of the Gothic Revival, and much of his works incorporates elements of the English Gothic style. The firm where he trained was at the forefront of the Gothic Revival and both Edmund Sharpe and EG Paley were influenced by the Cambridge Camden Society and by AWN Pugin. Douglas’s first church, Saint John the Evangelist at Over, Winsford, was entirely English Gothic in style.
He was also influenced by European architectural styles and he included French, German and Dutch elements. However, he is probably best remembered for incorporating vernacular elements in his buildings, in particular half-timbering, influenced by the black-and-white revival in Chester. One of his characteristic features is his inclusion of dormer windows rising through the eaves and surmounted by hipped roofs. Other elements include tile-hanging, pargeting and the use of decorative brick in diapering and the design of tall chimney stacks, and his use of joinery and highly detailed wood carving.
Douglas attracted commissions from wealthy landowners and industrialists, especially the Grosvenor family of Eaton Hall. Most of his works have survived, particularly his churches. Chester has a number of his structures, the most admired of which are his half-timbered black-and-white buildings and the Eastgate Clock. The highest concentration of his work is found in the Eaton Hall estate and the surrounding villages of Eccleston, Aldford and Pulford.
Inside Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas, facing west from the High Altar, choir and chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
John Douglas was born in Sandiway, Cheshire, on 11 April 1830, the second of four children and the only son of John Douglas, a builder, joiner, surveyor and timber merchant from Northampton, and his wife Mary (née Swindley) from Aldford on the Eaton estate in Cheshire. John Douglas senior was a builder and joiner, and also described himself as an architect, surveyor and a timber merchant.
He gained experience in his father’s building yard and workshop before being articled in the 1840s to EG Paley of Sharpe and Paley, architects in Lancaster. He was Paley’s chief assistant until he established his own office at No 6 Abbey Square, Chester, in 1855-1860.
Douglas married Elizabeth Edmunds from Bangor-is-y-Coed, Flintshire, in 1860 in Saint Dunawd’s Church, the village church he later restored, and they were the parents of five children.
He designed four churches and chapels, eight parsonages and large houses for the Duke of Westminster, as well as 15 schools, around 50 farms, about 300 cottages, lodges and smithies, two factories, two inns and about 12 commercial buildings on the Eaton Hall estate, as well as a church and buildings on the Halkyn estate in Flintshire.
He also had commissions from the Earl of Sefton, the Earl of Ellesmere, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Lord Kenyon, and the Gladstone family, including WE Gladstone, and from soap makers such as the Johnsons and WH Lever, the creator of Port Sunlight.
John Douglas designed many of the interior fittings, including the choir stalls, pulpit, pews and sanctuary rail (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
By the time Douglas moved to Chester, the black-and-white revival using half-timbering was well under way, and Douglas came to incorporate this style in his buildings in Chester and elsewhere. Part of his earliest work for the Grosvenor family, the entrance lodge to Grosvenor Park, used half-timbering in its upper storey, the first known use by Douglas of black-and-white.
One of Douglas's most important secular buildings is St Deiniol’s Library, at Hawarden, Flintshire, designed for WE Gladstone and his family. His work in the centre of Chester includes 38 Bridge Street (1897), a timber-framed shop that incorporates a section of Chester Rows and has heavily decorated carving. The architectural historian Edward Hubbard says that ‘in this work, the city’s half-timber revival reached its very apogee’.
Douglas died on 23 May 1911 at Walmoor Hill, the large house he built for himself at Dee Banks, and he was buried at Overleigh Old Cemetery, Chester. Pevsner describes him as ‘the best Cheshire architect’.
he East Window (1890) is probably by Heaton, Butler & Bayne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
A notice in the church porch reads:
Enter this door
as if the floor within were gold
and every wall of jewels,
all of wealth untold,
as if a choir
in robes were signing here.
Nor shout – nor rush
but hush for
God is here.
Saint Chad’s Church, which Douglas designed in Hopwas, was built by J Deakins. Pevsner says that in its design it is ‘certainly an ingenious and entertaining building’. All the timber is oak. The exterior design resembles a chalet, well suited to the woodland background. The lower walls are reddish pink brick and at the chancel continue up to form a low saddle backed tower topped with an octagonal turret of oak shingles surmounted with a wrought iron cross and weather vane.
Saint Chad’s is built in red brick with timber framing in its upper parts, and has a roof of plain tiles. The church is crowned by an octagonal flèche. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave and a single-bay chancel between which is the flèche, with a vestry to the south and an annex with the organ to the north.
The octagonal stone font at the west end of Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The interior consists mainly of buff coloured brick and dark oak. The chancel has a five-light east window with Perpendicular tracery and a square head. The East window by Heaton, Butler & Bayne (1890) depicts the Crucifixion in the centre with the Nativity and Baptism of Christ to the left, and the women at the empty tomb and the road to Emmaus to the right.
The fittings include an octagonal stone font, a carved oak pulpit with stone base and steps, open cusped arches, a wooden altar rail with traceried panels, an oak lectern and oak pews with poppyheads.
The original organ appears to have been pneumatically controlled with the manual on the south side and the pipes installed on the north side. Small pipes were laid in a duct under the floor enabling the keys being pressed to direct wind to the pipes. A small archway in the west side of the organ chamber may have been the access point for the ‘bellows boy’ to provide wind for the organ.
The present organ manual is sunk down 2 ft in front of the priest’s stall with the music coming from the pipes on the north wall behind the choir stalls. The organ was built by the organ builders Hill, Norman & Beard in 1940. It was installed by Herbert Dean in memory of his first wife Esther and was dedicated on 20 May 1940. The organ is being restored after an infestation of wood worm, with the entire organ stripped down, restored and rebuilt.
The organ was built by Hill, Norman & Beard in 1940 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The war memorial in the churchyard is at the east end of the church. The Celtic cross in Peterhead granite is 3.7 m (12 ft) high with interlace carving, carved wreaths and the names of people who died in World War I and World War II.
As for the Revd William MacGregor, the priest who initiated the building Saint of Chad’s, his initiative in starting the Co-op in Tamworth enraged many business owners in Tamworth. He was abused in the street, damned in letters sent to him, to the Tamworth Herald and to the bishop, and some parishioners stopped going to church in protest.
He resigned as Vicar of Tamworth in 1887 but continued to live in Tamworth, faithful to his beliefs and morals, held in esteem by ordinary working men and women. He sat on Warwickshire County Council (1888-1917) and was chair of the Tamworth Herald (1906-1928). He was 89 when he died on 26 February 1937 at Bolehall Manor; it seems fitting that he was buried at Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas.
The war memorial in the churchyard at the east end of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
A poster on the noticeboard says:
In happy moments, praise God.
In difficult moments, seek God.
In quiet moments, trust God.
In every moment, thank God.
• Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas, is part of a benefice that includes Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, Saint Francis, Leyfields, and Saint Andrew’s, Kettlebrook, and the Revd Andrew Lythall is the vicar. The Eucharist is celebrated most Sundays at 10:30 am, but occasionally this is replaced with ‘Prayer & Praise’. On a fifth Sunday in the month, a joint service alternates between Saint Chad’s Church and Hopwas Methodist Church.
Sir Niklaus Pevsner describes Saint Chad’s Church, Hopwas, as ‘an ingenious and entertaining building’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Hopwas is about five miles south-east of Lichfield and two miles west of Tamworth and had links with the Comberford family from the late 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
During my 10-mile hike a few days ago a few days ago in south Staffordshire, I was searching once more for places associated with the Comberford family, including Wigginton Manor, the site of the old manor house in Comberford before Comberford Hall was built in the 18th century, and the site of Comberford Windmill on Coton Lane.
I ended up in the village of Hopwas on the main A51 in Staffordshire, on the south-east edge of Lichfield District Council and about five miles south-east of Lichfield and two miles west of Tamworth. The place had links with the Comberford family from as early as the late 13th century until at least the first half of the 18th century.
Hopwas has a population of about 700, and is part of the civil parish of Wigginton and Hopwas, which includes Hopwas, Wigginton, Comberford and parts of Coton. I returned to Hopwas yesterday, to explore the history and the legacy of the village.
Hopwas is recored in the Domesday Survey (1086), when it was named as ‘Opewas’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The centre of Hopwas is at the junctions with School Lane and Hints Lane, where the historic parts of the village have a mainly linear layout. Hopwas is set in open countryside with two waterways passing through it, the Coventry Canal and the River Tame. The main road slopes gently down from west to east, from about 65 metres above sea level along the canal to below 60 metres by the river. However, the surrounding land slopes steeply from the heights of Hopwas Wood to the north down to the banks of the River Tame to the east.
The first documented reference to Hopwas is in the Domesday Survey (1086), where it was recorded as ‘Opewas’, and it soon became a well-stocked royal forest. At the time, the settlement was owned by the king and had a mill. The area was predominantly agricultural and was prosperous, due to the natural fertility of the Tame Valley lowlands.
The name evolved by the 12th century to ‘Hopewasin’, probably from the Saxon ‘hop’, meaning a fen island or valley, and ‘waesse’, meaning a swamp leading to an enclosure near a marsh. Agriculture was then an important source of employment, and this continued in the centuries that followed.
Hopwas was a royal forest in the middle ages, providing stone and oaks for Lichfield Cathedral and the friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
When Alexander de Stavenby was the Bishop of Lichfield, Henry III gave permission for the Dean and Chapter at Lichfield in 1235 to dig stone in the King’s forest to repair Lichfield Cathedral.
The Franciscans or Greyfriars had arrived in Lichfield ca 1229 and founded a friary with land and houses given by Bishop Alexander de Stavenby. Henry III gave them ten oaks from Hopwas in 1237 to help them rebuild their chapel.
Edward I ordered all undergrowth in Hopwas Wood to be cut down and rooted up in 1277 to prevent evildoers from lurking in the wood, which had become notorious for the frequency of robberies, assaults and murders.
A lease dated 5 April 1599 and signed by Thomas, John and William Comberford, involving Dean’s Wood in Hopwas Hay and other lands on the Lichfield to Tamworth road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Comberford family had connections with Hopwas from at least the late 13th century that continued for almost 4½ centuries until about 1718.
Alan de Comberford claimed Wigginton Manor in 1278 and had lands in Comberford, Wigginton, Coton and Hopwas. His younger grandson, Richard de Comberford, had an eldest daughter and heiress, Margery, who was ancestor of the Hopwas and Endsore families of Comberford.
John de Comberford and his wife Alice, were granted Hopwas in 1366, along with extensive estates between Lichfield and Tamworth, by his kinsman, Canon Hugh de Hopwas, a canon of Lichfield Cathedral. This may have been a legal expedient to ensure the estates did not become church property, and in 1382 John de Comberford returned the property to the Hopwas family when he granted them to John de Hopwas.
John Comberford (1440-1508) is named in court case in 1461 involving properties in Hopwas, Coton and Tamworth. His son, Thomas Comberford (1472-1532), who was admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in Lichfield in 1495, secured full rights over the manor of Wigginton in 1514, along with a mill, meadows, pastures and rentals in Wigginton, Hopwas, Coton, Comberford and Tamworth.
John Comberford held the rights of fishery on the River Tame from Lady Bridge in Tamworth to Hopwas Bridge in 1532 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
John Comberford still owned these properties when he died in 1532. He also had the right to hold a fair in Tamworth twice a year, the rights of fishery for a 2½-mile stretch along the River Tame from Lady Bridge, marking the boundary between the Staffordshire and Warwickshire parts of Tamworth, to Hopwas Bridge, and the right to keep six swans on the river.
Humphrey Comberford inherited these extensive Hopwas estates in 1528, and by 1544 that he held Hopwas, a wooded manor on the banks of the Tame. His second son, Humphrey Comberford, was the intended heir to the Hopwas estates, but he died unmarried in 1545 before his father died.
Thomas Comberford, his wife Dorothy, and their son and heir, William Comberforf, were holding the Manors of Comberford, Wigginton and Wednesbury, in 1592, which included a free warren in Comberford, Wednesbury and Hopwas and the Hay of Hopwas. In 1599, Thomas, John and William Comberford leased lands, including Dean’s Wood in Hopwas Hay and other lands on the Lichfield to Tamworth road, assigned to them in 1588 by their brother-in-law Sir William Stanford of Packington. Stanford sold all his rights in Hopwas to William Comberford in 1590 for £200.
Hopwas Bridge was described in 1608 as a private bridge in the repair of William Comberford. This William Comberford was taken to court in 1629 by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, seeking a disputed annuity of £29 from the Manors of Wigginton and Comberford along his lands and tenements in Hopwas, Coton and Tamworth.
Black and White Cottages on School Lane, Hopwas … Catherine Comberford owned at least two cottages or house in Hpwas when she died in 1718 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Colonel William Comberford, who had been the royalist high sheriff of Staffordshire and was involved in the Siege of Lichfield, incurred heavy debts through his activities in the English civil war. By 1649, he was in a position to claim back his lands and pay off many of his debts, using lands in Tamworth, Coton, Hopwas, Comberford and Wiggington and the Manor of Bolehall as security.
After Robert Comberford died in 1669, his widow Catherine continued to live at Comberford Hall until she died in 1718. By then most of the Comberford properties had been mortgaged or sold off and she was a tenant of the Skeffington family of Fisherwick. Catherine’s will shows she still held land in Wigginton, and some property in Hopwas, and in Tamworth, including a house in Hopwas occupied by Henry Ashmore and another property in Hopwas she had bought from Francis Astbury and that was then occupied by Thomas Astbury. She divided these properties between her granddaughters Catherine Brooke and Mary Grosvenor of Tamworth.
A year before Catherine died, the former schoolmaster’s house in Hopwas was built in 1717 at the request of Thomas Barnes, who was born in Hopwas and was then living in London. Thomas Barnes Primary School was founded in 1724 in the schoolmaster’s house, and more school buildings have been added since.
The former schoolmaster’s house in Hopwas was built in 1717 with a bequest from Thomas Barnes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The life of Hopwas was always associated with water, first because of its position on the River Tame and then because of its connection with the canal after James Brindley was commissioned to build the Coventry Canal.
Work on the canal began in December 1768. But because Brindley demanded high standards in construction, the Coventry Canal Company ran out of money by the time the canal reached Atherstone in 1769, and Brindley was replaced by Thomas Yeoman. The canal was finally completed in 1789 after the two adjoining canal companies, the Trent and Mersey Canal Company and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company, received permission to complete and operate the approved but still-unbuilt section from Fazeley to Fradley.
Meanwhile, what was left of the former Comberford interests in Hopwas seems to have passed along with Comberford Hall in the mid-18th century through the Skeffington, Swinfen, Hill and Egerton families until 1761, when they were bought by Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth and later Marquis of Bath. He sold the Manors of Comberford and Wigginton, including lands in Hopwas and Coton, in 1789 to Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 5th Earl of Donegall, who built Hopwas Hayes Lodge.
Eventually, the Chichester family was crippled by the gambling debts of a profligate son, and found it impossible to pay off their loans, so that they were forced to sell Comberford Hall and the manorial rights and lands that went with it, including those in Hopwas.
The canal dissects Hopwas and provides a framework for the village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Hopwas Bridge, an old stone bridge, formed part of the original turnpiked road from Lichfield Road through Hopwas to Tamworth over the River Tame, and tolls were paid at the bridge. The bridge was washed away in a flood in 1795 and was replaced by a new bridge ca 1800. This landmark is now a Grade II listed structure and it marks the crossing point between Tamworth and Lichfield District.
The canal dissects Hopwas and has helped to provide a framework for the village. The historic core of Hopwas developed in a linear pattern alongside the canal and the adjacent Hints Lane, and this linear core helped to provide the rural charm of the village that has been preserved ever since.
Hopwas was described in the 19th century as ‘a small settlement situated at the bottom of a gravely hill’. Hopwas Water Pumping Station was built ca 1890 to the west to take advantage of the natural connection to the waterways.
By the early 20th century, the village sprawled further along A51 between Lichfield and Tamworth and housing developments grew up on the east side of Hints Lane. Despite minor alterations to the façades of some buildings and their change of use, the village kept its appearance. The gradual infill of development followed in the late 20th and early 21st century.
The Tame Otter, on the corner of the junction of Lichfield Road, Hints Road and School Lane, has become the focal point of the village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The Hopwas Conservation Area is a designated place of ‘special architectural or historic interest’ and has has a number of listed buildings, including the Saint Chad’s Church, built in 1879 in an idyllic and charming setting on the initiative of the Revd William McGregor of Tamworth.
No 1 Hints Road is a late 18th century house that epitomises the Staffordshire vernacular style. It is a red-brick building with a plain clay tile roof and architecturally it is the most distinguished building in that part of the village.
Black and White Cottages in School Lane form a row of three cottages, including one house that probably dates from the late 17th century.
Hopwas has two old public houses, the Red Lion and the Tame Otter, formerly the Chequers. Their neighbouring, facing beer gardens front onto the Coventry Canal, creating an attractive open space, and the steady traffic on the canal and its ambiance provide a vibrant yet relaxing atmosphere.
The Tame Otter, on the corner of the junction of Lichfield Road, Hints Road and School Lane, provides the main landmark for Hopwas. With its historic architecture, its canal-side location and its popularity, it has become the focal point of the village.
The Ministry of Defence warns members of the public to follow the route of the bridle path in the woodland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
North of Hopwas village, Hopwas Hays Wood is 385 acres of ancient woodland, also known as Hopwas Hay or Hopwas Hayes, and was Crown property until the mid-16th century.
Hopwas Hayes Lodge was built ca 1786. His interests were bought out by the Levett family of Wychnor Park, and by 1834 the wood was owned by the Revd Thomas Levett (1740-1843), who was the Rector of Whittington for 40 years (1796-1836). He was a large landowner and played a role in the development of the local educational system. The house was bought by the Price family in 1949, but when it fell into disrepair it was demolished by Lichfield District Council.
A large part of the woodland is privately owned, mainly by Lafarge (Tarmac) and the Ministry of Defence. Hopwas Wood and parts of the range may be used by soldiers for dry training and the use of blank ammunition. Members of the public are warned to follow the route of the bridle path, to observe warning signs, and not to enter the range complex.
The Tame Otter (left) the Red Lion (right), with their facing beer gardens by the Coventry Canal create an attractive open space with a vibrant yet relaxing atmosphere (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
I ventured to the edges of the woods, climbed up to Saint Chad’s Church, and strolled along the canal towpaths before ending my day-long hike by rewarding myselff with a late (very late) lunch and a glass of wine at the Tame Otter.
I lingered in the sunshine a little longer than I had planned last week and missed the bus that would get me to Lichfield in time for choral evensong in the cathedral. Instead, I returned to Tamworth, had another wistful look at the Moat House on Lichfield Street, and caught the train back to Milton Keynes. But I returned to Hopwas yesterday, and managed to catch the bus to Lichfield in time for the mid-day Eucharist.
But more about Saint Chad’s Church in Hopwas, and some of the other churches, chapels and religious communities, in the days to come, hopefully.
A few moments in the sunshine on the Coventry Canal in Hopwas in the mid-day sunshine yesterday (Patrick Comerford, 2026)
A return visit to Comberford, in a search for the sites of the old manor house and Comberford Windmill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
During my 10-mile hike a few days ago in south Staffordshire, through parts of Tamworth and villages and hamlets between Tamworth and Lichfield, I stopped halfway along my route at Comberford, having walked there from Wigginton, where I had visited Saint Leonard’s Church and tried to make connections with the centuries-old links with the Comberford family.
I walked the mile or two from Wigginton along Comberford Lane, which becomes Wigginton Lane halfway along its length, through fields and open countryside, to Comberford Hall. Each time I am on the train between Lichfield and Tamworth, I find myself craning my neck to see Comberford Hall. But I also try to get there regularly, and I have known Comberford and Comberford Hall since I was in teens.
After some ‘selfies’ at Comberford Hall and walking through the fields and farms nearby, I went for a stroll through the village and by the banks of the River Tame in the warm mid-day sunshine at the end of last week that felt more like early summer than late spring.
Apart from the now-closed church and some of the houses in Comberford, I was also looking for the site or location of two other places that no longer exist, with the help of a copy of a map of Tamworth produced in 1845: the site of the ‘Old Manor House’ and the site of Comberford Windmill.
Comberford Hall was rebuilt by Lord Donegall in the late 18th century … but where was the original moated manor house? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
I had been shown the site by local residents about 55 years ago, but debate continues about the site of the original hall. The very name of the place indicates that Comberford was a ford or river crossing by the River Tame, and so the original manor house was probably closer to the east bank of the river than the present Comberford Hall.
The 15th-century, half-timbered Comberford Hall, built in 1439 by William Comberford MP, was still standing in the late 18th century, but the Staffordshire historian Stebbing Shaw noted in 1798 that it had been ‘entirely demolished’ by then and that a new house had been built on the site by Lord Donegall. Shaw also said traces of a moated site occupied by an earlier Comberford Hall could be found in a garden to the east of Comberford Hall.
If Shaw is correct in saying the original Comberford Hall stood east of the present Comberford Hall, then both Comberford Hall Cottage and the Coach House may stand on the original site or incorporate parts of the original house.
In the early 1970s, a ridged indentation in one of the fields to the north of the Comberford Hall close to the right of way that leads to Comberford village, was pointed out to me as the site of the original Comberford Hall. However, this contradicts Shaw’s descriptions of an original house east of Comberford Hall, and Valerie Coltman’s insights. Instead, it probably matches the crater shape in the field to the left of the path from Comberford village to Comberford Hall that was known to local children in the 1950s and 1960s as ‘the bomb field’ and caused by a stray bomb during World War II.
A third possible location for the original Comberford Hall may be Comberford Manor Farmhouse, at the north edge of Comberford Village and at the north end of Manor Lane, close to the banks of the river and the flood plane. I have surmised in the past that its location suggests that this mid-18th century farmhouse could be the site of the original Comberford Hall and the centre of the manor once owned by the Comberford family.
My 1845 map of Tamworth suggests the site of the old manor house and of Comberford Windmill
However, my 1845 map suggests the site of the old manor house was to the west of Comberford Manor Farmhouse, in fields closer to the east bank of the River Tame, and some distance north-west of the present, 18th century Comberford Hall.
Without the evidence an archaeological survey would produce, I could not adjudicate between the merits for the four suggestions for site of the original manor house: to the east of Comberford Hall (Stebbing Shaw); the site of the present Comberford Hall (Valerie Coltman); Comberford Manor Farmhouse; or the fields by the east bank the Tame, slightly west of the village (1845 map).
The other place I was searching for, and whose location on the 1845 map is Comberford Windmill, on the north side of Coton Lane, close to Comberford Crossroads, where Coton Lane and Gillway Lane meet at the junction with Comberford Road, immediately north of Tamworth, on the road towards Hopwas.
Windmill Farm is now within the boundaries of Tamworth, but was once part of what is now Wigginton and Hopwas civil parish, within the bounds of Lichfield District Council.
Windmill Farm on Coton Lane on the northern edges of Tamworth, south of Comberford Hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Windmill Farm was farmed by Frank and Kathleen Aucote, with their daughters Christine and Margaret, from 1944 to 1963, who were tenants of a Mr Heath who lived in New Zealand. They were market gardeners and also kept a herd of Friesian dairy cattle, and their land stretched from the Comberford Road towards Comberford and along Coton Lane to the railway.
Windmill Farm was sold in 1963, and the Aucote family moved to Nottinghamshire. It has been the home of the Sketchley family for many decades, since the late 1970s or early 1980s. A a few years before they moved in, the farmer had removed the stone and clay foundations of the windmill from the field and dragged them down to the bottom field on the farm.
Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook a programme of archaeological investigation in April and May 2017 in advance of a residential development at Windmill Farm. Eleven trenches were opened. Five contained one or two linear ditches that were either undated, or post-mediaeval or modern. The southern-most trench contained a ditch and pit containing middle Roman pottery, and a further undated ditch.
In its excavations, Oxford Archaeology has found a substantial part of a Romano-British farmstead composed of a complex of rectilinear enclosures that was lived in during the second and third centuries. Two phases were identified, the settlement having been extended and additional enclosures added to the north and east around the middle of the second century.
The latter phase included the construction of a post-built aisled building, and two discrete dumps of burnt crop-processing debris attested to the crops people cultivated there. A notable find was a Samian Dragendorff 37 bowl decorated with an erotic scene.
Windmill Farm on Coton Lane … Oxford Archaeology carried out archaeological investigations in 2017 in advance of a residential development (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The archaeological investigation at Coton Lane was the first substantial excavation of a Romano-British settlement in the Tamworth area, the only previous excavation being limited trenching of a cropmark site at Lichfield Road Industrial Estate, 600 metres to the south. Indeed, understanding of the Roman period in Staffordshire as a whole has been hampered by a lack of large-scale excavations and a concentration on the few villas and on military sites or small settlements.
In addition to the site at Lichfield Road Industrial Estate, the cropmark evidence from the Tame Valley includes a complex of at least four rectilinear enclosures and possible
roundhouses that may provide evidence for a densely settled landscape in the Coton Lane area.
The digs also uncovered part of a mediaeval settlement that, was abandoned in the late 14th century, possibly because of the Black Death. In the 1980s, a local resident using a metal detector around the original location of the mill, in the field on the left of the drive up to the house, reportedly found some coins, including two Elizabethan silver shillings.
All of this was discovered beneath land that is now part of Tamworth’s modern landscape, and helps to understand the historical context of Comberford, even long before the Comberford family lived in this part of Staffordshire.
As I walked from Windmill Farm along Coton Lane, I could see how in recent years much of the farmland on the north side of Coton Lane, between Tamworth and Comberford, has been developed as housing in recent decades.
I continue on west, across the River Tame and the Coventry Canal, to Hopwas, where I wanted to see Saint Chad’s Church and the village, to walk by the canal pathway and to have a very late lunch.
But more about Hopwas, hopefully, in days to come.
Walking by the banks of the River Tame in Comberford (Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The lychgate at the entrance to Saint Leonard’s Church in Wigginton, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
My 10-mile ramble through the countryside in south-east Staffordshire the other day began by setting out from Tamworth for the small village of Wigginton, three miles north of Tamworth, before hiking on to Comberford, Coton and Hopwas, and then returning to Tamworth.
Wigginton takes its name comes from the Old English meaning ‘Wicga’s Farm’. The village has a school, a pub, a war memorial and a Grade II listed church, Saint Leonard’s Church.
The Parish of Wigginton includes Saint Leonard’s Church in Wigginton and Saint James’s Spital Chapel on Wigginton Road in Tamworth. The Spital Chapel is tucked away behind houses between Ashby Road and Wigginton Road, Tamworth. The chapel was not open when I arrived at its gates on Thursday morning, but normally there are services there on the first and third Sundays at 9 am.
I had been interested for many years in visiting Wigginton because of its many associations with the Comberford family over the centuries. But for some inexplicable reasons I had never visited either Wigginton or Saint Leonard’s Church until now.
Saint Leonard’s Church in Wigginton … Wigginton was part of Tamworth parish until the parish of Wigginton with Comberford and Syerscote was formed in 1856 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
As a parish in the Diocese of Lichfield, Wigginton Parish includes Spital Chapel and in the past also included Saint Mary and Saint George Church, Comberford, which closed in recent years. In local government divisions in Staffordshire, the civil parish of Wigginton and Hopwas is part of the area of Lichfield District Council and includes the villages of Wigginton, Comberford and Hopwas – all of which I visited in that one day during that 10-mile hike.
Saint Leonard, who died in 559, was one of the most venerated saints in the late Middle Ages, and his cult spread rapidly in the 12th century. His intercession was credited with miracles for the release of prisoners, women in labour and the diseases of cattle. His feast day is 6 November.
In Church life, mediaeval Wigginton had its own chapel, but the parish church was Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church in Tamworth, where the college of canons included the Prebendaries of Wigginton and Comberford. Tamworth was one of a handful of royal free churches or peculiars that were ecclesiastical islands within yet outside the Diocese of Lichfield.
The north-east side of Saint Leonard’s Church, Wigginton, with the vestry and chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The Prebendaries of Wigginton and Comberford can be traced for a period of more than 250 years, from 1290 until the chapter was dissolved in 1548 with the dissolution of the chantries and monastic foundations at the Tudor Reformation. Throughout most of those 2½ centuries, the dean and canons were usually crown nominees. But, for a brief time, the appointment of the Dean and many of the prebendaries, including the Prebendary of Wigginton and Comberford, was claimed by the Marmion family of Tamworth and, as their heirs, by the Butler family.
A priest in the Butler family, Thomas le Botiller, became Prebendary of Wigginton and Comberford on 5 May 1341, but his appointment had royal ratification seven months later on 10 December 1341. From 1290 until 1548, we can identify the Prebendaries of Wigginton and Comberford, and they include a professor of theology, a Proctor of the University of Oxford, two Deans of York, a Dean of Salisbury, a Dean of Hereford, a Bishop of Salisbury, a Bishop of Exeter, a Bishop of Limerick, two Lords Privy Seal, a Lord Chancellor, and a number of royal chaplains.
After 1350, this Prebend is usually named simply as Wigginton rather than Wigginton and Comberford. Humfrey Horton, who was presented on 1 August 1538, was the last Prebendary of Wigginton and Comberford. and Simon Symonds was the last dean of the Collegiate Church of Saint Editha, Tamworth (1538-1548).
Inside Saint Leonard’s Church, Wigginton, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Inside Saint Leonard’s Church, Wigginton, facing west from the chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Wigginton, with Comberford and Syerscote were formed into an ecclesiastical parish in the Diocese of Lichfield on 14 March 1856. Saint Leonard’s Church had been built on the ruins of a previous chapel and incorporating parts of the earlier chapel and was completed in 1777. The north aisle was added in 1830, and the chancel and vestry were added in 1861-1862 and were designed by the architect and surveyor Nicholas Joyce of Greengate Street, Stafford.
Joyce also designed the Assembly Rooms in Tamworth in an ‘Italianate’ style. They were commissioned by Tamworth Borough Council to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.
Joyce’s other works in Staffordshire include an extension at the east end of Saint Luke's Church, Cannock, where he added two additional bays in 1878-1882 to the nave and aisles on dates in the 12th century church; Saint James the Great Church, Salt, built in 1840-1842 by Bertram Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, and designed by the local architect Thomas Trubshaw, where Joyce added new pews, pulpit and floors; and a butchers’ market in Stafford.
There were further additions to Saint Leonard’s Church in 1901, so that the church today consists of a nave, a west porch, a north aisle, a chancel, a north-east vestry and a bell tower. The chancel is in stone and random rubble, the three-bay nave and the north aisle are in red brick on a sandstone plinth, and the roof is slated with coped verges.
The oldest part of the church is the chancel, rebuilt in 1777 on the ruins of the previous chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The oldest part of the church is the chancel which was rebuilt in 1777 on the ruins of the previous chapel and probably incorporates parts of that earlier chapel. The two-bay chancel has clasping buttresses and a sill string that continues as a hood mould over a central pointed door on the south side. The pointed three-light east window has a Geometric tracery and hood mould with foliated stops. The east window (1893) shows the Crucifixion in the centre, with the Nativity and Baptism to the left and right.
There are two windows by the Victorian glass designer Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907) on the south side of the chancel. The window to the west (1897) depicting Saint Luke and Saint John, is in memory of the Revd Dr Usher Williamson Purcell, has two lights with plate tracery; the smaller window to the east is a single light depicts the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Williamson, who was Irish-born and had qualified as a meidcal doctor at Glasgow Universitym was the Vicar of Wigginton for 32 years from 1865.
CE Kempe is best known in the late Victorian period for his stained-glass windows, and some of his work in this corner of Staffordshire can also be seen in Lichfield Cathedral, the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, Christ Church, Leomansley, and Saint John’s Church, Wall.
The Cambridge Church Historian Owen Chadwick (1916-2015), has said Kempe’s work represents ‘the Victorian zenith’ of church decoration and stained glass windows. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lychgates and memorials that helped to define a later 19th century Anglican style.
The south chancel windows by Charles Eamer Kempe in Saint Leonard’s Church, Wigginton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The chancel of Saint Leonard’s has an arch braced collar roof. The pointed and chamfered chancel arch has an inner chamfered order springing from short corbelled half-columns with stiff leaf decoration.
To the north-east of the chancel, the L-shaped vestry has pointed two-light windows with plate tracery on the north and east sides.
The nave and aisle have tall small-pane windows with semi-circular arches springing from imposts. The north aisle has a circular west window with a moulded stone surround. The west door at the west end of the north aisle has a moulded stone surround and cyma recta moulded cornice hood.
The nave has a plain plaster ceiling. At the west end of the nave is a 19th century gabled west porch with a pointed doorway, flanked by two circular oculus windows with moulded stone frames, and there is a Diocletian window above the porch. The square bell turret has a pyramidal hipped roof.
The short corbelled half-columns in the chancel arch have stiff leaf decoration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Two massive Tuscan columns inside support the west turret and there are two cast iron columns between the nave and the north aisle. The north gallery is also supported on cast iron columns.
The fittings in the church include two pairs of boards on the south wall with the words of the Lord’s Prayer on one pair and the Ten Commandments on the other; a wooden Gothic style pulpit, a brass altar rail with decorative brackets, and wainscotting in the sanctuary from ca 1935.
The font dates from the mid to late 19th century, and is a stone font with an octagonal base, ribbed and banded decoration, and a wooden font cover from ca 1938. There is a full set of 20th century pews.
The church was completely redecorated in 2016 and can seat up to 100 people comfortably. The parish centre beside the church is available for hire.
The north gallery is supported on cast iron columns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The Revd Debra Dyson is the Vicar of Wigginton. The old vicarage is beside the church and the present vicarage is on Comberford Lane.
Outside the church, the lychgate was erected by family and friends in memory of Charles Edward Mercer, organist and choirmaster of Saint Leonard’s for 50 years (1926-1976).
But more about Wigginton village and its links with the Comberford family tomorrow, hopefully.
The sower and the seed … a window in the north gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
• There is a Sung Eucharist in Saint Leonard’s Church, Wigginton, on the second, third, fourth and fifth Sunday at 10:30, and a ‘Sacred Space’ service at 5 pm. The Morning Service at 10:30 on the first Sunday is Common Worship Morning Prayer, and an informal Communion is celebrated every first Sunday at 5 pm.
The Old Vicarage beside Saint Leonard’s Church … the Irish-born Revd Dr Usher Williamson Purcell was the Vicar of Wigginton for 32 years from 1865 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
