St Mary's
St Gabriel's
Our Lady & St Alphonsus
St Mary's
A Roman temple is believed to have been the first building on the site of St Mary's church in Hanley Castle, followed by a Saxon church, although nothing remains of these early buildings except archaeological footprints revealed by dowsing surveys. There is evidence of a Saxon church in the form of the Lechmere stone, an ancient tombstone dated between the 9th and 11th centuries, and of graves uncovered beneath the existing path to the church during widening work some years ago. The original path led in from the eastern boundary of the churchyard, which used to form part of the main track from the castle to the village and on more or less parallel to the existing road towards Worcester.
The present church was founded in the 12th century using Roman bricks and Saxon stone in its construction, but the only remaining Norman feature is the south doorway. Extended soon after 1300, it retains 14th century nave windows and the north aisle. The original tower was damaged during the Civil War and was replaced by a massive brick tower with battlements in 1674, when the east end was rebuilt under the patronage of the Lechmere family of Severn End. They again rescued the church from decay in 1858 by funding a major restoration, including the installation of stained glass and Minton tiles. The tower contains a peal of six bells all originally cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester in 1699; they were last recast and tuned in 1929.
The three almshouses at the entrance to the churchyard date from around 1600 and are recorded on the 18th century charities board in the church; they are owned by the parish and administered by the Charity Commissioners.
St Gabriel's
To cater for the growing community in Hanley Swan in the mid-19th century, a new church with seating for 420 was built on a site given by Sir Edmund Lechmere and paid for at a cost of £6000 (£380,000 today) by a retired Liverpool merchant, Samuel Martin, who lived in one of the big houses along Roberts End. He added all the stained glass in the east window in 1878.
Built of Malvern stone by William Porter of Malvern Wells, the church was designed in the Gothic Revival style by the pre-eminent architect of the Victorian era, Sir George Gilbert Scott, who also designed the Albert Memorial and St Pancras station in London. The church spire of Bath stone contains a peal of six bells.
St Gabriel's opened in 1874 and shortly afterwards two Wellingtonia trees were planted on either side of the lych gate; they are now as tall as the church tower. A fine modern stained glass window by Thomas Denny, reflecting the landscapes around Malvern, was installed in 1987. Like many churches up and down the country, maintenance is an increasingly heavy burden for its small congregation. Friends of St Gabriel's have raised £30,000 for repairs to the roof and have commissioned architectural plans to convert the west end of the nave into a multi-purpose meeting room.
Our Lady & St Alphonsus
In 1846 the Hornyold family funded the building of a Catholic church in Hanley Swan. Our Lady and St Alphonsus, with adjoining presbytery, was built on land donated by Thomas Charles Hornyold and was paid for by his nephew John Vincent Gandolfi-Hornyold at a cost of £30,000 (£2m today). It was designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architect Charles Hansom, whose brother designed Birmingham Town Hall and also the Hansom cab. The furnishings, including a fine tiled floor made by Mintons, were by the architect and designer A W Pugin.
A cloister joins the church to the presbytery, which was originally built as a monastery to accommodate a community of nine Redemptorists - an order founded in the 18th century by St Alphonsus to work among the poor of Naples. John Vincent Gandolfi had met them while travelling on the Continent and invited them to establish a house at Blackmore. But they left in 1851 and the building was turned into a priest's house. After the Blackmore Park sale of 1919, ownership of the church and presbytery was transferred to the archdiocese of Birmingham. In 1944-45 there were 12 weddings at the church between Americans from the military hospital in Blackmore Park and English or Irish girls.
Today the priest lives at Upton, where more than half the 600 Catholics in the area live, but has an office at Blackmore, and the presbytery is rented to a Catholic family.