St. Mary's Church, Knightwick, Worcestershire. Standing at the bottom of Ankerdine Hill and surrounded by beautiful scenery. I spent a lot of Sunday's here, either at Sunday School or in the choir for one of the Sunday Services. I always remember the wonderful Harvest Thanksgiving evenings. The village people would deck the inside of the church with local produce. Dad and Mum would always send produce from our garden. It used to look wonderful and there was this aromatic smell from the vegetables and flowers which was special to only that occasion. After giving thanks for our harvest at the evening service, everyone would walk or drive down to Ankerdine Farm, where the Walker family would hold the Harvest Supper. I loved going to this occasion. It was a real village get together, where people could get to know each other or perhaps have a chance to talk to their friends again. One thing I still remember was how very cold the nights used to be. The first time I was old enough to attend one of these marvelous suppers, I was sitting with my parents in one of the pews and next to the heating bars that ran along either side of the church. I came to close to them and as I was only wearing shorts at the time and burnt my leg. It was a really bad burn and Mum had to take me home, so I missed my first supper and was terribly upset. The suppers' were firstly held in the Hop Kilns where there was a wonderful aroma from the hops that had been drying there before the evening's event. Later new buildings were built on the farm and these were used instead. It never had that same feeling as the old Oast House.

St. Mary's Church was built and consecrated in 1855, opening in 1856. The church is built with Ankerdine stone and faced with Bromyard Down stone. It cost £200 pounds. The chapel at Knightwick cemetery dates from 1879.

The church of St., Mary the Virgin, built in 1856 at Knightsford Bridge in Doddenham, serves for both Knightwick and Doddenham, and will be described with the latter parish, which is in the hundred of Doddingtree.

The site of the previous church is on a small hill about a mile to the east of Knightsford Bridge. It was an old black and white timbered structure with a fine wooden porch, and was pulled down by John Francis Greswolde-Williams in 1879, and a mortuary chapel built on its site in the churchyard. On the floor of the chapel is a portion of the circular bowl of a 12th-century font with wide lines of zigzag ornament. On the west walls are slabs from the previous church to Grace and Dorothy Lane of Bentley, Staffordshire, who died in 1721, and are said to be sisters of Jane Lane, who did so much to secure the escape of Charles II after the battle of Worcester. There is one bell in a western bell cote.
The plate consists of a silver cup of 1676, inscribed 'Knightwick Chalice 1676,' a cover paten of the same date, a paten of 1874, a flagon of 1882, a bread-knife with an agate handle, a plated alms dish, a pewter alms dish, and one of tin There is no separate plate for Doddenham.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms 1539 to 1687, burials 1617 to 1687, marriages 1542 to 1684; (ii) baptisms 1695 to 1812, burials 1702 to 1812, marriages 1695 to 1753; and (iii) marriages 1756 to 1811.

Today the church no longer exists to serve the faith that it was so conscientiously built for and has been sold.

An Historical Glimpse from 1931
The article below was among papers belonging to my mother Doris Holland and was possibly from an original copy written by my grandfather William Jones of the Post Office Knightwick. Both of them were members of the Parish Council during their lives. I found it interesting to read about a Hundred, glebe, marl and the Doddings or Duddings Tribe! -- Josephine Stenersen

Broadwas, Doddenham and Knightwick
Doddenham is a Parish pleasantly seated on the north bank of the river Teme and on the road from Worcester to Bromyard. One mile from Knightwick Station on the Worcester and Bromyard branch of the G.W.R. and 8 miles west from Worcester and 121 miles from London in the Bewdley division of the county, lower division of Doddingtree Hundred. Worcester petty sessional division and County Court district, rural district and rural Deanery of Martley and archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester.
The old Chapel of St. Andrew has been entirely removed. The Church of St. Mary, erected in 1856 at Knightsford Bridge in this parish is for the use of the parishioners of Doddenham and Knightwick: It is a small building of stone in the Decorated Style, consisting of Chancel, vestry, nave, north porch and an octagonal western turret with low spire rising from a central buttress and containing 2 bells: there are 200 sittings, 150 being free. The register dates from the year 1538 but from 1778 the registers were included with those of Knightwick. The living is a chaplaincy annexed to the Rectory of Broadwas. Joint net yearly value 600 pounds, including 38 acres of glebe with residency is the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester and held since 1928 by the Rev. James Rothwell Burns B.A, of Hatfield Hall Durham, who resides at Broadwas.
The charities amount to 20 pound per year. There are almshouses erected in 1889 by J.F. Greswolde-Williams Esq. and endowed by him for six aged single or married persons from the parishes of Knightwick, Doddenham and Lulsley.
The Hundred and village, as well as the town of Dudley and Dodderhill, take their names from the English tribe of doddings or Duddings, who took part in the conquest of Worcestershire.
The scenery in this neighborhood is very beautiful and the view from Ankerdine Hill is scarcely inferior to that obtained from the hills of Malvern and Bredon. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are Lords of the Manor,. The Trusties of the late Capt. Francis Wigley, Greswolde-Williams D.L.J.P and Thomas Lawson Walker J.P are the principal landowners
The Knightwick Sanatorium for Consumption (TB) for 86 patients stands in grounds of 30 acres. The Teme here abounds with grayling and trout. The soil is various, stiff loam, marl and clay, subsoil: marl, clay and gravel. The chief crops are the usual cereals, fruit and hops.

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