The Church Of Holy Innocents

The Church of Holy Innocents is an Anglican church built in 1868-9 in Victorian Gothic style, designed by James Piers St Aubyn. It stands at Tuck Hill, near the village of Six Ashes, on land donated by Edward Wakeman of Coton Hall. The church was built by Oliver Estcourt of Gloucester at a cost of £2,179 7s 9d, following funds raised through public subscription and grants from the Dioceses of Hereford and Lichfield. It was consecrated in 1869 and dedicated to Holy Innocents in memory of Alice, the young daughter of Reverend Charles Amphlett, the first incumbent, who died in infancy of diphtheria.

The building is constructed from local sandstone quarried on site, with a plain clay tile roof featuring terracotta ridge detailing, a copper-clad bellcote, and cast-iron rainwater goods. It is set on a moulded projecting plinth with coped verges.

The church follows a rectangular plan oriented east-west, comprising a nave with south aisle and south porch, and a chancel with south vestry. It is a high single-storey structure of six bays with a break between the nave and chancel. The south elevation features a porch at the west end with angled buttresses, the outer gates being wrought iron work of the early 21st century set within a moulded doorway with pointed arch. The pointed-arched door itself has elaborate hinges. Two-light traceried windows with trefoil heads are set under drip moulds with stops to the south aisle. The vestry bay has three lancets with continuous drip mould, and the chancel has a single lancet with drip mould. The eastern return has a small lancet window and priest's door. The east end displays a large three-light window with cusped tracery and three trefoils above. The north elevation features single lancets to the chancel and two- and three-light Geometric windows to the nave. The west end has a tripartite window to the south side and to the north a blind arch intended for a later tower. Above sits the bellcote, positioned partly on a square buttress at the west end. It rises from a square base clad in copper and tile, with a timber frame above featuring pointed arches and a copper-clad spirelet based on an octagon.

The interior features an exposed arch-braced, collar-beam roof with twin purlins and curved wind-braces constructed from pegged timber, springing from moulded corbels. Floors are of timber boarding beneath the pews, with polychrome tile laid to the nave, chancel, and west end. The aisle arcade is formed from fat circular piers with richly-carved Romanesque foliate capitals, from which spring moulded and chamfered pointed arches. The interior is limewashed with exposed stone dressings.

The timber reredos is deeply carved in relief, depicting the Crucified Christ with linenfold panelling to either side. A timber pulpit with Gothic arcading stands to the north side of the nave. A carved angel lectern of 1944 stands to the south, and a stone font on Early English columns is positioned at the west end.

The stained glass windows include considerable works by renowned artists: a depiction of Christ blessing children by Lavers and Barraud dated 1869 in the east end; three compositions by Charles Eamer Kempe dated 1892, showing respectively the Annunciation, St Mark, and the presentation of the infant Jesus at the Temple; and a Nativity in the north side of the nave by A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists dated 1939.

St Aubyn designed the church as a complete composition but with provision for the later addition of a west tower. A fund was set up to raise money for the tower and bells, but never reached the required level, so the church retains the bellcote designed by St Aubyn in its place. Furnishings were added through the later 19th and early 20th centuries: windows by Charles Eamer Kempe were added around 1892, altar rails in 1911, a reredos by Arthur Lloyd Oswell in 1923, and the window by A J Davies in 1939. The church remains almost entirely unaltered since its completion.