Tower Of Former Church Of St Thomas A Becket

The tower of the former Church of St Thomas a Becket, built between 1795 and 1798 by Thomas Johnson, is located on Stratford Road in Ettington. The rest of the church was demolished in 1913. The tower is constructed of blue lias limestone ashlar with sandstone ashlar dressings and features a pyramidal stone slate roof.

The exterior consists of a two-stage tower with small side projections, a plat band over the lower stage, and a top cornice. The pointed arched entrance has a stepped arch and a grille above paired three-panel doors, along with a panel above. The upper stage contains bell openings with four-centred heads on each face, and the side openings retain Y-tracery. Each projection has a hipped roof, which is partly destroyed, and a pointed window with a grille, a panel above, and a top cornice.

The interior has not been inspected. Historically, this church replaced the partly ruined Holy Trinity church near Ettington Park and was itself replaced by the current church of Holy Trinity and St Thomas of Canterbury in 1903. The tower is now part of a private garden, and the graveyard still contains headstones and a large monument marking the site of the Shirley graves.