Boundary Walls And Lychgate To The Churchyard Of St. Giles And To The West Of Church Walk, Bredon

Boundary Walls and Lychgate to the Churchyard of St. Giles, Bredon

The boundary walls and lychgate surrounding the churchyard of St. Giles form a circuit of red brick, stone and timber construction. The walls date from various periods in the 18th and 19th centuries, while the lychgate was built in 1929 and designed by Francis B Andrews & Son.

The circuit of walls begins at the north-east of the church and curves along the northern boundary, western side and southern boundary before running south-west to join with Church Walk House.

The lychgate features ashlar walling to its lower body and a superstructure of oak with angled and arched braces and cranked tie-beams to each gable, supporting a cross that forms part of each truss. All joints are mortise and tenon. The roof is covered with green Westmoreland slate. Suspended from the roof is a bronze octagonal lantern. The western side carries an inscription in stonework: "THE LIGHT WAS GIVEN BY/ THE FRIENDS OF ST. GILES" and "IN GRATEFUL /MEMORY of / MARY HAMAR / GREENWOOD". A further inscription runs across the tie beam: "+ THY.WORD.IS.A.LANTERN.UNTO.MY.FEET +".

Attached to the north-west is a low wall of squared rubble, exposed to the High Street on its north-east side and forming an embankment to the raised churchyard. This joins a square pier of 20th-century brick supporting an earlier moulded stone cap.

To the west is an 18th-century wall of red bricks laid in garden wall bond, dividing the churchyard from the Rectory garden. The wall carries metal memorial plaques on its south face, with moulded brick coping of late 19th or 20th-century date. The eastern end has coursed rubble stone to its lower body and joins the Rectory drive gateway, which has stone gateposts with chamfered rustication, cornice caps and ball finials. At the western end, the brick walling rises to meet a further pair of square gate piers with moulded stone caps and ball finials. A pedestrian door with square head stands nearby.

The boundary wall then runs south and curves south-west, dividing the Manor House from the churchyard. This section is of rubble stone, dating from the 18th or 19th century, with concrete coping and a pedestrian gate with flattened brick arch to its north end. A Neo-Classical tomb of 1846, commemorating Nathanial Dyer and family members, abuts the wall. It features a plain rectangular tablet projecting at centre, shaped corner posts with gadrooning to their lower bodies, and a lid with pedimental profile and antifixae to the corners.

The stone walling ends at the western corner of the churchyard. The walling then runs north-west to south-east in 18th-century brick, then turns a right-angled corner to run south-westerly with a flat stone coping. The north-west to south-east portion is random-bond brick with a pedestrian door at the west end featuring cambered arch and fluted keystone. The wall is ramped at the corner and ends at a gateway with no piers, apparently original. It resumes on the south side of the gate with a base of three courses of cinder blocks, above which the walling is of Flemish bond brick. The walling ends at Church Walk House.