Temple Balsall: St Mary the Virgin and the Walled Garden and Garden at Home

 

It was D's birthday at the beginning of the month and in the afternoon he had suggested going to Temple Balsall and the farm shop in Balsall Common.  I love Temple Balsall - we used to visit regularly but it is a place for some reason we haven't been to for a while.  It is one of those places that is very atmospheric with a wonderful sense of place and history and yet at the same time it is timeless.  I find it very peaceful there.

Temple Balsall takes its name from the preceptory of the Templars which was founded here c1150.  When the order was disbanded in 1312 the Hospitallers gained the estate and kept it until the Dissolution in 1541.

Betony flowering in the car park and it was also in evidence in the churchyard of St Mary.

Rosebay Willowherb by the farmyard

There was a flower border with a mix of wild flowers and cultivated flowers.

The Master's House - Temple Balsall has some lovely old customs and traditions and the appointment of a master is one of them.

Two sisters who were the grand-daughters of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, played an important role in the history of Temple Balsall.  Lady Anne Holborne (d1663) left money for the church to be repaired and an endowment for a minister.  Lady Katherine Leveson (d1674) endowed the hospital and the school. The restored church of St Mary the Virgin then served as a chapel for the parish and also for the hospital almswomen.  The buildings are still in use for a similar purpose as the C17th foundation wished.

St Mary the Virgin

The Old Hall

We got chatting to a gentleman by the Old Hall and he confirmed the church was now open although it tended to close at 2.30 pm so I decided to have a quick look at the interior - it is years since I've been inside!

The Church underwent a restoration in 1848/9 by George Gilbert Scott. Pevsner says it has been called a "much maligned" restoration although he does add its texture is a bit too crisp but in detail it is entirely faithful. It was one of Scott's earlier restorations and shows he was a careful restorer.  As I mentioned in my last post I am not overkeen myself on most Victorian restorations!  Exterior wise his changes were limited to the gable tops of the buttresses where he added beasts and pinnacles above. He also added a polygonal bell tower.

The font is C17th restored in 1984.

I think there may have been a wedding in the church recently as there were flowers everywhere even at the end of each pew.

West window 1850 by O'Connor.

The Rose window above the West Window is just stunning - I have no idea when it was installed.

East Window by Powell dated 1907.

The sedilia and piscina pre-date the restoration.

I am not sure how old the tiles are I am guessing they are part of the Restoration?

Organ case from the restoration by Scott as is the stone pulpit.

The gentleman we spoke to said the new vicar was very keen on the environment and as you can see the church has won a bronze award for being an eco church which is great news.

So is this a church of the Templars or the Hospitallers?  According to Pevsner historical evidence suggests it was built by the Hospitallers in 1320 or later but stylistically it is more likely to belong to the late C13th and the Templars. I personally would love to think it is a Knights Templar church.

A lovely churchyard angel

We wanted to revisit the walled garden which is at the end of the churchyard.

The walled garden is used for growing vegetables but there are also flower beds and fruit trees including medlar and quince.

We chatted to another gentleman who was working in the garden about growing vegetables.

The Hospital (now known as Lady Katherine Housing and Care) was founded in 1677 and was built originally by William Hurlbutt of Warwick. It was soon rebuilt on a grander scale by Francis Smith in the early C18th.

We stopped at the pool on the way back and found a lot of it had silted up presumably due to lack of rain but there were plenty of mallard around.

There is a lot more to see at Temple Balsall if we had had more time. You can continue along the Bread Walk to the Cemetery and there is also a patch of woodland.  Crossing the lane there is Temple Fields Natural Burial Ground which is always a mass of wild flowers.  A few hundred yards away is a nature reserve which I think at the moment is sadly closed as the  hide needs maintenance.

Whenever I walk in this area I think of Edith Holden and "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". She visited Temple Balsall and mentions it in her diary.

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We stopped off briefly at the Farm Shop in Balsall Common on the way back and in the evening we all went for a meal at The Bear in Berkswell.

I also made D a Herefordshire Apple Cake which is one he particularly likes.

The garden at home has been full of butterflies and bees in recent days due to hot weather and the buddleias coming into flower.

Below a Comma and Green Veined White.

After last year  is it so good to be seeing more bees and butterflies.

My sweet peas are finally starting to flower but I was late sowing them.

One of the sunflowers grown by D with a Marmalade Hoverfly.

Home made strawberry icecream made using homegrown strawberries.  D made - I introduced him into the "delights" of my Magimix glacier icecream maker! 

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Rosebay Willowherb in the Garden

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Comma in the garden

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First homegrown jalapeno chilli pepper

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Meadow Grasshopper I think - now safely in the garden but D found it in his bedroom!

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The following day Packington Hall was opening for the National Garden Scheme and we went along as it is a place I have never visited.  I'll write about the visit in the next blog post.

Reference: "The Buildings of England Warwickshire" by Chris Pickford and Nikolaus Pevsner, (Yale University Press 2016)

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and those marked *D taken by my son with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one or mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).