Pershore Abbey Church, Pershore

Start of a pilgrimage to Worcester and on the St Kenelm’s Way

‍Highlights

• Former shrine of St Edburga

Relics of St Edburga of Winchester may be hidden or scattered at the site of this memorable church in the middle of Pershore. She was a Saxon princess who became a nun and died in Winchester in 960. Some relics were carried north in 972 and placed in Pershore Abbey during one of its many rebuilding works.

These humble Saxon churches are usually buried without trace under later Norman buildings, but at Pershore fragments of the original building have been found. The steward who welcomed me into the church pointed out their location and said they just looked like a pile of random rocks to her. I was surprised to discover that she was completely right.

These ruins of the Saxon abbey are set behind railings on the south side of the nave between two pillars (pictured below). This part of the church is important for another reason, since on the wall behind is a blocked-up archway that used to lead to St Edburga’s shrine.

You can walk round the outside of the church and stand on the other side of this closed doorway. This is the site of St Edburga’s sacristy, or chapel, now part of the extensive lawns surrounding Pershore’s church. The chapel was obliterated at the Dissolution and the relics lost, either destroyed or hidden. An intriguingly shaped niche is set into the far end of the transept wall. It is vaguely reminiscent of relic niches in other churches, though this would have been the west wall of the chapel, the back of the room and therefore unlikely to be a shrine.

Much else was destroyed at the same time, the church losing its nave and other side chapels to leave just the Norman transepts, the 13th-century chancel, and the 14th-century tower – the eastern tip of a once huge church. The building’s unusual proportions, tall but short, lend it a striking air. King Henry VIII sold this section of the building to the people of Pershore for £400 in 1540, and stripped the remainder of the Benedictine monastery for its raw materials.

There is a Victorian-era wall painting of St Edburga just about visible high on the wall behind the altar. It is impossible to see clearly from ground level, but the excellent church guide has a clear photograph. The history of the church is portrayed in two stained-glass windows in the south aisle, including images of St Edburga and her shrine. The glass was installed in 1862–64, its style almost medieval.

A notice in the church when I visited warned that it might have to close to casual visitors after a little statue was stolen. A strange kind of thief: sensitive to devotional artwork but insensitive enough to deprive the public of it. Fortunately, the church has managed to remain open. The wheel of desecration that the holiest places always seem to suffer continues to turn at Pershore’s lovely church.

Directions‍

Pershore Abbey (Holy Cross) Church, Church Row/Church Walk, Pershore WR10 1BL

www.pershoreabbey.org.uk

W3W: presumes.ramp.broker

GPS: 52.1105N 2.0777W‍

Pershore Abbey Church is set in the large abbey gardens park in the town centre. It remains open every day, 8 am–5:30 pm.