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St. Mary & All Saints
The architectural historian would find this church of the greatest interest: its structure : includes building work from the 12th to the 19th centuries - 700 years. Besides which, : it isn't regular; the west end of the main body of the church is 1' wider than the east.
The south aisle, too, deflects outwards by about 1' towards the east. One says 'south aisle', as if there were a north one - but there isn't, There may have been once but today it is impossible to tell, for the north wall of the church was completely rebuilt in the 19th century when a vault-grave was added for the remains of the vicar, the Rev.Cornelius Griffin. The late parish priest here, Frank Wain, has written several articles for 'Local Past' on that unfortunate man and I suppose that few parish churches have had vicars who were locked out by their churchwardens or who used their churches as dwelling places.
The thought of Griffin as an old man struggling up the hill to get into his church is a reminder that St. Mary and All Saints is atop a knoll rising from the plain of the River Alne, a splendid defensive site if ever it needed defending and midway between the hamlets of Haselor and Jalcot. The church was built in troubled times, temp. Henry I and there are still 12th century remains visible, notably the main body of the tower and the pillars separating the nave and the south aisle. The font, too, is thought to be 12th c.
Among small points of interest: the south doorway, entered through a modern porch, is of the 13th century and has a sundial scratched on it: on the south side of the bell chamber the stones are inscribed with the names of 4 workman in 1622 who, from what we know of Haselor/Walcot surnames, seem to have been local men: one of Haselor's bells is from 1610: the panelling in the chancel is Jacobean: the parish registers, now in Warwick Record Office, start in 1598.
Further Reading:
'Antiquities of Warwickshire' (Dugdale)
Victoria County History, vol.3
'The Buildings of England' (Warwicks)(Pevsner)
'Haselor - A History' (Saville, A.D.L.H.S,1983)
Alcester & District Local History Society