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By Dennis Mallin
While at Arrow the other night I decided to have a look around the church, which I found most interesting. You enter through a lych gate, over which is carved 'Believe in the Resurrection'. On the inside door of the tower are carved the words 'Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus'. There are some beautiful stained glass windows and also a number of memorials to the Seymour family most of whom seem to be interred there.
One reads, 'Francis 5th Earl 1812 - 1882 son of Sir George' Admiral of the Fleet who served in the Scots Fusiliers and was Equerry and groom of the Robes to William IV and Victoria and Albert and was Lord Chancellor in the government of Lord Beaconsfield 1874 1879.'
There is a memorial to Adam Kerr, head gardener to the Ragley estate 1870 - 1912. Another interesting memorial is to one of the Seymours who served in the 1914 1919 war (odd, as it usually referred to as 1914 1918) and a cross to one of the family killed in the war , the cross being taken from his grave abroad to be placed in the church. Another of the family served in the Strathcona Horse in South Africa 1900 1902.
The gravestones, too, are of interest: one remembers a local man killed in Gallipoli. The oldest is dated 1699 and one is embellished with a skull and crossbones. There is an odd interment of a man from Lower Worton, Oxon. who died at Dovedale, Blockley and his wife from Broom. I wonder how they came to be buried at Arrow?
There is also the grave of the eight Coughton children who ranged from six months to ten years and all died in the 'flu epidemic of 1878 and all are buried together. William Scott the farmer, Mr Hunt the miller and Mr Clark the coach builder also lie buried here.
In the church it appears that there was some sort of segregation, as the building is fitted with top-hat stands in certain pews.
© Alcester & District Local History Society 1991