Get to know: St. Nicholas in Ozleworth

In many European countries like Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Portugal St. Nicholas Day is celebrated on December 6th. German children clean their boots and put them by the front door overnight, so that St. Nick can fill them with gifts or sweets, or more traditionally oranges and nuts. There are also St. Nick's parades in Portugal and the Netherlands and some customs include putting hay out for St. Nicholas' horse.

Even though St. Nick's is not a big festival in Britain, there is a CCT church dedicated to this Saint, known for primarily for his generosity: St Nicholas of Myra, Ozleworth, Gloucestershire, a beautiful church with a fascinating octagonal tower and an ancient churchyard.

Up a deep narrow valley, this lovely little Norman church stands in a circular churchyard, which suggests an early and perhaps pre-Christian site. You are immediately struck by the sight of the irregular hexagonal tower rising almost from the centre of the building. It is Norman, and probably originally was the nave of a small chapel. If you gaze up into the tower's roof, you'll see how uneven all six sides are. But while the exterior still speaks of the church's ancient past, most of the interior reflects its Victorian refit.

 

The inside of the octagonal tower at St. Nicholas in Ozleworth.
The exterior of the tower.

 

The doorway through which you enter the church is superbly carved, with exuberant curves and leaf decoration. The arch in the west tower wall is similarly splendid. Both are remarkable examples of fine workmanship and intricate design from the thirteenth century.

 

The finely carved doorway at St. Nicholas, Ozleworth.

 

The font, though of the same date, is more rustic in its design. There is a fragment of Medieval stained glass in the east window, showing a saints head. Four panels of Flemish painted glass in the south-west window of the tower are sixteenth or seventeenth century, and the rest is fine nineteenth-century glass.

 

The font at St. Nicholas.
A fine example of Flemish stained-glass.

 

Attractive Victorian red needlework panels of lilies hang on the east wall, and the same pattern is painted on the wall behind. The monuments in both church and churchyard reflect the importance of the wealthy neighbouring families in the history of this church and the poignancy of their memorial to fallen heroes of The Great War.

The Norman church of St Nicholas at Ozleworth is one of the most interesting and unusual in the country, and its architectural development has been the subject of much detailed study and speculation. Its remote situation, circular churchyard, remarkable plan, irregular hexagonal tower and its long history, as well as the way in which it has been altered over the centuries to meet changing requirements for accommodation, lighting, ritual and liturgy, combine to make Ozleworth a memorable and attractive church to visit.

Although little more than two miles (3.2 km) from Wotton-under-Edge, Ozleworth church is set on the side of a deep valley, with no village or hamlet, but only isolated farms in the large but sparsely populated parish. Even at its peak in the mid 19th century there were only some 150 inhabitants in the parish, and the number declined rapidly thereafter. The origin of the name is obscure. Worth is Old English for an enclosure or homestead. Ozle might be a personal name – perhaps a corruption of Osla, Oswald or Osbald – but it could also be Osle, the Old English word for a blackbird. In the 13th century it was sometimes called Woselworth.

 

St. Nicholas, Ozleworth, in it's peaceful setting.

 

Before the Norman Conquest the whole area was part of the royal manor of Berkeley. A charter of 940 mentions church land at Ozleworth and there may have been a Saxon church on the site of the present one, although no trace of this remains. After the Conquest, William the Conqueror granted the lands to the Berkeley family, and it was probably Roger de Berkeley (d.1131) who built the earliest surviving parts of the church; he granted the patronage to the Augustinian priory which he founded at Leonard Stanley, some eight miles (12.9 km) north of Ozleworth. In 1146 Leonard Stanley Priory became a cell of the wealthy abbey of St Peter, Gloucester: Ozleworth thus remained part of the abbey’s possessions until the Reformation. After the dissolution of St Peter’s Abbey in 1539, the patronage of Ozleworth was granted to the Poyntz family who were important landowners in the district; from them it descended in the 18th century to the Clutterbuck family of Newark Park who remained as landowners and patrons of Ozleworth until 1920.

The church is set on an escarpment overlooking the deep, narrow valley of Ozleworth Bottom and is surrounded by the formal gardens, stables and outbuildings of Ozleworth Park. A feature of the site is the circular church- yard, enclosed by a dry-stone wall of local Cotswold stone; the church itself is set in a shallow depression within the circle. This circular enclosure is clearly quite deliberate and it is possible that here, as elsewhere, the first church on the site may have been purposely built within a circular pre-Christian ritual site; but without detailed archaeological investigation this cannot be proved. The round churchyard is almost exactly 150 feet (46m) in diameter and is clearly far larger than was ever required for burials by the parish’s tiny population. It contains some good 18th century table-tombs and memorials on the south side of the church, including those to the Harris and Webbe families who were clothiers, and to the Worlocks and Witts who were yeoman farmers in the parish. The 18th century Worlock tombs are excellent examples of local craftsmanship with their finely-cut lettering and bold decoration of cherubs, fruit, flowers and other symbols. In the south-west part of the churchyard is the family vault of the Rolt family, dating from the 1870s and topped with a large slab of red granite. On the north side of the church is a large churchyard cross erected as a memorial to John William Rolt who died in 1913.

 

How to get here:

You can navigate to the Ozleworth by following signs for 'Historic Church' and for Newark Park nearby.

By car, park outside the Ozleworth Estate, near to the gates, and follow a long bridle path downhill and around to the left until you reach the churchyard. Please note - the path can be muddy and slippery.

 

Discover more of CCT:

Let our Learning Team tell you the story of St. Nicholas:

Watch "St Nick's Day with Spires the Spider"!

 

Our friendly Learning Team offer engaging workshops on History, Art and more to publicly-funded schools free of charge. Please, find more info and free teaching resources here.

Or email: [email protected]

 

 

Text by Victoria Jenner, edited by Miriam Fluchter