Burrington, Herefordshire
Burrington is a small village and civil parish in the far north of Herefordshire, England. It is part of the Leintwardine group of parishes and shares a parish council with Leintwardine and Downton. It is located 6 miles southwest of Ludlow, and features a parish church dedicated to St George. History of church and parish Burrington is a settlement which dates back to the Domesday Book, when the manor was held by Edric the Wild, around whom many legends subsequently grew. The present church dates from 1864, when an earlier structure was rebuilt. It boasts possibly the finest collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century cast iron grave slabs in the country. Little is known about the date of the original church on the site. An unsigned drawing of 1842 shows it to have been a much lower structure than the present building, consisting of nave, chancel and wooden south porch. At the west end was a wooden belfry with a shingled broach spire. All windows, including the three light east window, were square headed with hood moulds, suggestive of a date in the early sixteenth century. An unusual feature was a small blocked opening high in the east gable, also with a hood mould, the purpose of which is unclear. The chancel of the old church was longer than that of the present building, with the grave slabs originally being placed inside. A large dormer window probably gave light to a west gallery. The exterior of the church was rendered and limewashed, giving it a very Welsh appearance. 1864 rebuilding The Churchwardens' Accounts, which survive from 1833, suggest that fairly regular expenditure was necessary to maintain the building, particularly the roof, belfry and glazing, and it is possible that this provided some of the impetus to rebuild. The cost of rebuilding the nave was borne entirely by the local landowner, Mr A. Boughton-Knight of Downton Castle, while that of the chancel was met by the Vicar and a number of subscribers. There was probably a disagreement between Knight and the Vicar, Philip Hale, which resulted in the use of different architects for the two parts of the building. For the nave, Knight employed the Shrewsbury architect Samuel Pountney Smith, who in 1861 had already built him a new church at Downton. Pountney Smith was a competent, and at times original, local architect who had been responsible for a number of rebuildings and restorations in Shropshire. The chancel was the work of a nationally known architect, George Frederick Bodley, who had earlier designed a new vicarage at Burrington. Bodley, whose finest works may be seen at Hoar Cross, Staffordshire and Pendlebury, Lancashire, was married to a lady from Kinnersley and carried out a number of minor commissions in Herefordshire. A memorandum in the Parish register written by Rev. Philip Hale draws attention to the shortening of the chancel. It states that the original chancel had been extended eastwards, and had become the joint responsibility of the vicar and the parish. By