St Godwald’s and the Bromsgrove Guild

The Bromsgrove Guild was a firm of artist-craftsmen, founded in the early twentieth century, whose work can be found across Britain and beyond. They are probably most noted for their production of the Buckingham Palace Gates and the Liver Birds in Liverpool. There are links between the Bromsgrove Guild and St Godwald’s through two families: the Pancheris and the Lemmons.


In 1924, a legacy from a parishioner, Mary Walter, was used to improve the original reredos. The work was entrusted to Celestino Pancheri, who re-carved the alabaster figure of Christ the Good Shepherd. Extra colour and gilding were also introduced at this time. Jane Grierson, in her book St Godwald’s: A Parish and its People, ponders whether ‘so ornate a reredos is not out of place in a small sanctuary and in a church that was designed on simple architectural lines.'



Celestino Pancheri was a member of the congregation at St Godwald’s, as was his son Robert; the latter also became a Lay Reader and member of the Parochial Church Council. In 1947, Robert Pancheri presented a Clipsham stone bas-relief to St Godwald’s, commemorating D-Day 1944. Pancheri had served as an officer in the Second World War, and designed and made the work himself.

D Day, 6th June 1944, coincided with St Godwald’s Day in the year that was also the church’s Diamond Jubilee. The bas-relief depicts a British soldier being welcomed by a French peasant, while St Godwald stretches out his arms in blessing over both.



This glorious window in the Lady Chapel was given by the Palmer family in 1937, and is dedicated to the memory of their daughter Barbara Ethel Palmer who died at the age of twenty-one. It was designed by another member of the Bromsgrove Guild, Alfred E. Lemmon, who was a server at St Godwald’s.

In this beautifully balanced wide window, the central arch contains two lights. That on the left shows the Archangel Gabriel appearing to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she prays in the right hand light. The smaller lancet on the far left depicts St Barbara and includes the badge of Bromsgrove County High School, where Barbara Palmer was educated. The lancet on the far right shows St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, referencing Barbara’s fondness for music.



A.E. Lemmon also painted our patronal banner. This banner, originally painted in 1927, has lost much of its original colour, but a wealth of detail can still be seen. The delicate banner was restored in time for the church’s 125th anniversary, thanks to funding from the Edward and Dorothy Cadbury Trust, and can be found mounted behind glass at the back of the church,

On the banner, St Godwald is shown as a bishop in full Eucharistic vestments, wearing a mitre and with a bishop’s crook tucked into his elbow. He carries in his left hand a model of the Victorian church set in a grassed area with a fence in front; the model includes the central spire from the architect John Cotton’s original design. His right hand, with a bishop’s ring on the index finger, is raised in blessing. He stands in sandaled feet on a black and white tiled floor.

The central panel of the Saint’s vestment depicts, from top to bottom: a crucified Christ (the body partly hidden by the model of the church in his hands); next is Christ holding a lamb, and below that the Virgin and Child. The hem of his garment has a further panel portraying the Annunciation.

At the foot of the banner, on either side of the saint’s feet, are panels which depict scenes from the working life of Aston Fields and Finstall. The scene on the left shows a steam train descending the Lickey Incline past the old St Godwald’s Chapel and the churchyard. The scrolls beneath the scene bear the words Ora Pro Ecclesia (Pray for the church). The scene on the right shows the Carriage and Wagon Works, under which are the words Ora Pro Parochia (Pray for the parish).



The work of A.E. Lemmon’s son Peter also features in the church. The window in the south nave was designed by a local artist, A.S. Clark, and made by Peter Lemmon in 1964. The window is a memorial to a former choirmaster, John Busk, and his wife.

The light on the left shows St Gregory, the reformer of Western church music. That on the right depicts St Anne, with the Blessed Virgin Mary as a girl.


Sources

Bygone Bromsgrove: An illustrated story of the town in days gone by, ed. John Foster, publ. The Bromsgrove Society, 1981

From Bromsgrove to Aston Fields: A Story of Victorian Expansion, Jennie McGregor-Smith, publ. Brewin Books, 2008

St Godwald’s Church, Finstall: In Celebration of 125 Years, Catherine Maund, leaflet, 2009