| In the tiny village of Beeby lies All Saints'
Church.
Pevsner, in his book 'The Buildings of England' wrote:
"An unfortunate church. The recessed spire remained a stump in
the tower, which starts with an ambitious limestone ashlar facing and
continues in ironstone, and the chancel is a thrifty brick affair of
1819..... Fine 13th century south doorway with one order of shafts and a
deeply moulded arch...."
Please click on the small photographs to see a larger version.
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| The most notable feature of the church is the fine
Perpendicular west tower. It has three stages with angle buttresses
and an impressive plinth which is carried across the west ends of the
aisles to make a showy front. The facing is of limestone ashlar
whereas most of the rest of the church is built of attractive coloured
light brown ironstone. |
| In the top stage are three-light belfry
windows with transoms, considerably grander than in most Leicestershire
parish churches. The tower carries a plain parapet which once had
(or was intended to have) pinnacles at the corners. Perhaps these
suffered the same fate as the unfortunate spire - planned but never
completed. |
 |
| John Nichols, the Leicestershire
historian, recounts the tradition that two brothers were engaged to build
the spire but quarelled so that one pushed the other to his death from the
scaffolding. Nichols retained a historian's healthy scepticism about
this tale, and the truth is that less lurid explanations, like running out
of money, are more likely! |
|
Much of the south aisle may be 13th century as is
suggested by the deeply moulded, but much worn, doorway, and the
single-light window towards the east end. The north aisle is
probably fractionally later and, unlike the south aisle, has its bays
divided up by buttresses. Inside the arcades have typical octagonal
piers and capitals. The west end of the church is occupied by the
tower which was built within the body of the pre-existing building - a not
uncommon procedure when a tower was decided upon but the space to the west
of the church was limited. |
 |
| The chancel screen is unusually early, being mid 14th
century. It has a plain dado and three arches on either side with
hefty reticulated tracery. Well known architect W.D. Caroe, restored
the chancel screen in 1893 and added the doors. For the cross above
he reused wood from the roof of Rearsby church. |
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| Although quite an amount of work was being done in English
churches during the early 19th century, most of it was undone again by the
Victorians who had very different ideas on how churches were meant to be
arranged. At Beeby, however, we are fortunate in that the Georgian
changes were not swept away. |
| In 1843 the present glass in the east window
was installed. It is signed by Thomas Willement, one of the leaders
in the revival of stained glass in early Victorian times. It has Old
Testament figures and the whole character of the work in terms of drawing
and colouration would not be out of place ten or twenty years later.
In the main lights are the Old Testament figures Noah, Daniel, Job,
Abraham, Moses and Elijah. In the tracery above are the emblems of
the Evangelists. The stonework of this window is unusual for being
red sandstone from Warwickshire, a material hardly ever used so far east
in Leicestershire. |
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| The only monument of note is a white tablet at
the east end to Edward Laurence, the Royalist rector of Beeby who died in
1645. The inscription is long and in latin. It was translated
9th September 1938 by A. McKinnon, B.D. Rector of Beeby. |
 |
Sacred to the memory of Edward Laurence, Priest, Master of Arts, the
very Worthy Rector of Beeby, who discharged the duty of a Pastor
most deserving imitation, by faithfully feeding his flock, by
performing works of Charity toward the poor, by hospitably receiving
strangers, by completely rebuilding the Rectory-house which was more
than threatening to fall, who also in the late bad and sorrowful
days dared to be a good Son of his Mother Church of England by
asserting and maintaining against the impious Revolutionists of that
time the true and ancient Catholic and Apostolic Faith which he
professed, and the duty which he owed to his God and to his King,
with unshaken firmness, with the remarkable learning wherewith he
was strong, and with practice confirming thereto: by these
Revolutionists he was sacrilegiously harassed, robbed, deprived of
his liberty and - shame to say - further hardly treated, and
contracted a disease which was quickly fatal, and gave up his Soul
to his Creator on the 28th of June 1645 A.D., to the greatest sorrow
of all, and thereby gained the fame of a distinguished Confessor of
the Faith, if not rather of a Martyr.
His wife and most distressed widow, Anna, in expression of her
sorrow and mourning, erected this Memorial to his loved memory.
"The memory of the just is blessed" - Proverbs 10 verse 7. |
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Next to the church, beside the road, is "a well of good
water". This was restored by Rev. George Calvert who came to the
church in 1818 and remained until 1865. It was again restored in 1953 to
mark the Coronation of Queen ElizabethII
