Thringstone - Saint Andrew's Parish Church

Saint Andrew's Parish Church

Saint Andrew's Church is a small cruciform structure built in 1862 entirely from Charnwood Forest stone in the Early English style. The building was designed by James Piers St Aubyn (1815–1895) and has an unusual plan, consisting of a broad nave with shallow transepts and a round-ended sanctuary, with a round-ended vestry on its north side. A small bell-cote containing one small bell sits at the western end of the nave roof and a south porch was added in 1911, in memory of the first vicar, Edwin Samuel Crane, MA, designed by Thomas Ignatius McCarthy of Coalville.

The church was paid for by grants and public subscription, zealously elicited by Francis Merewether, MA (Vicar of Whitwick and Rector of Coleorton) and cost £750 12s, building work being undertaken by the firms of Messrs William Beckworth of Whitwick and Elliott of Ashby-de-la-Zouch/Burton. Merewether was a theologian of markedly low church views who preached and wrote prolifically against Ambrose de Lisle's Roman Catholic mission and was incensed by such developments as the founding of Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in his parish and the opening of a Roman Catholic day school at Turry Log, within the township of Thringstone, in 1843. There can be little doubt that, quite apart from the rapid population growth that affected the area following the opening of large collieries, Merewether was motivated to build the church (and also a school) to help counteract the perceived papist revival. Merewether - along with Sir G H Beaumont (ninth Baronet of Coleorton Hall) - was the chief benefactor of Saint Andrew's Church, each donating £100.

Until 1875, the building acted as a chapel of ease to Whitwick and was served by curates under the jurisdiction of the[Whitwick vicars. Thringstone became an independent ecclesiastical parish on 29 October 1875, since which time there have been eight incumbents. It is interesting to note that, whereas historically, the church at Thringstone came under the cure of the mother church at Whitwick (retaining the title, Whitwick Saint Andrew-cum-Thringstone until the 1980s), a recent merging of Thringstone with Whitwick to form a united benefice has resulted in the Vicar of Thringstone (Alan Burgess) also becoming Vicar of Whitwick.

The church is one of forty-two nationally in the patronage of Her Majesty The Queen (in Right of her Duchy of Lancaster).

The church contains some stained glass by Kempe and Co, including the War Memorial Window, unveiled in 1920 by Lt Col Tom Booth DSO of Gracedieu Manor. This window was originally intended as a personal memorial to Theophilus Jones, the Thringstone headmaster and depicts St Alban (Britain's first Christian martyr). This subject would almost certainly have been chosen to parallel Mr Jones' equally unenviable place in British history: he is commonly believed to have been the first soldier to be killed on home soil during World War I, being killed during the German Bombardment of the Hartlepools, 16 December 1914. . By the end of World War I, a further 26 men from the parish had fallen, and it was decided to dedicate the window to their collective memory. The names of the fallen are commemorated on a brass tablet and a second tablet was added in 1948 to commemorate the four men from the parish who lost their lives in World War II. Relatively few men from the Thringstone district enlisted in the armed services during the World War II due the country's need for increased coal production.

Another military hero, Thomas Elsdon Ashford V.C was married in Thringstone Church to Betsy Ann Sisson in 1891. Elsdon had been decorated with Britain's highest military honour following an act of bravery whilst serving as private soldier in the Royal Fusiliers in 1880, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

In 2003, the building's impressive truss rafter roof was restored to its original appearance, having been substantially boarded over in 1952 as part of a cost-cutting exercise. The roof and the building's semi-circular sanctuary combine to afford an extremely attractive interior, whilst externally, the building's simple pointed style and use of local granite is also aesthetically pleasing and the building is perhaps most commonly described as, 'pretty'.

A recent planning application to extend the church on its north side by the addition of kitchen and toilet facilities has been approved by North West Leicestershire District Council. It is hoped that the proposed appendages will be carried out responsibly, keeping apertures in character with the lancet style of the building.

The churchyard contains the graves of at least twenty-three men and boys who lost their lives through accidents in the local coal mining industry. Youngest of these was John Albert Gee (aged 13), who - along with 34 others - lost his life in the Whitwick Colliery Disaster of 1898. Also in the churchyard is the final resting place of the Rt Hon Charles Booth PC (1840–1916), the philanthropist and pioneer of old age pensions. Mr Booth was a regular worshipper at St Andrews Church and two of his daughters were married here He is buried with his wife, Mary Catherine (1847–1939), who was one of the distinguished Macaulay family and their simple, recumbent marble tombstone carries a beautiful inscription, raised in lead, summarising Booth's work and which is often sought out by visitors. The tomb was designated a listed monument in 2002, along with the church building itself. Elsewhere, a plaque to Booth's memory can be found in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral London. Booth purchased a copy of Holman Hunt's famous painting, The Light of the World and presented it to the cathedral in 1904. Holman Hunt's widow was among hundreds of mourners at Booth's funeral in 1916.

Buried in the graveyard are the first two Vicars of St Andrews Church - Edwin Samuel Crane MA (1845–1907) and his eventual son-in-law, Cheverton Shrewsbury MA (1872–1958), whose combined incumbency spanned a remarkable 81 years.

The large red-brick, six-bedroomed parsonage house (by Henry Robinson of Derby, 1878–79) was demolished in 1999 and the site has since been developed by the Badgers Croft complex, which includes a modern vicarage.