St Bartholomew’s Church, Welby
Welcome to St Bartholomew´s Church Welby
St Bartholomew’s Church LE14 3JL is situated in an isolated rural location about two miles north of the centre of Melton Mowbray, off the A606 Nottingham Road & off St Bartholomew’s Way.
The church is cared for by a small, dedicated team, see our contacts page .
Regular services are held on the first Sunday of every month at 3pm. See our Calendar for details of the next service and Special services which are listed.
You will be most welcome to attend, a warm welcome assured.
Sunday 7th June 3pm
St Bartholomew’s Church, Welby, will be holding a service of Evening Prayer remembering Theo Mayfield who was Church Warden at Welby for many years from 1996.
Theo was also Verger at St Mary’s and lived in Church Terrace.
The service will be led by Canon Malcolm Britton.
The flower arranging team at Welby will be busy on Saturday getting the church looking its best for this special event.
Everyone is most welcome to stay for Cream Tea’s which will be served after the service, a favourite of Theo’s.
Exterior Picture by Paul Reece
HISTORY
The church probably dates from the time of the first Roger de Mowbray in the latter part of the 12th century. It consists of a nave, chancel and porch with a small tower, most of which is built of nearby sandstone.
The east window is large for the size of the building. The ancient glass of the windows, of which considerable remains still existed in the 18th century, was later removed to form part of the assembly of ancient glass in St Mary’s Church Melton Mowbray.
There is in this church an interesting piece of old carved woodwork in the form of a pulpit and reading desk and a screen surrounding, which is most probably by its appearance of Elizabethan or early Jacobean times.
No precise record of the finding of the Welby hoard, pictured, has survived, but there seems to be no reason to doubt that it was a genuine discovery. The hoard was deposited in the Leicester Museum in 1919 by Mrs. 0. C. Hocart, and the museum records state that the discovery was made about 1875 when a farmer was digging for gravel in Welby parish.
There is a field in this parish known as the Gravelholefield, and it seems likely that this was the find spot as gravel deposits do not seem to be known elsewhere in the parish. Unfortunately, only a proportion of the hoard survived, as the farmer took it to be melted down at a local foundry. Luckily, local resident Mr W. S. Barnes witnessed this and purchased and rescued the remaining finds.
To find out more click here and for a Medieval map of Welby click here.
