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St Giles Church Sheldon

sgmag003.jpg
Stewardship of Time and Labour - Churchwarden, PCC Secretary, Chairman, Parson and Master Builder at work on the "Bier House" - Legend obviously not in order as 'Parson', Rev. Strickland is holding the bucket. Anyone know the other names? Rugby football posts and swings in the background now replaced by car park in Sheldon Country Park.
 
maysfamily said:
Hi, I'm new to this site this is my first post, but couldn't resist telling you that many of my family, the Cattell's are buried in the churchyard, John and Joseph Cattell were Churchwardens there, and their families farmed at Sheldon Hall and Elm Farm for many years from the mid 1800s through to the early 1900s.
Click to expand...
Maybe you can see some of them here?
www.findagrave.com

Grave Memorial Records - Find a Grave

The World’s largest gravesite collection. Contribute, create and discover gravesites from all over the world. .
www.findagrave.com www.findagrave.com
 
maysfamily said:
Hi, I'm new to this site this is my first post, but couldn't resist telling you that many of my family, the Cattell's are buried in the churchyard, John and Joseph Cattell were Churchwardens there, and their families farmed at Sheldon Hall and Elm Farm for many years from the mid 1800s through to the early 1900s.
Click to expand...
Hi and welcome to the forum. This may interest you. They are entries in a 1919 auction catalogue.
Sheldon Hall entry.JPG The Elms entry.JPG Malthouse Farm entry.JPG Marston Hall entry.JPG

As you can see The Cattell family were no longer the tenants of Sheldon Hall but still farmed 3 other farms in the area.
There are pictures of Sheldon Hall and The Elms on the forum in other threads, just use the search facility.
 
Spargone said:
Maybe you can see some of them here?
www.findagrave.com

Grave Memorial Records - Find a Grave

The World’s largest gravesite collection. Contribute, create and discover gravesites from all over the world. .
www.findagrave.com www.findagrave.com
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for this. I have visited St. Giles and stood at the many Cattell graves, and also seen the inscription over the Lych gate. The local library were also a great help as they had lots of information on the family from a local history study they had undertaken, and the Book "Around Sheldon" is wonderful.
 
maysfamily said:
Hi, I'm new to this site this is my first post, but couldn't resist telling you that many of my family, the Cattell's are buried in the churchyard, John and Joseph Cattell were Churchwardens there, and their families farmed at Sheldon Hall and Elm Farm for many years from the mid 1800s through to the early 1900s.
Click to expand...
The link below should take you to many of the pre 1900 Warwickshire Parish registers - including Sheldon from 1813. There are a number of Cattells listed in the various registers but some entries aren't transcribed yet so you may have to page through the scanned images. Other members may also be interested in looking at other parishes too, some of the images are from the 1500s but pretty hard to read!.


You can also look at Census records on Pickards pink pages - the earliest for Sheldon is 1841
 
jmadone said:
Hi and welcome to the forum. This may interest you. They are entries in a 1919 auction catalogue.
View attachment 137322 View attachment 137323 View attachment 137324 View attachment 137325

As you can see The Cattell family were no longer the tenants of Sheldon Hall but still farmed 3 other farms in the area.
There are pictures of Sheldon Hall and The Elms on the forum in other threads, just use the search facility.
Click to expand...
Thank you for these, I have copies of some of them. Sadly most have been demolished of course, mostly to make way for housing estates I understand! but I try to visit as many as I can. I have recently found a "long lost Aunt" who seems to have married a Walter Thornley of HURDLE HALL, Bickenhill, in 1866. I did visit the Church there a while ago, It's on the doorstep of the NEC, but I was unaware of this connection then. Does anyone know anything of Hurdlehall? it sounds fascinating.
 
mbenne said:
The link below should take you to many of the pre 1900 Warwickshire Parish registers - including Sheldon from 1813. There are a number of Cattells listed in the various registers but some entries aren't transcribed yet so you may have to page through the scanned images. Other members may also be interested in looking at other parishes too, some of the images are from the 1500s but pretty hard to read!.


You can also look at Census records on Pickards pink pages - the earliest for Sheldon is 1841
Click to expand...
Thank you, I use familysearch quite a lot, and have noticed others following the Cattell family in various directions. It''s an ongoing project, certainly keeps me busy.
 
maysfamily said:
Thank you for these, I have copies of some of them. Sadly most have been demolished of course, mostly to make way for housing estates I understand! but I try to visit as many as I can. I have recently found a "long lost Aunt" who seems to have married a Walter Thornley of HURDLE HALL, Bickenhill, in 1866. I did visit the Church there a while ago, It's on the doorstep of the NEC, but I was unaware of this connection then. Does anyone know anything of Hurdlehall? it sounds fascinating.
Click to expand...
If you type Hurdle Hall int the search facility there are several posts about Hurdle Hall
 
Can anyone on here help the person who posted this on Twitter?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1206269223040884737

More stone carvings from the walls of St. Giles Church in Sheldon. Be interesting to know what they mean.
EL2HdE5X0AE1S2l
EL2HdE5XYAMqxst

EL2HdE5XYAQSqnD
EL2HdEzXYAAvkqc
Click to expand...
 
From top left, clockwise -
No.1 No idea, maybe local Lord of the Manor or someone connected with the church.
No.2 There would be a Bishop or Archbishop connection with this I am sure. Crozier and lamb
No.3 The ten points are associated with the Anglican Bishops of Worcester, in which Sheldon is part I believe.
No.4 Is a Royal Herald design as far as I can see.
 
Radiorails said:
From top left, clockwise -
No.1 No idea, maybe local Lord of the Manor or someone connected with the church.
No.2 There would be a Bishop or Archbishop connection with this I am sure. Crozier and lamb
No.3 The ten points are associated with the Anglican Bishops of Worcester, in which Sheldon is part I believe.
No.4 Is a Royal Herald design as far as I can see.
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Your No. 1 contains elements related to the Digby family. No. 2 is an ouch! The lamb is a deer and the emblem represents St. Giles himself. Certainly in the 1960s it was used on the cover of the parish magazine.
 
Spargone said:
Your No. 1 contains elements related to the Digby family. No. 2 is an ouch! The lamb is a deer and the emblem represents St. Giles himself. Certainly in the 1960s it was used on the cover of the parish magazine.
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Wasn't No.2 also incorporated into the badge of Sheldon Heath Comprehensive school?
 
Yes, St. Giles, accepted as of Athenian birth, became Abbot of the monastery (Benedictine) in France which he founded (hence the crozier and hind). Patron of disabled, where many European towns had what was called a cripplegate and church of St. Giles.
 
The reopening of St Giles 1867...

Some familiar names in the guest list -would Spooner be the family associated with Elmdon Hall and Elmdon Church?
Dugdale would be the Warwickshire landowners and ancestors of Sir William Dugdale former Chairman of Severn Trent Water based at Sheldon HQ Coventry Road, 1974/83. Chairman Aston Villa 1975/78 and uncle, by second marriage, to David Cameron.
 
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No.3 is the British Coat of Arms, similar to the shield design in the centre of the Royal Coat of Arms, a quartered shield with two quarters containing the three lions passant guardant of England, one quarter for the lion rampant of Scotland, and the fourth is the harp of Ireland. With recent political developments this could change!

Apart from No.1 being reminiscent of the Sheldon Heath Comp badge I have no idea about the others. Never realised just how complex heraldry is! I looked up family heralds for Dugdale and Spooner and for Elmdon and Sheldon but nothing looks familiar

Heraldry

www.internationalheraldry.com
 
Earlier I questioned Margaret Green's claim that the location of the bier cart was unknown. Looking at the church's own website to see if there was anything relating to the heraldic carvings discussed above (there isn't) I see that they confirm my understanding that it is still stored in the purpose-built bier house. Good!
 
My grandmother burial in St Giles Church yard was the last one I believe before the graveyard was closed to burial, my nans name was pekins and she was buried in the same plot as her husband Bert perking and her daughter Dorothy who was the first person to be buried in the plot when she was run over and killed on the Coventry road aged just 7 in a automobile accident
 
Hello Andrew, on many many visits to St Giles I have often passed your family's grave, its quite close to the path.
 
The grave is indeed neat the path, my mom still tends it at least twice a week even though she herself is in her late 70s the grave is always covered in flowers, the family consisted of my grandad and nan plus 7 kids, sadly only 2 are still with us, my mom and one of her sisters
 
Spargone said:
View attachment 137313
Stewardship of Time and Labour - Churchwarden, PCC Secretary, Chairman, Parson and Master Builder at work on the "Bier House" - Legend obviously not in order as 'Parson', Rev. Strickland is holding the bucket. Anyone know the other names? Rugby football posts and swings in the background now replaced by car park in Sheldon Country Park.
Click to expand...
The person holding the bucket is Henry Greaves, the master builder, my Grandfather Sidney Bragg, my father Benjamin Bragg is the person in the background. The building used the bricks from the original bier house which the choir men and boys helped to demolish, transporting the bricks on the bier to the paddock. I spent many hours using a scutch to remove the mortar from those bricks so that they could all be reused. As is tradition a topping out was done with a small plaque set on top of a buttress of the church boundary wall, unfortunately the Rev Strickland removed all trace of it.
 
Jelicoe said:
The person holding the bucket is Henry Greaves, the master builder, my Grandfather Sidney Bragg, my father Benjamin Bragg is the person in the background. The building used the bricks from the original bier house which the choir men and boys helped to demolish, transporting the bricks on the bier to the paddock. I spent many hours using a scutch to remove the mortar from those bricks so that they could all be reused. As is tradition a topping out was done with a small plaque set on top of a buttress of the church boundary wall, unfortunately the Rev Strickland removed all trace of it.
Click to expand...
Reference has been made to the chimney on the bier house as being for the blacksmiths furnace. As the building was built to a new design and was not a carbon copy of the original it's a complete nonsense. The blacksmiths building is on Church road well away from the Bier House which just contained the bier. The chimney referred to on the Church website was there for heating as the building was used not only for storage but had a serving hatch for refreshments at Church fetes etc
 
As Jelico says, the St Giles website implies that the Bier House was a replica. (The pedantic might get upset too over the expression 'Bier Cart', almost like saying 'Cart Cart').

Henry Greaves was quite a character, particulary when he and Rev. John March got together!

Look for a building built on the churchyard wall. We call it a Bier House (not to be confused with Beer!). It was originally sited on the other side of Church Road and was a stable. If you look carefully you will see the remains of a Chimney for a furnace. This would have been used to make horseshoes. Inside the Bier House is a Victorian Bier Cart used for carrying coffins.
Click to expand...
 
jmadone said:
This is a view of the interior taken from the Bell tower during my own wedding ceremony View attachment 137290

This shows the Rev. John Waterstreet who conducted the service. He joined us at the reception later (Held at the Excelsior Hotel, Birmigham Airport) for a couple of beers. View attachment 137299

My sister was also married there a couple of years later.
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John Waterstreet was my Father, he died in 2022 aged 87.
 
I think he was! We married at St Mary's, Selly Oak in 1982, he was vicar there from 1977 -1989. He also officiated at his youngest granddaughter's wedding at St Giles, Nether Whitacre in 2017, where he had been Vicar between 1989 - 2007, where I am proud to say I am now the Vicar
 
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