A Tour of St Benedict Biscop Church
All our visitors enter St Benedict's by the South Porch and as they enter our church the impression is of a large light church whose central features are the altar at the eastern end of the chancel and the pulpit. The Oxford Movement wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could hear the word of God preached and see the sacraments celebrated and this double focus is very clear at St Benedict's with the font by the door with its wonderful oak spire shaped canopy, the pulpit by the chancel arch and the altar by the east wall.
St Bendict Biscop our patron, is also the patron saint of stained glass makers and visitors to our Church cannot but marvel at the number and variety of stained glass windows. They add colour and light to our worship. Nearly all the glass is Victorian, the earliest by Clayton and Bell who used their skills to illustrate different events in the life of Jesus. Our great east window shows Christ reigning in glory whilst the chancel windows show the Resurrection and the Ascension and the window in the south aisle the events of Jesus' Passion. Some of these windows have lost a little of their glory with age. The Victorians were trying to rediscover the skills of the medieval craftsmen that were lost at the reformation and didn't perfect their techniques until a little later in the century. Seven windows in the nave are by the renowned Victorian stained glass window maker C E Kempe or by C E Kempe and W Tower. These windows show a wide variety of saints all clothed in splendid fabrics, a contrast to our earthly lives as they show the life of heaven where only the best is good enough. In some of the windows Kempe's monogram, a wheatsheaf, is there for the those with time to search. An eighth window also by Kempe, this time of the Annunciation is hidden from view in the choir vestry.
The Lady chapel contains the latest addition to our collection of stained glass installed to celebrate the Millennium to the designs of Graham Chaplin of Hednesford Stained Glass. It shows the activity of the Holy Spirit firstly in the Annunciation and secondly on the day of Pentecost.
On the south aisle wall by the south porch is a late medieval alabaster tablet showing Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. The workmanship is excellent and it reminds us of the age when only a few people could read and most people found out about the Christian faith by sculpture and pictures. The tablet was given to the church in the late 19th century by Thomas Shaw Hellier who probably acquired it on one of his continental holidays.
The early 19th century font with its oak spire is sited by the door, a reminder that baptism is the way we enter the Church, the body of Christ. Made of sandstone in a gothic revival style, the font is probably the only fitting left from when the church was rebuilt in 1840.
The pulpit, by Street, is an altogether more elaborate design. Circular, it is built of sandstone supported on marble shafts, the stiff leaf carving around the top edge is a masterpiece of Victorian art.