St Winifred's Church
St
Winifred's
church, Kingston on Soar, is part of a group which includes St George's
Barton
in Fabis, All Saints Thrumpton, Holy Trinity Ratcliffe on Soar and
Gotham
church. Rev. Steve Osman is the Priest-in-Charge.
Services are as follows:
1st Sunday
6.00 pm
Evening Prayer
2nd Sunday 10.30 am Children's Service
2nd Sunday
11.00 am
Holy Communion
3rd Sunday
9.30 am
Morning Prayer
4th Sunday
11.00 am
Holy Communion
5th Sunday
Cluster Service (venue varies)
A short history and guide to the church has been compiled by the Rev.
Brendan
Magill;
copies are available inside the church. The following
information
has been abstracted from Rev. Magill's guide:
Although
Kingston (Chinestan) is mentioned in the Domesday Book, there is no
reference
to a church. Kingston was, however, within the parish of
Ratcliffe,
which did have one. From 1171, Kingston is recorded as making an
annual
donation to Southwell Minster, which may indicate that the parish had a
separate
place of worship by that time.
Unlike
many Parish churches, the church at Kingston has been through a number
of
radical alterations, not least its name - the church was originally
dedicated
to St Wilfred. Little remains now of the church completed in 1538
by
the Babington family; only the chancel, the Chantry Chapel and the
Babington
Monument. A nave, a small tower and a spire were erected in 1832,
and
unusually the congregation faced north. When William, eldest son
of
Henry, 2nd Baron Belper, died in1898, his father rebuilt the church in
his
memory. The nave and tower were replaced and the Tudor sections
of
the building restored. The church was reopened in 1900 as St
Winifred's.
For
those
interested, the earliest Parish registers record burials from 1657,
baptisms
from1688 and marriages from 1754.