St. John the Baptist Parish Church The parish church of St. John the Baptist is an ancient structure, nestling in a natural
amphitheatre, close to the
confluence of two streams. A spring, emanating from under the chancel, is also discharged into the watercourse, through a piped outlet protruding from a stone wall at the east end of the churchyard. This spring is said to have been used during the 19th century as means of powering the bellows of the church organ. It is possible that this site was regarded as sacred in pre-Christian times, thereby influencing the choice of location for the church. It was also conjectured by the local historian, George Green of
Loughborough, that a fragment of
pre-Norman cross shaft would appear to be incorporated into the
chancel wall, supporting the idea that a church may well have existed on this site in Anglo-Saxon times. However, there is no mention of a priest or church connected with Whitwick in the
Domesday Book of 1086, and in the absence of conclusive structural evidence beyond the thirteenth century, it is perhaps more likely that the church was built as a later adjunct to the nearby castle. The church we see today is mainly of 14th-century construction, with only the south doorway seeming to go back to the 13th century. The massive decorated western tower contains a peal of eight bells, four of which were cast in 1628, and in the north aisle can be found the mutilated alabaster effigy of a knight, which tradition has to be that of Sir John Talbot, who died in 1365. Talbot is said to have been a giant, and this accounts for the exceptional length of the monument. The church was a victim of aggressive restoration during the 19th century, when the chancel was rebuilt by
James Piers St Aubyn, 1848–1849. A vaulted substructure or
crypt is situated beneath the chancel, but is not thought to have ever been used as a
charnel house. The building of this understructure would have been necessary to maintain a level between the chancel and the nave due to the steepness of sloping ground at the east end. In the south exterior wall of the nave, close by the porch, there is a canopied recess, which according to tradition once contained a doorway leading to vaults beneath the south aisle. It is likely that this recess would once have contained a founder's tomb. From 1319 until its dissolution in 1536, Whitwick Church was an endowment of the
Benedictine chapter of
Up Holland Priory, near
Wigan,
Lancashire. Following royal sequestration, the patronage of the living passed to the King and Whitwick Church remains one of forty-two churches nationally which are in the patronage of the Monarch (in the rights of the
Duchy of Lancaster). Today, the church forms part of a united benefice with Thringstone and Swannington. The registers date from 1601. The churchyard was closed for burials many years ago. In more recent years, many of the 18th- and 19th-century
slate headstones were uprooted and moved in a line around the periphery of the southern portion of the graveyard; a 20th-century concrete
war memorial now occupies the centre. Other stones were taken up and used for paving around the church. Whitwick Cemetery, off Church Lane, was consecrated on 24 June 1874 and consists of about four acres. It was divided into three sections:
Church of England,
Catholic and
Nonconformist and placed under the control of a joint burial committee. It contains four
Commonwealth war graves of service personnel, one from
World War I and three from
World War II.
Vicars of Whitwick 1551—2020 Daughter churches and national school In the 19th and 20th centuries, new churches were built within the vast, ancient ecclesiastical parish of Whitwick as a result of population growth, all of which later came to serve independent parishes in their own right. Possibly more by coincidence than design, these daughter churches are dedicated respectively to the
patron saints of
Great Britain: St George's, Swannington was built in 1825; St Andrew's,
Thringstone was built in 1862 and St David's, Broom Leys was founded in 1933. Christ Church,
Coalville, was also formed partially out of Whitwick Parish in 1836, though the church here stands on land which was originally in the ancient parish of
Ibstock, within the
chapelry of
Hugglescote. The churches at Swannington, Coalville and Thringstone all owe their existence to the zealous missionary drive of the Reverend Francis Merewether MA (1784–1864),
Vicar of Whitwick for more than fifty years, and also
Rector of
Coleorton. Merewether, a
low church theologian who preached and wrote prolifically against
Roman Catholicism, was also successful in getting
national schools established in these outlying parts of the parish as well as in Whitwick itself. He left behind him a small empire of Anglican expansion, wrought in part by a desire to counteract the 'papist' revival that he perceived to be sweeping the district, at the instigation of
Ambrose de Lisle of
Grace Dieu Manor. Whitwick National School, a stone building in the
Early English style still stands in the
market place, now a
Grade Two listed building. An extension to the school was provided in 1903, with access on silver street. The school was replaced later in the 20th century by a new Church of England school located at the foot of Parsonwood Hill. The old school is now used as a day nursery. St David's, Broom Leys was for more than thirty years served by a small wooden church which had originally served as a chapel at the
Mowsley Sanitorium near
Market Harborough, Leicestershire and was brought over to its present site in sections and duly re-erected. This small structure still stands near the present day 'futuristic' church, work on which was commenced in 1964. The foundation stone (a piece of
Welsh slate from
St David's in
West Wales and presented by the dean of that cathedral) was laid on 26 September 1964 in the presence of about five hundred people. Above the front entrance of the church is the figure of
St David, cast in 'ciment fondu' and coated with a bronze resin. The bricks are a 'Blaby Grey' and the stonework was provided by the local Whitwick Quarry. It was due to De Lisle that a
Cistercian monastery,
Mount St. Bernard Abbey, was established within the parish in 1835, and a church (designed by
Pugin) was built on Parsonwood Hill in 1837. In establishing his mission, De Lisle recruited a charismatic priest,
Aloysius Gentili, from Rome, who arrived at Gracedieu in June 1840 and by May of the following year, De Lisle claimed that some five hundred and twenty persons had become converted to the catholic faith as a result of Gentilli's outreach.
Roman Catholic Priests of Whitwick ==Local public houses==