Church of St Katherine, Savernake

St Katherine's Church stands at the northern edge of the parish of Great Bedwyn, in the heart of the ancient Savernake Forest in Wiltshire — the only privately owned forest in Britain, the domain for centuries of the Marquesses of Ailesbury. A Victorian church of flint banded with Bath stone, built in 1861 and listed at Grade II, it was raised by the great landowning family of Savernake to serve the scattered communities of the forest, and it carries within its dedication a touch of Russian aristocracy. Set among the great beeches of one of England's most beautiful forests, St Katherine's is a church of quiet charm and unusual history.

The church was built in 1861 at the northern end of the parish of Great Bedwyn, and consecrated in the same year by the Bishop of Salisbury as a second chapel to assist the mother church of Great Bedwyn in serving its widely scattered parish. Its dedication is a touching personal memorial: it was named after St Katherine in memory of Katherine Woronzoff, the Russian mother of the Marchioness of Ailesbury and dowager Countess of Pembroke, linking this Wiltshire forest church to the great families of Russia and England alike. At first the new church was served by the vicar of Great Bedwyn, but in 1864 it was assigned its own district — called Savernake Forest, taking in parts of the parishes of Great Bedwyn, Little Bedwyn and Burbage. The patronage of the church was held by George Brudenell-Bruce, Marquess of Ailesbury, the lord of Savernake, and a perpetual curate was appointed, who from 1868 was styled vicar; in 1953 the Marquess transferred the right of nomination to the Bishop of Salisbury.

In its early years the church was a busy place of worship. Around 1864 two services were held every Sunday, attended on average by some 160 worshippers, with additional services on feast days and the patronal festival, and Holy Communion celebrated about twenty times a year. A parsonage house was built for the incumbent in 1879–80, though it was later sold in 1950, and over the twentieth century the parish was successively united with neighbouring parishes — with Savernake in the late 1940s, with Great Bedwyn from 1958, and with Little Bedwyn from 1965 — reflecting the gradual consolidation of rural parishes as populations changed.

The church survived a dramatic event during the Second World War. In 1945 St Katherine's suffered damage from an accidental explosion at a nearby munitions depot — for Savernake Forest, like many remote rural areas, was used for the storage of ammunition during the war. The blast destroyed the roof and the stained-glass windows and seriously weakened the north wall. The future of the church then hung in the balance: in 1951 a diocesan commission went so far as to suggest the demolition of the entire nave. But local supporters rallied in opposition, promoting a programme of restoration instead, and after several years of uncertainty the church was saved and reopened on Easter Day in 1952 — a resurrection fitting for the great festival of the Christian year. The church was formally listed by English Heritage at Grade II in 1966, and the living was united with those of Great Bedwyn and Little Bedwyn in 1982.

Today St Katherine's is managed jointly within the Savernake group of parishes, one of the parishes of the Diocese of Salisbury. Built of flint with bands of Bath oolitic stone, in the Victorian Gothic manner, it stands as a dignified and well-loved church amid the trees of the forest, its survival a testament to the determination of those who refused to let it be demolished after the wartime explosion.

The church stands in the magnificent Savernake Forest, near the village of Great Bedwyn in the rolling chalk country of east Wiltshire. The forest, famous for its Grand Avenue of beeches — said to be the longest avenue of trees in Britain — and for its ancient oaks, is one of the loveliest woodlands in England, and the great house of Tottenham, seat of the Ailesbury family, lies within it. Nearby are the historic market town of Marlborough, with its broad high street and its famous college; the Kennet and Avon Canal with the restored Crofton Pumping Station; the prehistoric monuments of the Marlborough Downs, including Avebury and Silbury Hill; and the wider chalk landscape of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

From its building in 1861 by the Marquesses of Ailesbury to serve the Savernake Forest, its dedication in memory of a Russian noblewoman, and its busy Victorian worship, through the wartime explosion of 1945 that nearly destroyed it and the determined restoration that saw it reopened on Easter Day, St Katherine's Church gathers the history of a great forest parish into one building. A Grade II listed flint church amid the beeches of Savernake, it remains a living church in the Diocese of Salisbury — a quiet and beautiful survivor at the heart of England's last private forest.