St Ecqwin's Church (Honeybourne)

 Grade I Listed (UK), anglican church

The church is dedicated to St Ecgwin. It is likely that he was a member of the Mercian royal family. He was Bishop of Worcester in 693 AD, and known to be morally upstanding. He was responsible for the founding of Evesham Abbey, at the beginning of the eighth century. Ecgwin resigned his Bishopric in 711 AD to become the first Abbot of Evesham. He died in this office on 30th December 717 AD, and this is his feast day.

Honeybourne was originally two parishes, Cow Honeybourne which was owned by Winchcombe Abbey, and Church Honeybourne, where the present church stands, owned by Evesham Abbey. The church is a Grade One listed building standing in a closed churchyard, on the edge of the village. Honeybourne is in Worcestershire today, but is one of northernmost parishes in the diocese of Gloucester.

Church Honeybourne was given to the Abbey of Evesham by Kenred and Offa in 709 AD. It seems likely there has been a church here for a long time – the Domesday Book records a priest living here in 1086. A church was dedicated here in 1295 by the Bishop of St Asaph, in honour of St. Ecgwin.

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~engcots/ChurchHoneybournePho...