Church of St Laurence, Bidford on Avon

1 The church consists of a chancel with a N vestry and organ chamber, nave, N and S aisles, N porch, quire vestry in place of a S porch, and a W tower. The chancel, W end of the nave and W tower date from about 1250. The nave was long and narrow and may (in part) have been on the line of an earlier nave, but no 12th century details remain. In 1835 it was widened for about two thirds of its length and aisles of the same length were added. The chancel was restored in 1886-9 and the roof in 1922. No priest is mentioned at Domesday and at the time of Henry I Bidford was a chapelry of Salford.
4 Noted.
5 The section of churchyard wall contained no re-used architectural fragments either from the parish church or any other building. No dating evidence for the construction of the wall was found but the soil of the graveyard, immediately to the rear of the wall, did contain several fragments of human bone, suggesting a relatively long period of use and showing that burials had been placed right up to the churchyard boundary. The area of the churchyard has obviously been built up by its long iuse for burials. However the geological natural was visible within the section excavated for the wall and shows that the church was probably built on an existing piece of high ground.
6 Observation of the reinstatement of churchyard retaining wall recorded no archaeological finds or human remains.