The current Church of St James, at the village crossroads, was built as a replacement for the church in this painting, but the old church was not on this site.  It was located in Welland Court Lane, one mile away to the south-east of the crossroads.

The artist was George Row Clarke who lived from 1829 to 1908.  His name and the date of 1873 is just discernible on top of the gravestone in the bottom right hand corner of the painting.  George Clarke was born in Upton-upon-Severn and it would appear that he had a very good start in life.  His father, also named George, was a very successful wine merchant and brewer; owning properties which, among others included his main family home, warehouses, vaults, a brew-house and two cottages in Dunns Lane, Upton-upon-Severn.

Besides being a painter, George Clarke was also an architect.  He designed The Church of the Good Shepherd at Hook Bank, which was consecrated on 20th September 1870. 

The Reverend F. K. Clarke who presented the painting to Malvern Library and from where we have it on loan, was a brother of the painter (image copyright, Malvern Library).

The late Mary Roberts was one of two parishioners who collected the painting from the library, Mary paid for the framing herself.

Due to an increasing parish population from the mid 1800s and the fact that the old church needed extensive repairs, it was more cost effective to build a replacement.  This also enabled the new Church of St. James to be sited more centrally in, what had then become, the area where the main village was springing up.

The foundation stone was laid on St. James’ Day, 25th July 1873 so it can’t have been a coincidence that it was during the same year George Clarke painted the old church – knowing its days to be numbered.  As soon as the new Church of St. James was consecrated on 2nd April 1875, the old Church of St. James was demolished.

This is one of only four paintings known to exist of the old Church of St. James. The others are by Thomas Rickards, Maria Martin and Mary Brandling.