No history of the parish would be
complete without mention of the small chapel at Little Witley.
The site is ancient - in later Anglo Saxon times the chapel was
served from St. Helen's Church in Worcester - and some of the
present structure dates from the 13th Century.
For many centuries, until 1904,
the chapelry was attached to the parish of Holt. Its
dedication, formerly to the Holy Trinity was then changed to St.
Michael and All Angels, and is now part of the United Parish of
Shrawley and Witley.
By the mid-nineteenth century the
unpretentious little building was said to have become almost ruinous
and it was re-built in 1867 in the then correct "Early English"
style to the designs of the Worcester architect Perkins. The
new nave walls were built on the lower red sandstone courses of
those of the old church, but the tiny chancel was extended by means
of an apsidal east end and a vestry added. The stone carvings
- corbels, capitals, font and pulpit - were the work of the wife of
the then Rector of Holt, Mrs. Sale. The Rector himself
laboured on some of the building work. The only original
detail remaining is the blocked north doorway of the nave which has
a two centred head vault, moulded continuously with the jambs and is
of the 13th century. The bell is by Richard Sanders of
Bromsgrove and is dated 1733.