Witley Church publicity - Worcester Evening News, 13th March 2012

JIGSAWS: Angela Snow, publicity officer for Great Witley Church

Visitors to the beautiful Baroque Church at Great Witley can now take home a very special souvenir.
To raise funds for the church’s restoration and repairs, three jigsaws have been produced each focusing on a different aspect of the church itself.
There are two 500-piece jigsaws – one is a view of the interior of the church looking towards the gold mosaic altar and one is of its painted ceiling and there is also a 1,000-piece jigsaw which has several stunning views of the interior on it including some of the unique painted windows.

Steward Angela Snow said: “Visitors to the church cannot believe their eyes when they see such elaborate gilded decorations in a country church.
"In fact the windows, ceiling and organ were brought here nearly 300 years ago from a palace near London.
“In the 19th century beautiful wooden carved pews and pulpit were added.
"Being in the church in like being encased in a beautiful shining work of art. We thought it would be lovely for our visitors to be able to take a bit of it home with them.”

Although the church is attached to English Heritage’s Witley Court, it is still the parish church and it is only by the efforts of volunteers who love the church that it has been prevented from falling into disrepair.
The volunteers are now hoping that the jigsaws will help bring in some much needed funds to continue their work.
The church is now almost fully restored and its splendour is unique amongst country churches in Britain.
The interior features exquisite gilded decorations, numerous paintings by Antonio Bellucci, 10 painted glass windows depicting scenes from the Bible, highly decorative carving and a large monument by Rysbrack.
The case of its organ is from the instrument on which Handel played and many musicians consider its acoustics for music to be as fine as any building of its size outside London.
The church is open every day from 10am to 5pm and a steward is usually on hand to tell guests about
the history and restoration of the church.