Hethe

The Church of England parish church of Saint Edmund and Saint George is known to have existed by 1154, when it was given to the Augustinian Priory at Kenilworth, later Kenilworth Abbey.[2] Both the west wall of the nave and the south wall of the chancel survive from this time, each retaining a Norman lancet window and the latter a priest's doorway from the same period.[3] The east end of the chancel was rebuilt early in the 13th century[3] when a Decorated Gothic east window was inserted.[4] In the 15th century a Perpendicular Gothic clerestory was added to the nave.[2] When the Abbey was dissolved in 1538 the advowson of Hethe passed to the Crown, which has retained it ever since.[2]

In 1854 Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford complained that the St. Edmund and St. George was "in most miserable order" and "utterly too small for the population".[2] In 1859 the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street restored the building, widened the chancel arch, and added the bell-turret and the north aisle.[3] Street moved the Decorated Style east window from the chancel to the north aisle, and inserted a new east window in the chancel in its place.[4] In 1924 the living was combined with that of Fringford. The parish is now part of the benefice of Stratton Audley with Godington, Fringford with Hethe and Stoke Lyne. The benefice is part of the Shelswell group of parishes.[5]

The Old Rectory was in existence by 1679.[2] In 1928 it was refitted after being burnt out.[2]

No Roman Catholics were reported in Hethe from the English Reformation in the 1540s until after the English Civil War. However, in the first half of the 16th century William Fermor of Somerton bought the manor of Hardwick[6] 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Hethe, in 1606 Sir Richard Fermor bought the manor of Tusmore,[7] 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Hethe and in 1625 the Fermor family moved to Tusmore from Somerton.[8] The Fermors were a recusant family who had their own Roman Catholic chapel, a family priest (usually a Jesuit), and employed Catholic staff whom they allowed to attend Mass at their family chapel.[7] The Fermors supported Catholic communities who farmed their lands at Godington[9] (3 miles (4.8 km) east of Hethe), Hardwick[6] and Somerton.[8]

At some time the Fermors acquired land at Hethe, and in 1676 ten Catholics working for the Fermors were living there.[2] A Roman Catholic population numbering less than ten survived in Hethe survived throughout the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries, some but not all of them working for the Fermors.[2] They attended Mass at the chapel in Tusmore[2] until the Fermors closed it for refurbishment in 1768.[7] Thereafter they attended Mass at a chapel in Hardwick[2] created in the attic of the manor house,[6] but the Fermors sold the manor in 1828 and the new owner closed the chapel in 1830.[6]

In 1832 the priest from Hardwick had Holy Trinity church built at Hethe to serve the Roman Catholic population there and in surrounding villages.[2] It is a Gothic Revival building but the name of its architect is not recorded.[4]

By 1794 Hethe had a small Methodist congregation.[2] It built its first chapel in 1854 and replaced this with a second chapel in 1876.[2] The latter was still being used as a chapel in 1955[2] but is now a private house.[10]