CHURCH.
The church at Randwick was first
mentioned as one of the chapels belonging to
Standish church in the early 13th century. (fn. 67) . A
pension received by the Vicar of Standish according
to the ordination of Standish vicarage in 1348 (fn. 68) was
said in 1535 to be for finding chaplains for Randwick
and the other chapels. (fn. 69) Randwick had a chaplain
in 1498, (fn. 70) and the chapel had burial rights by 1547. (fn. 71)
In 1650 Randwick was said to be fit to be a separate
parish, (fn. 72) and in 1720, as a result of a grant from
Queen Anne's Bounty, a perpetual curacy was
established, to which the Vicar of Standish nominated. (fn. 73) The living was declared a vicarage in 1866, (fn. 74)
and has remained in the gift of the Vicar of Standish.
Before the early 18th century the income of the
curates of Randwick was £8 8s. received from the
Vicar of Standish. (fn. 75) In 1720 the curacy was augmented by a grant of £200 from the Bounty to meet
an equal benefaction by the bishop. There were
further grants in 1765, 1810, and 1813, totalling
£1,000, and others were made at the time of the
building of a new glebe house in 1844. (fn. 76) The curate
was said to have at one time occupied a room in the
church house destroyed in 1782, (fn. 77) and attempts were
being made to find a site for a parsonage in 1816. (fn. 78)
By 1736 glebe comprising c. 60 ridges of arable and c.
16 a. of meadow and pasture, most of it in Haresfield,
had been purchased; (fn. 79) in 1825 another 33 a. in
Withington were purchased, but by 1828 some of
the glebe acquired by the earlier purchase had
apparently been sold. (fn. 80) The vicarial tithes of Randwick were conveyed to the perpetual curacy by the
Vicar of Standish c. 1830; (fn. 81) in 1841 they were
commuted for a corn-rent of £72. (fn. 82) The curate also
benefited from four charities founded in the 17th
and 18th centuries; (fn. 83) his income from this source
in the mid-19th century was c. £9. (fn. 84) In 1779 the
value of the living was said to be c. £60, (fn. 85) but in
1811 c. £50; (fn. 86) in 1856 it was £128. (fn. 87)
Sixteenth-century incumbents, usually called
curates, apparently provided indifferent service.
The chapel had no bible in 1548, (fn. 88) and in 1551 the
curate John Jones was described as poor in doctrine. (fn. 89) Thomas Mill was deprived for marriage in
1554. In 1563 it was said that there had been no
sermon for years and the Queen's Injunctions were
not read. In 1570 the curate did not teach the
catechism, and over the next two years gave no
alms. (fn. 90) Randwick had no separate curate in 1650
or 1661, (fn. 91) but there was one in 1678. (fn. 92) Thomas
Rawlins, licensed in 1720, was in debt for £200 in
1743 when the profits of the living were sequestrated. (fn. 93) In the 1780s both perpetual curate and
assistant curate lived outside the parish. Thomas
Warren, perpetual curate from 1800, (fn. 94) held another
curacy and a lectureship in Lincolnshire and was
given leave of absence in 1811. Strickland Neville
was living at Painswick in 1817 but an assistant
curate lived in the parish. John Elliot, licensed in
1819, lived at Stroud until the glebe house was
built; (fn. 95) he died in 1891 after an incumbency of 72
years. (fn. 96) One service a Sunday was held in 1750; (fn. 97)
Robert Ellis's charity for the curate founded in 1760
stipulated that he should preach and read prayers
twice on Sunday, (fn. 98) and two services were being held
c. 1825. (fn. 99)
The church of ST. JOHN
(fn. 1) comprises nave,
chancel, west tower, and south aisle. The tower is
of three stages with battlements and has windows of
the 14th century. The north wall of the nave had a
large 15th- or early-16th-century window which
was enlarged in 1771, (fn. 2) and the east window of the
chancel had three small lights with four-centred
heads below a dripmould. (fn. 3) In 1724 a double transept
with tall round-headed windows was added on the
south of the church. (fn. 4) Galleries were erected in the
church in 1704, 1770, and 1824. (fn. 5) In 1823 the
church was enlarged, and in 1825 the chancel was
rebuilt by Lord Sherborne. (fn. 6) The church was
restored in the mid 1860s when a new south porch
was built and three new windows inserted in the
north wall of the nave. (fn. 7) Between 1894 and 1896 the
south aisle was rebuilt as a memorial to the late
vicar, John Elliot. (fn. 8)
There are four bells: two are medieval, one was
cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1701, and another
given in 1717. (fn. 9) The plate was stolen c. 1785, (fn. 10) and
a chalice dated 1783 was presumably acquired then;
a paten was given in 1828 and another in 1891. (fn. 11)
The registers begin in 1662. (fn. 12)