CHURCHES.
A church had been built at Stroud
by 1279. (fn. 91) It was a chapel of ease to Bisley and
relations between the two churches were regulated
by an agreement of 1304. The two portioners of
Bisley rectory and the vicar of Bisley then agreed
that there should be a resident chaplain at Stroud
with the right to administer the sacraments and
serve the vills of Over and Nether Lypiatt, Stroud,
Paganhill, and Bourne. A piece of land in Stroud,
formerly in the tenure of John de Pridie, was
assigned to the inhabitants of the chapelry to hold
from the portioners at a rent of 18d.; the inhabitants
were to build a house for the chaplain on the land,
contribute 15s. a year towards the chaplain's stipend,
and maintain the chancel of the church. The chaplain was also to receive his customary stipend from
the portioners and the stipend formerly paid to the
chaplain of Paganhill. (fn. 92) Stroud church remained a
chapel to Bisley, the serving ministers being usually
designated curates, until the 1720s when augmentations of the living gave it the status of a
perpetual curacy, (fn. 93) and from 1868 it was called a
vicarage. (fn. 94)
In the early 14th century the portioners of Bisley
rectory evidently appointed the chaplains of
Stroud. (fn. 95) In 1583 the lessees of the rectory were said
to be responsible for providing a priest at Stroud, (fn. 96)
and a legal opinion sought in 1722 preferred the
claim of the impropriator to nominate the curate
above the claims of the bishop, the inhabitants in
general, the Stroud feoffees, and the vicar of Bisley. (fn. 97)
By the end of the 17th century, however, and
apparently for many years previously, the curates
were being chosen by the inhabitants of Stroud
parish and nominated to the bishop to be licensed. (fn. 98)
That system, which evidently arose from the fact
that the curate was largely dependent for his support
on contributions by the inhabitants, still obtained
in 1722 but apparently ceased when the augmentations of the living placed the curate's income on a
sounder footing. (fn. 99) In 1750 the bishop was said to be
patron (fn. 1) and after 1774 he nominated all the
perpetual curates, apparently without reference to
the inhabitants. (fn. 2) The bishop remained patron in
1971.
The tithes of Stroud parish were retained by the
impropriator and vicar of Bisley, (fn. 3) the curate of
Stroud receiving only a payment of £10 from the
impropriator. A lease of Bisley rectory in Queen
Elizabeth's reign is said to have reserved that
payment to the curate and it continued to be paid
until 1835 or later. (fn. 4) The £10 and the 15s. paid under
the agreement of 1304 by the Stroud feoffees as
holders of Pridie's Acre remained the only
stipendiary income of the curate in 1650, (fn. 5) although
he was then, and until the Restoration, in receipt
of an augmentation of £30 assigned out of the profits
of Berkeley rectory by an order of 1646. (fn. 6) From 1653,
however, the feoffees increased their contribution
to £15, (fn. 7) and from 1677 the curate also received a
rent-charge of £2 10s. paid from Badbrook Mill. (fn. 8)
By the late 17th century he seems also to have been
receiving the money given by Samuel Watts for a
lecture, as he certainly was by 1715 when it added
£4 9s. 3d. to his income. (fn. 9) Until 1722, however, the
income remained very inadequate and the curates
depended largely on contributions from the
parishioners; (fn. 10) Francis Owen who was licensed by
the bishop in 1686 against the wishes of the
inhabitants and without the customary election was
soon forced to resign the curacy through lack of
such support. (fn. 11)
In 1722 two rival groups of inhabitants nominated
candidates for the curacy, one of whom, Henry
Bond, advanced the sum of £200 to secure an
augmentation from Queen Anne's Bounty and on
the strength of this was licensed by the bishop. In
1728 another £200, raised by Bond and his supporters in the parish, secured a further augmentation
from the Bounty and by 1737 Roadway farm in
Randwick had been acquired for the living and
produced a rent of c. £30. (fn. 12) In the early 1730s two
of Bond's opponents in the parish persuaded the
Stroud feoffees to withhold their contribution of
£15 on the grounds that no such use of their
income was specified in their trust deeds. The
dispute occasioned a Chancery suit which was
resolved by a decree of 1741 ordering that the
feoffees' contribution should be raised to £20. (fn. 13) In
1750 the income of the curacy, including the
contributions by the impropriator and the feoffees,
the payment from Badbrook Mill, and the profits of
the two augmentations, was £100, (fn. 14) and the living
was valued at £136 in 1856. (fn. 15) By 1835, in addition
to the Roadway farm estate of 28 a., the curacy
owned a 19-acre estate in Pitchcombe, the two
contributing a rental of £89 to the value of the
living. (fn. 16)
There is no evidence that a house for the chaplain
was ever built on Pridie's Acre in accordance with
the 1304 agreement, but the curates seem to have
usually been allowed to occupy one of the feoffees'
houses. William Woodwall, Walter Sweeper, and
James Crump, successive curates during the first 40
years of the 17th century, occupied three different
houses belonging to the feoffees, (fn. 17) and Francis Owen
in the late 1680s and William Johns in the early 18th
century occupied a house called the Minister's House,
evidently at the Cross, paying the feoffees a rent of
30s. Henry Bond in his dispute with the feoffees
claimed that this house had been given by the
feoffees as the residence of the curates, but the
decree of 1741 stipulated that, in the light of the
increased contribution to his income, the curate
should resign all claims to have one of the feoffees'
houses. (fn. 18) There was then apparently no residence
for the curate (fn. 19) until 1837 when a glebe house was
built on the south side of Lansdown. (fn. 20) In 1912 the
vicar Henry Proctor bought Rodney House by the
church and it was later bought from him by the
diocese for use as the vicarage. (fn. 21) The old vicarage
was demolished c. 1967 to make way for an extension
to the county library. (fn. 22)
The earliest incumbent who has been found
recorded was William, the chaplain of Stroud, who
claimed benefit of clergy before the eyre of 1306
when found guilty with others of robbing the
chaplain of Frampton on Severn. (fn. 23) There were
chaplains serving the church in 1400 and 1498 (fn. 24)
and curates are regularly recorded from 1532. The
poverty of the living is reflected by the fact that there
were at least 10 curates between 1532 and 1572. (fn. 25)
In 1540 Anthony Parsons, the curate, a former friar,
was imprisoned at Gloucester and it was reported to
Thomas Cromwell that he was accused of 'ill
preaching'. (fn. 26) Matthew Glove, the curate in 1551,
was found generally satisfactory in doctrinal
knowledge. (fn. 27) Thomas Hodde alias Brinkworth, a
former monk of Cirencester Abbey, was the curate
in 1553. (fn. 28) The curate serving the parish in 1576 was
cited for failure to teach the catechism, preach
sermons, or make perambulations, and he possessed
neither Bible nor Testament. The churchwardens
at that time had Puritan sympathies, objecting to the
surplice, crossing at Baptism, the use of the
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and to 'idolatry' in
the church windows and on tombs. (fn. 29) Humphrey
Parker, the curate in 1593, was described as a
sufficient scholar but no preacher. (fn. 30) William
Woodwall, who held the living by 1599, (fn. 31) published
a sermon in 1609 attacking the love of luxury among
the rich and complaining of the hardship caused to
the poor by the activities of speculators in corn. (fn. 32)
From 1647 the living was held by Robert Pleydell (fn. 33)
who was described as a constant preacher in 1650. (fn. 34)
He subscribed at the Restoration (fn. 35) and remained
curate until his death in 1679. (fn. 36) Shortly after the
Restoration Lord Coventry, the impropriator of
Bisley, withdrew his contribution of £10 towards
the curate's income, apparently because of
Pleydell's doctrinal affiliations, for when petitioning
Lord Coventry for restoration of the payment in
1668 Pleydell proffered a testimonial from John
Stephens of Over Lypiatt to the effect that he was
'an able, peaceable, orthodox minister, and no
Presbyterian, as that term is used in opposition to
Episcopal government.' (fn. 37)
Henry Bond, whose disputed nomination in 1722
and lawsuit with the Stroud feoffees are mentioned
above, was praised by some of the parishioners in
1727 for his work in the cure, visiting the sick and
preaching twice every Sunday; (fn. 38) Bond was also vicar
of Coaley and maintained a curate at Stroud in
1737. (fn. 39) James Webster, curate 1764-1804, (fn. 40) who
became archdeacon of Gloucester and rector of
Dursley in 1774, (fn. 41) was non-resident from before
1772, (fn. 42) and his successor, John Seagram, who held
the living until 1833, had leave of absence for the
whole of his incumbency to serve as stipendiary
curate at Wylye and later at Steeple Langford
(both Wilts.). (fn. 43) During this period two active and
popular assistant curates each served the cure for
many years: William Ellis, who founded the
Sunday schools, served from 1772 until his death in
1804, and John Williams served from 1805 until
1833, when on John Seagram's resignation of the
perpetual curacy the parishioners petitioned the
bishop for Williams to succeed him, raising once
more their claim to the right of nomination. The
petition was unsuccessful and shortly afterwards
Williams was presented to Woodchester rectory. (fn. 44)
In the 19th century the growth of Stroud town and
the needs of the outlying areas of the parish were
recognised by the building of the church of Holy
Trinity at Stroud Hill in 1839, a church at Whiteshill in 1841, and the establishment of a mission
church at Thrupp in 1880. (fn. 45) St. Alban's mission
church in Parliament Street was built in 1915. (fn. 46)
A lectureship was instituted at Stroud before 1631
when Samuel Watts, a London merchant and native
of Stroud, left £200 to the parish, half for the
continuance of the lectureship and half for the
poor. (fn. 47) The money was laid out on land in Colethrop
c. 1634. (fn. 48) In 1662 a Mr. Britton, presumably the
vicar of Bisley, was licensed to lecture on Fridays, (fn. 49)
but by 1715 the lecturer's half of the proceeds, then
£4 9s. 3d., was being paid to the curate by the
Stroud feoffees (fn. 50) who administered the charity. The
bequest was one of the matters in dispute between
Henry Bond and the feoffees in the 1730s: Bond
claimed to be entitled to the proceeds by virtue of
preaching twice each Sunday and maintained
that they had always been enjoyed by the curates;
but his opponents said that at the time of Watts's
bequest there had been a lecturer chosen by the
inhabitants who preached in the church each Friday
and that the lecture had usually been delivered by
neighbouring clergy. The decree of 1741 confirmed
the moiety of the charity to the Friday lecture. (fn. 51) In
1752 the assistant curate was paid for delivering the
lecture, (fn. 52) but from the later 18th century the
perpetual curates appear to have usually given it.
The perpetual curate received £7 10s. for it in 1835, (fn. 53)
and in the 1880s the vicar received between £12 and
£16. (fn. 54) Under a bequest of Richard Aldridge in 1814
the curate also received 21s. for preaching a sermon
on Trafalgar Day. (fn. 55)
There was a chapel at Paganhill, evidently a chapel
of ease to Bisley, by 1287, (fn. 56) but in 1304 the income
formerly paid to its chaplain was assigned to the
chaplain of Stroud who was also to serve Paganhill. (fn. 57)
A chantry at Paganhill mentioned in 1329 was
presumably in the chapel. (fn. 58) The ancient chapel of
Paganhill was apparently that dedicated to St. James
which in 1553 adjoined Giles Field's manor-house
at Field Place. Field was then accused of carrying
away a chalice, ornaments, and vestments from it,
but he claimed that the chapel was his own property
and not a chapel of ease and that it was used for
services only once or twice a year. (fn. 59) Field pulled
down the chapel before 1576. (fn. 60) The chapel at
Lypiatt Park, which appears to have never been
more than a private chapel, is mentioned above. (fn. 61)
A chantry in Stroud church, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, was recorded from 1522, (fn. 62) and there
was a chantry priest in the early 1530s. (fn. 63) In 1566 its
lands were sold by the Crown; (fn. 64) two weeks later the
purchasers sold the lands, comprising a house in
Stroud and a close in Nether Lypiatt called Church
Furlong, to Giles Payne of Rodborough, who sold
them in the next year to the Stroud feoffees. (fn. 65)
The church of ST. LAWRENCE (fn. 66) was recorded
from the late 13th century, (fn. 67) but with the exception
of the tower and spire it was completely rebuilt in
the 1860s.
The original church apparently comprised only
nave and chancel. The 14th-century west tower
with its broach spire was evidently an addition
rather than a rebuilding, for there was a small bellturret with spire at the west end of the chancel. (fn. 68)
The south aisle and porch were apparently added
in or shortly after 1491 when Thomas Whittington,
lord of Over Lypiatt, died leaving £40 to the
parishioners to build a 'chapel' on the south side
of the church; (fn. 69)
c. 1703 tradition credited the
Whittingtons with the building of the aisle (fn. 70) and
their arms appeared on the south porch. (fn. 71) In the late
18th century the south aisle had three pointed
windows, which had lost their tracery, and between
the two easternmost windows was a small doorway
with a square dripmould. (fn. 72) A north aisle divided
from the nave by a row of Tuscan columns was
added in 1759 by two local carpenters, John Carver
and Edward Keen; it was paid for by 12 subscribers
to whom the 28 new pews in the aisle were appropriated. (fn. 73) In 1787-8, at the expense of eight
parishioners, the north aisle was extended to the east
and the south aisle arcade replaced by matching
columns, (fn. 74) and the chancel was rebuilt with a large
round-headed east window c. 1790. (fn. 75) In 1806 a new
vestry room was made over the porch with a window
over the old entrance arch, (fn. 76) and repairs to the steeple
were carried out in 1828. (fn. 77) Numerous galleries and
seats were made in the church during the 17th and
18th centuries usually for local clothier families. (fn. 78) In
the mid 19th century galleries filled both aisles, and
one at the west end of the nave housed the organ (fn. 79)
installed by John Avery of Westminster in 1798. (fn. 80)
The fabric of the church was largely maintained out
of the revenues of the Stroud feoffees, whose
contributions included £250 given for the new
chancel in 1790 and £130 for the work on the
steeple in 1828. (fn. 81)
The rebuilding of the body of the church was
begun in 1866 and completed in 1868. The new
building, comprising clerestoried nave, north and
south aisles and transepts, a chancel with a south
chapel and north vestry and organ-chamber, and
south porch, was designed by Wilson & Willcox
of Bath in a variety of Romanesque and Gothic
styles and built of local stone from Bisley and
Painswick with Bath stone dressings. The cost,
£10,000-11,000, was met by subscription and a
grant of £1,000 from the Stroud feoffees. (fn. 82) The
carving and ornamentation was carried out by Joshua
Wall of Stroud who also made the pulpit, replacing
a hexagonal oak pulpit of 1759, and the font, (fn. 83)
replacing one made c. 1834. (fn. 84) An elaborate reredos
with reliefs of Passion scenes was designed by
George Gilbert Scott and installed in 1872. (fn. 85)
The church had six bells in 1629 when five of
them were recast by Roger Purdue, (fn. 86) and c. 1775 the
west tower contained eight bells; there were then
said to have once been two others hanging under the
smaller spire. (fn. 87) Two of the eight had been cast by
Abraham Rudhall in 1713 and 1721 respectively and
two by Thomas Rudhall in 1771. In 1815 two of the
bells, which had been broken by a fall, were recast
by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel and two more
were added to the peal. (fn. 88) The most notable monument in the church is that to Thomas Stephens of
Over Lypiatt (d. 1613), who appears in effigy
wearing his attorney-general's robes; it is attributed
to Samuel Baldwin of Stroud. (fn. 89) The monument,
which stood at the east end of the south aisle in the
old church, (fn. 90) was placed in the south transept at the
rebuilding, but a monument to the Wyes in the
south aisle did not survive the rebuilding, and
another there to the Whittingtons had been removed
by 1712. (fn. 91) An ornate wall tablet to Thomas Freame
of Nether Lypiatt (d. 1664), formerly in the
chancel, (fn. 92) was moved under the tower with other
wall monuments at the rebuilding. Fixed to the
outside of the north wall, and presumably taken
from destroyed tombs, are many of the copper
inscription plates which are a feature of the locality;
they mostly date from the 18th century, but the
tradition was continued in the earlier 19th century
and tombs which remain in the churchyard have
examples by the Stroud masons and engravers John
Hamlett, James Freebury, and William Franklin. (fn. 93)
The church plate includes two chalices acquired by
the parish in 1625 and 1670. (fn. 94) The registers survive
from 1624. (fn. 95)
The church of HOLY TRINITY at the eastern
end of the town was begun in 1838 (fn. 96) and consecrated
in 1839; the cost was borne by subscription and a
grant from the Church Building Society. It remained
a chapel of ease to the parish church (fn. 97) until 1879
when it was given an ecclesiastical district, which
included the eastern part of the town, Thrupp,
Bourne, and Nether Lypiatt; the living was then
made a vicarage in the patronage of the bishop. (fn. 98) A
vicarage house was given in 1885 by the Revd.
G. T. B. Ormerod at whose expense parish rooms,
opened in 1884, were built and endowed. (fn. 99) The
church, designed by Thomas Foster in Early
English style, (fn. 1) comprises a lofty nave with a
polygonal apse and at the west end a pair of
pinnacled turrets.
A room at Thrupp was fitted up as a mission
church to Holy Trinity in 1880; (fn. 2) the National
schoolroom there had been used for services by the
Stroud clergy since 1852. (fn. 3) In 1889 a new mission
church on the London road near Ham Mill was
opened; built of corrugated iron with false buttresses
and Gothic windows, it had the unusual feature of a
roof thatched with heather. (fn. 4) It was closed in 1968
and was later used as a village hall. (fn. 5)
The church of ST. PAUL at Whiteshill was
consecrated in 1841 as a chapel of ease to Stroud
parish church; (fn. 6) the cost was met by subscriptions and
private benefactions. (fn. 7) In 1844 the church was
assigned an ecclesiastical district and the living
endowed as a perpetual curacy to which the bishop
nominated. (fn. 8) A glebe house, in Cotswold style,
was built by subscription in 1845 (fn. 9) on the west side
of the road at the Plain; it was replaced as the
vicarage in the mid 20th century by a house further
down the hill on the east side of the road. (fn. 10) The
church, designed by Thomas Foster (fn. 11) in consistently
Romanesque style, originally comprised tower,
nave, and sanctuary with rounded apse; transepts
were added in 1881. (fn. 12) Murals of the apostles in the
sanctuary, painted by the Misses E. R. and R. E.
Stanton of Upfield, Paganhill, were completed in
1905. (fn. 13) An iron mission chapel was built in Paganhill village c. 1897 at the cost of Fanny Holloway,
whose relatives gave £1,000 stock for its maintenance
after her death in 1910. (fn. 14)