CHURCHES AND CHAPELS

ANCIENT PARISH CHURCHES.

Until the mid 17th century Gloucester had 11 churches with parochial functions. (fn. 1) Save for St. Owen's church, established by the late 11th century, little is known of their origins. Archaeological evidence shows that there was a pre-Conquest church on the site of St. Mary de Lode. It was closely connected to Gloucester Abbey and served a large parish in the outlying hamlets of Gloucester, where the parochial division of lands indicates that the church of St. Michael was also an early foundation. The priory church of St. Oswald (formerly a royal free chapel) exercised parochial functions in the late 12th century and part of it remained a parish church, under the dedication of St. Catherine, after the Dissolution. St. Mary de Lode and St. Oswald both had burial rights in the 11th century. (fn. 2) Other churches and chapels built before 1066 may have included St. Aldate, which became parochial, and St. Kyneburgh, which possibly had a parish until it was given to St. Owen.

At the end of the 11th century there were said to be 10 churches in the king's soke at Gloucester. (fn. 3) They included the later parish church of St. John the Baptist. Five other churches mentioned by the end of the 12th century (All Saints, Holy Trinity, St. Mary de Crypt, St. Mary de Grace, and St. Nicholas) became parochial and another (St. Martin) a chapel to St. Michael. In 1143 Gloucester Abbey claimed burial rights within the town but by 1197 it had conceded some, chiefly in respect of the parishes of St. Mary de Crypt and St. Owen, to Llanthony Priory, (fn. 4) though St. Owen, which was outside the walls, had a graveyard before that time. St. Michael acquired burial rights in the mid 14th century, St. Aldate, (fn. 5) St. John, St. Mary de Crypt, (fn. 6) and St. Nicholas had them by the early 15th, and All Saints, Holy Trinity, and St. Mary de Grace (fn. 7) by the early 16th. In the Middle Ages chantries were founded in all the parish churches. Except where otherwise noted, their endowments were sold in 1549 to two speculators, Thomas Chamberlayne and Richard Pate. (fn. 8)

Gloucester Abbey acquired the patronage of five churches and Llanthony Priory that of three. Vicarages were ordained for Holy Trinity, St. Mary de Lode, and St. Owen. The livings were poorly endowed and only St. Mary de Lode, St. Michael, and St. Owen took tithes from land outside Gloucester. In 1584 the city clergy were all said to be very poor, (fn. 9) and at least six livings (All Saints, St. Aldate, St. Catherine, St. John, St. Mary de Crypt, and St. Owen) were vacant through poverty in 1603 (fn. 10) and another (St. Michael) in the early 1620s.

In 1648 the city corporation, which claimed that most parishes were served by unscholarly and dissolute singing men, obtained a parliamentary Ordinance for a reorganization of the city's parishes and the appointment of preaching ministers. Four parishes were created, served from the churches of St. John, St. Mary de Crypt, St. Michael, and St. Nicholas by ministers appointed by the corporation and paid stipends to augment their livings. The churches made redundant, including St. Owen which had been taken down just before the siege of 1643, were given to the corporation for public use. (fn. 11) The reorganization did not include the largely extra-mural parish of St. Mary de Lode. In the early 1650s its church lacked a minister (fn. 12) and in 1656, to prevent a union with St. Nicholas, the parishioners secured a stipend for one. The stipend had lapsed by 1659 when the minister's income was augmented out of the revenues of the impropriate rectory. In 1656 Tuffley, a detached part of St. Mary's parish, was joined to Whaddon. (fn. 13)

The ancient parochial framework was reestablished at the Restoration. The change was, however, more apparent than real, for no places of worship were provided for five parishes which had lost their churches and another (Holy Trinity) was demolished in 1699. A church was built for St. Aldate's parish in the mid 18th century and for St. Catherine's in the mid 19th. The benefices, most of which depended in the early 18th century on the voluntary contributions of parishioners and payments from prayer or sermon charities, all received augmentations from Queen Anne's Bounty but most remained poor in the early 19th century. From the early 1840s the ancient parish boundaries were affected by the creation of districts for new churches built in the growing suburbs and in Twigworth, and in 1883 Tuffley was transferred to Whaddon. (fn. 14) A commission appointed by the bishop in 1906 to look into the spiritual needs of the city recommended that St. Catharine (earlier St. Catherine) be replaced by a new church at Wotton, where the growth of population had been considerable. The commission's other proposals included changes to the boundaries of most parishes in and adjoining the city. (fn. 15)

It was acknowledged that the city centre had too many churches in 1927 when a plan was adopted by Order in Council for the closure of St. Aldate and St. Michael and the creation of a united benefice called St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist. (fn. 16) As an interim measure the united benefice of St. Michael with St. John the Baptist was formed in 1931. (fn. 17) That of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist came into being in 1952. (fn. 18) The benefices of St. Mary de Lode and St. Nicholas had been united in 1951. In the 1970s St. John's church, which was shared with Methodists, was renamed St. John Northgate and the benefice of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist was reorganized. Of the ancient churches only St. John, St. Mary de Crypt, and St. Mary de Lode were used for services in 1980, although St. Nicholas and the tower of St. Michael also remained standing.

The burial grounds of several ancient parishes, including additional grounds acquired in the 1830s for St. John and St. Michael, (fn. 19) had disappeared by 1980, but the churchyard of St. Mary de Crypt survived and those of St. Catherine, St. John, St. Mary de Lode, and St. Nicholas remained with most of the monuments removed. Burials in most city churchyards were discontinued in 1857 when the municipal cemetery was opened. (fn. 20) Two 19th-century churchyards remained open, one (St. Luke) being closed in 1873 (fn. 21) and the other (St. James) used in the 1890s. (fn. 22)

All Saints.

No documentary evidence of the church, at the Cross on the south side of Westgate Street, (fn. 23) has been found until the mid 12th century, when it was a chapel to St. Mary de Crypt. (fn. 24) It was a separate benefice in the gift of Llanthony Priory by the late 12th century, when it had a parson and a vicar; the latter received the profits and 13s. for victuals and paid the vicar of St. Mary's church 2s. (fn. 25) All Saints was described as a minster (monasterium) in the early 13th century (fn. 26) and the living was a rectory in 1282. (fn. 27) In 1648 All Saints was included in the parish served from St. Mary de Crypt (fn. 28) and the church was converted as part of the Tolsey. (fn. 29) After the Restoration the inhabitants of All Saints' parish continued to attend St. Mary's church and in 1664 the two parishes were united. (fn. 30)

Llanthony Priory held the advowson of All Saints' rectory until the Dissolution (fn. 31) and the Crown retained it in 1603. (fn. 32) The priory had a portion of 2s. in the church in 1291 (fn. 33) and was later paid that amount as a pension. The rectory was worth £6 16s. 6½d. clear in 1535. (fn. 34) Later a curate was paid a stipend of £4 6s. 8d. and in 1603 the rectory, valued at £7 0s. 10d., was unfilled. (fn. 35) The rectory house, recorded in 1455, stood back from Southgate Street near the church. (fn. 36)

A chantry founded in the church by James Ivy and his wife Joan by wills proved 1503 and 1510 respectively was served once a week and its endowments included tenements in Gloucester and a house at Blakeney, in Awre. Known as the feoffees' service, it was dedicated to St. Mary and in 1548 had an income of £4 17s. 4d. (fn. 37) Richard Hoare by deed of 1607 gave the parish a rent charge of £2 13s. from several tenements in the city for church repairs, the incumbent, and the poor. (fn. 38) After 1648 it was paid to St. Mary de Crypt. (fn. 39)

Excavation in 1893 and 1894 revealed that in the later Middle Ages All Saints' church comprised a chancel, a nave on two bays, and a tower and short spire. (fn. 40) In 1552 it had three bells and a sanctus. (fn. 41) The city corporation, which used the church as a powder store in 1643, (fn. 42) incorporated it within the Tolsey at a rebuilding in 1648. The chancel was filled with a staircase leading up to the council chamber. (fn. 43) In 1742 the corporation fitted a room next to the council chamber, part of the former church, as a chapel. (fn. 44) Timbers from the church were used for the roof when the Tolsey was rebuilt in 1751. (fn. 45)

Holy Trinity.

The church, in the middle of Westgate Street by the entrance to Bull Lane, (fn. 46) had been built by 1176 (fn. 47) and was called a minster (monasterium) in the early 13th century. (fn. 48) The rectory was in the gift of the Crown, (fn. 49) and Eleanor of Provence presented in 1275 and 1290. (fn. 50) In 1291 Holy Trinity and St. Mary de Grace were together worth £5 6s. 8d. (fn. 51) In 1391 Richard II granted the advowson to Gloucester Abbey with licence to appropriate the church for the maintenance of lights and ornaments around Edward II's tomb. (fn. 52) The abbey had appropriated the church by 1394; (fn. 53) at first the cure was served by monks, but in 1403 a vicarage was ordained, with a house and a pension of 12 marks. (fn. 54) The abbey, which paid the bishop a pension of 5s. from the church (fn. 55) and remained patron of the vicarage until the Dissolution, (fn. 56) granted the vicar a lease of the rectorial tithes and offerings in lieu of his stipend in 1531 but was paying his successor £9 in cash in 1535. (fn. 57) The living was valued at £9 in 1603. (fn. 58) The vicar instituted in 1618 received personal offerings and tithes of house rents and occasionally of pigs, (fn. 59) presumably by the grant of the dean and chapter of Gloucester who had acquired the advowson in 1541. (fn. 60)

In 1648 Holy Trinity was included in St. Nicholas's parish, (fn. 61) and after the Restoration the inhabitants continued to attend St. Nicholas's church. (fn. 62) The vicarage appears to have lapsed, and from 1737 the incumbent of St. Nicholas was licensed to the cure of Holy Trinity, which following endowments from Queen Anne's Bounty was generally described as a perpetual curacy. From 1778 it was held with St. Mary de Lode, with which it was considered united by 1838. (fn. 63) An augmentation by lot of £200 in 1743 was laid out on 19 a. in Down Hatherley in 1748, and further augmentations in 1750, 1752, 1787, and 1789 were used to buy 17 a. at Epney, in Moreton Valence, in 1794. (fn. 64)

A chantry was founded in the church by John of Sandhurst and its first priest was instituted in 1304. By 1341 the chantry's income from rents had declined so much that it was united with a chantry in St. John's church to support a chaplain serving in each church in alternate years. (fn. 65) The chantries had presumably been separated or had lapsed by 1392 when Thomas Pope and six other men were licensed to give the chaplain of a chantry of St. Mary in Holy Trinity 6 messuages, 2 shops, a toft, and a rent of 22s. 8d. in Gloucester and its suburbs for his support. (fn. 66) The property held by St. Mary's chantry included tenements in Bull Lane in which the priests serving in the church lived as in a college. (fn. 67) The chantry had an income of £8 19s. 8d. in 1548, (fn. 68) and its endowments then comprised Trinity College and other property in Gloucester and land in Barton Street. (fn. 69)

Thomas Pope by will dated 1400 endowed a guild of St. Thomas of Canterbury with lands and rents to support a chantry priest in the church. (fn. 70) The chantry, which was served before the rood and was also known as the Jesus service, in 1548 had an income of £8 10s. from property in Gloucester. (fn. 71)

An obit for Walter Froucester, abbot of Gloucester, was supported in the church from the rectory estate until the Dissolution. (fn. 72) In the later Middle Ages the churchwardens held property in Gloucester. (fn. 73)

The church, which was partly destroyed by fire in 1223, (fn. 74) later included chancel, nave with north porch, and west tower with short spire. (fn. 75) In 1639 the corporation paid for the upkeep of a new dial on the west face of the tower. (fn. 76) Some royalist soldiers taken prisoner at Highnam in 1643 were held in the church; (fn. 77) during the Interregnum it was used by the corporation for a school and a store for fire engines, and the bells and some fittings were removed. (fn. 78) After the Restoration it was rarely used for services and became dilapidated, and in 1699 it was pulled down. (fn. 79) The tower was retained for public use and adapted by the corporation in 1702 as a clock and bell tower. (fn. 80) It was demolished in the mid 18th century under the improvement Act of 1750, and the stone was used in rebuilding the church of Upton upon Severn (Worcs.). (fn. 81)

The parish registers, which survive from 1557, contain few entries after 1645. (fn. 82)

St. Aldate.

The church, known sometimes as St. Aldhelm, (fn. 83) stood on the south side of St. Aldate Street. It may have been built before the Conquest but is not recorded until 1205 when the living was a rectory. (fn. 84) In 1387 it was called St. Laurence. (fn. 85) In 1648 St. Aldate's parish was included in that served from St. Michael (fn. 86) and in the mid 1650s the church was demolished. (fn. 87) After the Restoration the inhabitants of St. Aldate's parish continued to attend St. Michael's church and by the 1680s some went to St. John's church. (fn. 88) In 1737 the rector of St. John was licensed to the cure of St. Aldate's parish, (fn. 89) for which a new church or chapel was opened in 1756. (fn. 90) The benefice, which for a time was held in plurality with St. John, was sometimes considered a perpetual curacy from 1768. (fn. 91) In 1931 the church was closed and the parish was united with St. John. (fn. 92)

The advowson of the rectory belonged to Deerhurst Priory in 1275. (fn. 93) During later wars with France it was in the hands of the Crown (fn. 94) and by 1481 it had passed to Tewkesbury Abbey. (fn. 95) After the Dissolution the patronage was retained by the Crown. (fn. 96) In 1768, at the first vacancy in St. John following the building of the new church, the bishop nominated to St. Aldate. (fn. 97) The bishop remained patron until 1931. (fn. 98)

Deerhurst Priory had a portion of 6s. 8d. in the church in 1291. (fn. 99) The rectory was poorly endowed and was valued at £3 17s. 3d. in 1535; (fn. 100) in the mid 1540s the rector received £1 13s. 4d. from a chantry in the church to augment his living. (fn. 101) By the mid 1560s the churchwardens took those items, including garden tithes and perhaps seat rents, which had made up the rector's income, and paid a priest to officiate in the church. His wages, towards which Luke Garnons gave 8s. a year, were 1s. a week until 1577 when he received 36s. 8d. for the year. In 1594 his annual wage was 34s. 8d. (fn. 102) The rectory was vacant in 1603 when the living was said not to exceed £2. (fn. 103) In the 1630s the churchwardens paid the minister for three communion services a year. (fn. 104)

The benefice, worth £14 in 1750, (fn. 105) was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1746, 1750, and 1756, and was also awarded £200 in 1756 to meet benefactions by Edward Pearson and the trustees of a Dr. Boulter. In 1759 a house and 10½ a. at Wotton were acquired for the living, which was further augmented by lot in 1792. (fn. 106) The grants were evidently used to buy more land near Gloucester, for after the inclosure of the fields adjoining the city in 1799 the glebe covered 37 a. (fn. 107) It had been reduced to 18 a. by 1910. (fn. 108) In the late 18th and early 19th century the rector received quarterly pew rents. (fn. 109) The rectory was valued at £154 in 1856. (fn. 110)

In 1391 the executors of William Heyberare were licensed to grant a messuage to the rector. (fn. 111) That may have been the rectory house next to the churchyard (fn. 112) which was occupied by several tenants in the later 16th century. (fn. 113) The house acquired at Wotton in 1759 was occupied by the rector from 1810 (fn. 114) and was designated as the glebe house in 1839. (fn. 115) It had been sold by the early 1880s. (fn. 116)

A chantry of St. Mary had been founded in the church by the mid 13th century when Llanthony Priory undertook to support it with 6d. a year in return for a gift of lands from Richard of Hatherley. (fn. 117) The chantry, which was served at its own altar, had in 1548 an income from land of £5 5s. 8d., part of which was used to augment the rectory. (fn. 118) In 1455 a guild of St. John, holding eight tenements in the town, supported a chantry in the church. (fn. 119)

The anchoress recorded at Gloucester in 1479 (fn. 120) may have been she who lived in St. Aldate's churchyard in the early 16th century. Her house passed to Sir Thomas Bell who gave it to the parish for church repairs before 1563. From 1594 it was used by the smiths' company for its hall (fn. 121) and in the early 18th century vestry meetings were held in it. (fn. 122) The parish retained the house in 1823. (fn. 123) In the later 16th century another house belonging to the parish provided income for the church. (fn. 124)

St. Aldate's church comprised chancel, nave, and tower and short spire in the later Middle Ages. (fn. 125) In 1653 the city corporation agreed that the churchwardens of St. Michael's could demolish the church, use the fabric in repairing their church, and inclose the churchyard. (fn. 126) The corporation completed the demolition of St. Aldate's church in 1655 (fn. 127) and the churchwardens were receiving rent for the churchyard in the later 1650s. (fn. 128) Of three bells in the church in the late 16th century (fn. 129) one was recast at the Purdues' foundry c. 1640. (fn. 130) A chalice with cover was sent to St. Michael's church in 1652 and sold the following year. (fn. 131)

Elizabeth Aram (d. 1742) (fn. 132) left £500 for building a new parish church. Work began in the 1740s and the church, which was on or near the site of the medieval church, (fn. 133) was used for services from 1756. (fn. 134) It was built of brick and was a single-cell building in a plain gothick style with west bellcot and porch. (fn. 135) Some fittings, including a pulpit given by the city corporation and a bell cast at the Rudhall foundry, came from the chapel at the Tolsey, used until 1751. (fn. 136) A set of communion plate was given in 1758 by George Cooke. (fn. 137) Restoration work was carried out several times, notably in 1876 when the bellcot and porch were rebuilt. (fn. 138) A few years later a vestry was added to the north-eastern corner. (fn. 139) In the early 1930s the church was converted as a parish hall, (fn. 140) and it was demolished in 1963. (fn. 141) Some fittings were moved in the early 1930s to the new St. Aldate's church on the outskirts of Gloucester. (fn. 142)

The surviving parish registers cover the periods 1572–1646 and 1756–1931. (fn. 143)

St. Catherine.

The church was part, the north transept and aisle, of the former priory church of St. Oswald. (fn. 144) St. Oswald's church, which had been accounted a royal free chapel, (fn. 145) had probably provided a place of worship for the people living in its liberty from its beginnings and took the tithes. By the 12th century chapels had been built in those parts of the liberty outside the town and St. Oswald's parish, as defined in the mid 14th century, comprised the northern suburb next to the priory, Brook Street, the house of the Carmelite friars, and Hyde to the east of the town, and parts of Longford and Twigworth to the north; (fn. 146) parts of Kingsholm were also in the parish in the mid 16th century. (fn. 147) The parish and church were renamed St. Catherine after the Dissolution, although the former name was frequently used. (fn. 148) The church was served by a curate in 1536 (fn. 149) and by a vicar in 1542. The dean and chapter of Bristol cathedral, owners of the impropriate rectory from 1542, (fn. 150) appropriated the vicarage and paid curates to serve the living. (fn. 151)

In 1648 St. Catherine's parish was included in the parish served from St. John the Baptist. (fn. 152) The city corporation pulled down St. Catherine's church in the mid 1650s; parts of the fabric were used in building a market house and in repairing the walls of the churchyard, which had been secured by the parishioners of St. John. (fn. 153) From 1674 St. Catherine's parish again had a curate who performed baptisms and burials. He also celebrated marriages in nearby churches until c. 1737 when the living was held with St. Mary de Lode. The parishioners were attending St. Mary's church by then and continued to do so after 1788 when the benefices were usually held separately. (fn. 154) In 1825 the vicar of St. Mary agreed to perform baptisms and burials for St. Catherine's parish and the perpetual curate of St. Catherine's to take the Sunday morning service in St. Mary's church. (fn. 155) St. Catherine's benefice, frequently described as a perpetual curacy from 1735, (fn. 156) was called a vicarage in the later 19th century. (fn. 157) The patronage belonged to the impropriators (fn. 158) until 1867 when it was given to the bishop. (fn. 159) A new church built for St. Catherine's parish in the late 1860s (fn. 160) and later called St. Catharine (fn. 161) was replaced in 1915 by a church at Wotton. (fn. 162)

The parish church of St. Oswald was worth £4 5s. 8d. clear in 1535. (fn. 163) In 1536 the curate was paid the small tithes and offerings for his stipend, (fn. 164) and in 1542 the impropriators were charged with paying 6s. 8d. to augment the vicar's salary. (fn. 165) The curate's stipend was £6 in the early 17th century (fn. 166) and had been raised to £10 by the early 18th. (fn. 167) The perpetual curate received Easter dues, and his stipend, paid by John Pitt from 1801 when he purchased the rectory, (fn. 168) was £40 in the early 1860s. (fn. 169) The benefice was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1747 and 1780, (fn. 170) and by 1807 the sums received had been laid out on 11½ a. in Eckington (Worcs.). (fn. 171) In 1866, following plans to build a church, the Gloucester and Bristol Special Churches Fund granted £1,000 to augment the living. (fn. 172) Charles James Monk, the principal benefactor of the new church, gave a tithe rent charge of £20 in Hardwicke in 1868, and in 1869 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed the living with £214 a year. (fn. 173) The glebe was sold in 1915. (fn. 174) The living was valued at £34 in 1856 (fn. 175) and c. £420 in 1885. (fn. 176) A house at the corner of London and Heathville Roads became the vicarage house c. 1869. (fn. 177)

The medieval parish church included a chantry called the charnel service, which had been founded in the chapel of St. Michael by Edward and William Taverner, John Constable, and Simon Baker c. 1392. They gave six messuages and a rent of 3s. from tenements in the suburbs of Gloucester to support the chaplains serving in it. In 1548 the chantry had an income of £3 14s. from messuages and gardens on the north side of Gloucester. (fn. 178)

The parish church, which survived until the mid 17th century, is described above. (fn. 179) North of the priory ruins a new parish church was begun in 1867 and consecrated in 1868. (fn. 180) The cost was met by a benefaction from C. J. Monk, grants from charities and church building funds, and subscriptions. (fn. 181) The church, which was built of brick and designed by M. H. Medland, had a chancel with rounded apse, north vestry, and south organ chamber and a nave with north and south transepts, north porch, and west bellcot. (fn. 182) Many of the fittings were given by the Monk family. (fn. 183) The vestry was enlarged in 1889 (fn. 184) and the organ chamber in 1898. (fn. 185) Removal of the fittings to the new church at Wotton was authorized in 1914, (fn. 186) and the parish church was demolished in 1921. (fn. 187)

The surviving parish registers record baptisms in the period 1684–1762 and from 1777 with gaps between 1837 and 1867, marriages in the period 1695–1737 and from 1868, and burials from 1695. The earliest register often notes births rather than baptisms, and the infrequent record of baptisms and marriages before the late 1860s is explained by the lack of a church. (fn. 188) A St. Mary de Lode register includes baptisms and burials for St. Catherine's parish in the mid 18th century. (fn. 189)

St. John the Baptist (later St. John Northgate).

In 1100 the bishop settled a portion of 20s. in the church, in Northgate Street, on Gloucester Abbey. (fn. 190) In 1138 the Crown apparently confirmed the whole church to the abbey, (fn. 191) which assigned it c. 1163 to support a feast of St. Oswald in the abbey church. (fn. 192) St. John's church was described as a chapel in the late 12th and early 13th century but by 1205 the living was a rectory. (fn. 193) Plans in 1299 to ordain a vicarage came to nothing. (fn. 194) St. John was included in 1931 in the new united benefice of St. Michael with St. John the Baptist, and in 1952 in that of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist. (fn. 195) St. John's church, which was shared with Methodists from 1972 and renamed St. John Northgate, (fn. 196) became a chapel of ease in 1975, when its parish was united with that of St. Mary de Crypt church, (fn. 197) and was declared redundant and vested in the Gloucester Diocesan Trust in 1978. The Methodists, who then took a long lease of the building, made a new sharing agreement with the Anglicans. (fn. 198)

Gloucester Abbey, which presented to the rectory in 1279, (fn. 199) held the patronage until the Dissolution; in 1539 a presentation was made by patrons under a grant from the abbey. From 1546 the patronage was exercised by the Crown, (fn. 200) although in 1551 it was said to belong to the dean and chapter of Gloucester cathedral. (fn. 201) By the early 18th century the Crown usually presented through the Lord Chancellor, (fn. 202) who became patron of the united benefice of St. Michael with St. John the Baptist. (fn. 203)

In 1291 the rectory was valued at £6 13s. 4d. over and above the abbey's portion, (fn. 204) which was granted to the dean and chapter of Gloucester in 1541. (fn. 205) In 1535 the living was worth £14 0s. 10½d. clear (fn. 206) and in 1603 the profits did not exceed £7. (fn. 207) In the early 18th century the rector's income comprised only voluntary contributions and payments from sermon and prayer charities. (fn. 208) In 1737 the rector took tithe pigs from two properties but in 1744 he observed that the living had neither tithes nor glebe. (fn. 209) In the late 18th century and the early 19th he received quarterly pew rents. (fn. 210) Samuel Palling by will dated 1734 settled the reversion of an inn in Gloucester in trust for the rector (fn. 211) and by 1743 the trustees were receiving rent from the property, (fn. 212) part of which was exchanged in 1867 for 2½ a. in Down Hatherley. In 1929 the charity's endowments were transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to augment the benefice. (fn. 213) Queen Anne's Bounty awarded it sums of £200 in 1745 and 1755 to meet benefactions by the Revd. Thomas Savage and by William Rogers and John Driver respectively. (fn. 214) At inclosure of the fields around Gloucester in 1799 the rector was allotted 8½ a., including 2 a. for part of St. Oswald's tithes. (fn. 215) In 1807 the glebe included 18½ a. in Harescombe. (fn. 216) The benefice was augmented in 1813 from the parliamentary fund by lot with £400. (fn. 217) In 1856 it was worth £127. (fn. 218) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed it with £40 a year in 1844, with £20 a year to meet a benefaction of £600 in 1869, and with £86 a year in 1870. (fn. 219)

In 1407 Thomas Barse was licensed to alienate to the rector ½ a. near the church on which to build a glebe house and make a graveyard. (fn. 220) There was no rectory house in the 18th century and the early 19th (fn. 221) but a house near the corner of Heathville and London Roads was acquired for the rector in the early 1870s. (fn. 222) It had probably been sold by the early 1920s. (fn. 223)

The church had a number of chantries and obits. Two chantries were probably established in the mid 13th century. The income from rents of one, apparently founded by William of Sandhurst, declined so much that in 1341 it was united with a chantry in Holy Trinity church to support a chaplain serving in each church in alternate years. (fn. 224) The chantries presumably lapsed or were separated and united with others in their respective churches. Luke of Cornwall, presumably the man who was bailiff in the mid 1250s, (fn. 225) founded a chantry in St. John's church, (fn. 226) which may have been that served at the altar of St. Mary by its own chaplain in 1383. The chantry of St. Mary, which received several benefactions, had an income from lands and tenements of £13 0s. 8d. in 1548. (fn. 227) One of its many messuages and gardens in Gloucester was sold that year to Sir Michael Stanhope and John Bellow. Another messuage, in Hare Lane and known as the College, had been occupied by the priests serving in the church. (fn. 228) In the late 15th century Walter Brickhampton left Brickhampton manor in Churchdown to found a chantry in St. John's church. The chantry, known later as the service of the Holy Cross or of the rood, supported an organist in the church. At its dissolution in 1548 it had an income from the manor of £7 4s. 1½d.; (fn. 229) the manor was bought by Thomas Wilkes and Thomas Atkyns. (fn. 230)

A chantry of St. Clement had been founded in St. John's church by 1473, (fn. 231) presumably by the tanners' company, whose members attended an annual mass in the chantry's chapel in 1542. (fn. 232) Richard Warminster by will dated 1473 settled property in Gloucester and Tewkesbury on his mother and his wife Agnes, and after their deaths to support two priests serving at the altars of St. Mary and St. Anne in the church. Agnes married John Bridges and in 1548 the chantry of St. Anne, said to have been founded by her, had an income from lands and tenements of £8 14s. 4d. (fn. 233) The chantry's endowments included messuages, gardens, stables, and a dovehouse in Gloucester, and after its dissolution small parts of the property were sold to Sir Miles Partridge and his brother Hugh and to Anthony Bourchier. (fn. 234) A messuage which in 1548 brought in an income of 8s. for a lamp in the chancel (fn. 235) was sold to Thomas Chamberlayne and Richard Pate. (fn. 236)

Alderman Thomas Semys by will dated 1603 left a rent of 10s. for an annual sermon in the church. (fn. 237) The rector was paid for the sermon in the early 18th century (fn. 238) but later the rent was witheld. (fn. 239) Richard Keylock (d. 1637) left £50 to pay the rector a stipend for reading morning prayers. Later that year the principal was vested in the city corporation, which settled £3 a year on the rector. (fn. 240) The rector was paid for saying prayers once a week in 1683, twice a week in 1807, (fn. 241) and only twice a week during Lent in the 1820s. (fn. 242) John Wyman by will dated 1556 left the reversion of a tenement and garden in Gloucester for the use of the church. (fn. 243) In 1973, at a reorganization of the ecclesiastical charities of the united benefice, Wyman's and Keylock's charities were united, and the income of Wyman's charity was applied to general church expenses and the rector was paid for reading morning prayers on Lenten weekdays. (fn. 244) At a further reorganization in the late 1970s all the ecclesiastical charities of the united benefice were united. (fn. 245)

The medieval church of St. John the Baptist comprised chancel, nave with north porch and south aisle, and west tower and spire. (fn. 246) The aisle was built for an altar c. 1234. (fn. 247) The tower dates from the 15th century. In the later Middle Ages the church had many side altars, and among the lights established by 1368 were those of St. Catherine and St. Nicholas. (fn. 248) An altar of St. John was mentioned in 1485. (fn. 249) The church was surveyed in 1726 and preparations for rebuilding had started by 1730. Work began in 1732 and the new church was completed in 1734. The cost was met by rates and voluntary contributions. (fn. 250)

The south-west respond and the tower and spire were kept and the rest of the church was built to a basilican plan with classical east front (fn. 251) and Doric columns between the nave and aisles. The design was evidently by the builders, the brothers Edward and Thomas Woodward of Chipping Campden. (fn. 252) The surviving contemporary fittings include a carved oak reredos and communion rails, given by Bridget Price, and a panelled dado around the church. A west gallery was erected in 1826. (fn. 253) Two east galleries were taken down in 1874 when the church was restored and largely repewed. Further restoration work was carried out in 1880 and in 1882 when the west gallery was removed. (fn. 254) In 1735 three pinnacles were taken down from the tower (fn. 255) and in 1910 the top of the spire was removed to the churchyard. (fn. 256)

Fittings retained from the medieval church include a font which has been recut, a late medieval chest, many floor slabs, and fragments on the north wall of two brasses, apparently the remains of a memorial to John Semys (d. 1540) and his wives Elizabeth and Agnes. Brasses depicting John Bridges (d. 1483) and his wife Agnes have been lost. (fn. 257) On the north wall of the chancel is a monument to Alderman Thomas Price (d. 1679), who appears in an upright half-length effigy. Opposite is a memorial with the figures of his daughters Dorothy and Bridget (d. 1693 and 1753). (fn. 258) Several monuments were brought from St. Michael's church in 1953. (fn. 259) Of the two rests for churchwardens' staffs, one is dated 1711 and 1842 and the other 1826. The east window contains glass designed by the Camm brothers of Smethwick (Staffs.) as a memorial to Robert Raikes and Thomas Stock on the centenary of the Sunday School movement in 1880. (fn. 260) In 1635 the four bells were recast as five, of which three were recast in 1639. (fn. 261) The peal and a sanctus bell (fn. 262) were recast as a ring of six by Thomas Rudhall in 1775 and 1776. (fn. 263) The tenor had cracked by 1860, (fn. 264) and by the end of the century the bells were no longer rung. They were removed in 1976 and the tenor was given to the cathedral, the fourth to a shortlived museum in St. Michael's tower, and the others to Winstone church. (fn. 265) The communion plate, given by Thomas Rich in 1660, comprises two chalices and paten covers, two flagons, a credence paten, and an almsdish. (fn. 266) The registers survive from 1558. (fn. 267)

St. Mary de Crypt.

The church, in Southgate Street, was recorded from the early 1140s. (fn. 268) It was usually known as St. Mary in the south until the mid 16th century when a crypt served to distinguish it by name. (fn. 269) Between the 15th and 17th centuries it was also called Christ Church. (fn. 270) In the late 12th century the church had a parson and a vicar; the latter, who paid the parson 2s., received the profits of the living and 2s. from the vicar of All Saints, (fn. 271) once a dependent chapelry. The living, which was a rectory in 1274, (fn. 272) was united with All Saints in 1664 (fn. 273) and by the early 18th century St. Owen was considered annexed to it. (fn. 274) In 1952 St. Mary de Crypt with All Saints and St. Owen was included in the new united benefice of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist, (fn. 275) to which Christ Church at the Spa was added in 1979. (fn. 276)

The bishop of Exeter held the church in the mid 12th century when he granted a pension of 20s. from it to Godstow Abbey (Oxon.). (fn. 277) Soon after, he granted the church with its chapel of All Saints to Llanthony Priory, (fn. 278) and in 1241 he quitclaimed the advowson of the church to the priory, (fn. 279) which retained it until the Dissolution. (fn. 280) A patron for a turn under a grant from the priory made a presentation in 1543. Thereafter the patronage was exercised by the Crown, (fn. 281) which by the early 18th century usually presented through the Lord Chancellor. (fn. 282) The latter, who became patron of the united benefice of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist, (fn. 283) shared the right of presentation with the bishop in 1980. (fn. 284)

In 1291 the rectory was valued at £5 over and above portions of £1 and 3s. paid to Godstow and Llanthony respectively; (fn. 285) Llanthony had earlier received a pension of 3s. 10d. from the church. (fn. 286) In 1535 the rectory was worth £14 6s. 6¼d. clear and in 1603 the profits were put at £9, including a pension of 24s. to the Crown, which had evidently retained the portions paid to Godstow and Llanthony. (fn. 287) The rector's income by the late 17th century comprised rents from houses on the site of the rectory house, payments from sermon charities, and voluntary contributions; (fn. 288) in 1684 it was said that voluntary contributions could raise the value of the living by over £36. (fn. 289) The benefice, which in 1743 was valued at £26 besides voluntary contributions, (fn. 290) was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1762 and 1788 and from the parliamentary fund in 1814. (fn. 291) In 1856 it was worth £113. (fn. 292) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed it with £52 a year in 1844 and with £23 a year in 1872. (fn. 293) About 1805 10 a. in Westbury-onSevern were bought and in 1914 the glebe had c. 28 a. there, including land bought for St. Owen. (fn. 294)

Part of the rectory house south of the church was occupied by a tenant in 1455, (fn. 295) and by the early 18th century the house had been remodelled as three houses which were let. (fn. 296) Another rectory house was used as an inn c. 1775. (fn. 297) A house in Brunswick Square was the rectory from the 1870s (fn. 298) until the 1950s when the united benefice took over the former rectory house of St. Michael's parish. (fn. 299) That house was largely rebuilt in 1985 following its sale.

Several chantries and obits were supported in St. Mary de Crypt church. William of Cheltenham (d. by 1274) left the reversion of some houses in Gloucester to Winchcombe Abbey to support a secular priest celebrating in the church for his soul and that of his wife Alditha. (fn. 300) By 1302 the abbey had appropriated the rent from the houses and the chantry was served in the abbey church. (fn. 301) A chantry of St. Mary, presumably founded in St. Mary's church long before it was recorded in 1445, was endowed by Richard Manchester by will proved 1454 with two tenements in Gloucester. (fn. 302) It had an income of £9 3s. 6d. in 1548. (fn. 303) Of the endowments, including messuages, gardens, stables, and rents in Gloucester and land in Elmore, Sir Michael Stanhope and John Bellow bought a messuage in 1548. (fn. 304)

Garet van Eck by will proved 1506 left 100 marks, a house, vestments, and plate for a chantry at the altar of St. Catherine. The chantry had an income of £7 6s. 4d. in 1548, when its endowments, comprising a stable and garden in Gloucester and property in Lydney and Ripple (Worcs.), were sold to Sir Thomas Bell and Richard Duke. (fn. 305) The position of Bell's tomb suggests that the chantry was served in the south chapel. Richard Manchester by will proved 1454 directed his executors to support a chantry at the altar of St. John by selling part of his silver. (fn. 306) John Cooke intended the master of the grammar school founded under his will, proved 1528, to celebrate at the same altar, which was on the south side of the church, possibly in the transept. (fn. 307) A guild of St. Thomas supported a lamp in the church in 1455. (fn. 308) An obit for Richard Manchester was supported by a tenement bringing in an income of 22s. in 1548 when it was sold to Bell and Duke. (fn. 309)

Charities founded by Sarah Wright and Daniel Lysons in the late 17th century each provided for payments to the rector for two annual sermons, (fn. 310) and those founded by Robert Payne and Thomas Gosling in the early 18th for prayers at Candlemas and an annual sermon respectively. (fn. 311) The payments totalled £4 0s. 8d. but in the 19th century the amount received and the number of sermons preached varied. (fn. 312) The rent charge of £2 13s. given by Richard Hoare to All Saints' parish was paid to St. Mary's parish after 1648 and used for general church expenses. (fn. 313) The payment, which by 1706 was charged on the Tolsey and by 1815 had been reduced to £2 10s., was used for church repairs (fn. 314) before 1923 when it was assigned to the united eleemosynary charities. (fn. 315) A charity founded for the poor by Walter and Thomas Pury was appropriated for church repairs. Payments to the poor resumed in 1825 (fn. 316) but in 1910 the income of £1 8s. was used for church repairs, along with an income of £2 1s. 8d. from a gift evidently made for church purposes before 1841. (fn. 317) A bequest for church maintenance from William Phelps by will proved 1914 (fn. 318) produced an income of £11 16s. 4d. in 1923. In that year the charities mentioned above, save that of Richard Hoare, were reorganized as the United Ecclesiastical Charities, which reserved the payments to the rector and included 18s. for church repairs from the Pury charity. The ecclesiastical charities were further reorganized in 1973 to include those formerly established for St. Michael's church, and the income from the sermon and prayer charities was reserved to the rector on condition that he preached at least ten times a year in St. Mary's church. (fn. 319) In the late 1970s the charities were united with those for St. John and in 1980 they had an income of c. £130, of which £18 was paid to the rector and the remainder used for other church expenses. (fn. 320)

The church of St. Mary de Crypt comprises chancel with north and south chapels, central tower, transepts, and aisled nave with a south porch with an upper room. The only fragment of the 12th-century church to survive is the hoodmould of the west doorway. By the end of the 13th century the chancel had at least a south chapel, there was presumably a central tower with transepts, and the nave was aisled. During the earlier 14th century new windows were put into the aisles and the east wall of the chapel. Extensive reconstruction took place in the late 14th century when the nave and chancel arcades, the tower, and the east end of the chancel were rebuilt (the north chapel being a possible enlargement of that time), new windows were put into the transepts and west front, and the south porch was added. In 1401 the church was described as new. (fn. 321) By the early 16th century the church included several side altars, including one of St. George recorded in 1544. (fn. 322) In the 16th century the chancel walls were raised to form a clerestory, probably in the 1520s or 1530s when the walls were painted, (fn. 323) and the roof was rebuilt to a higher pitch. In 1642 the city corporation fitted part of the church as a magazine (fn. 324) and the building was not considered safe for services. (fn. 325) In the early 18th century many seats were made in the aisles and in 1735 a west gallery was built. (fn. 326) Side galleries were erected in the aisles in 1820 by subscription, 28 seats being provided for the subscribers and the remaining parts being used by the poor. (fn. 327)

The crypt from which the church took its name was either the vaults under the chancel and south chapel, not recorded after c. 1775, or, more probably, the larger space below the west end of the church. (fn. 328) That space housed a tavern by 1576 and a timber store during the 1643 siege. It had ceased to be a tavern by the mid 1670s and was let to tenants until the 1840s. (fn. 329)

In the early 1840s S. W. Daukes and J. R. Hamilton undertook an extensive restoration of the church, during which the south porch was reopened. The chancel was cleared of monuments and the features revealed, including the east window which had been partly walled up, were restored, and an ancient altar stone was reinstated. The restoration was completed in 1845 when the crypt was arched over, the side galleries, including one in the north transept, were removed, the west gallery was enlarged, and the church repewed. The work, except for that in the crypt, was paid for by the rector and by voluntary contributions, including a gift from the executors of James Wood. (fn. 330) Further restoration work was carried out in 1866, (fn. 331) in 1876 when the west gallery was taken down, in 1905, and in 1908 when the tower battlements and pinnacles were removed. (fn. 332) A carved stone and mosaic reredos was installed in 1889. (fn. 333) About 1920 stone screens were built at the west ends of the chapels, one as a parish memorial to the war dead. The south chapel was fitted in the 1930s and dedicated in 1945 as a memorial to Robert Raikes, the promoter of Sunday schools. (fn. 334)

The wooden pulpit, which dates from the early or mid 16th century, is carved with Renaissance ornament. From it George Whitefield preached his first sermon and later it was for a time in a Congregationalist chapel at Edge in Painswick. (fn. 335) The church has a 17th-century communion table in the south transept and an early 18th-century font. There are several notable monuments. The south chapel contains a tomb recess and the tombchest of Sir Thomas Bell and his wife Joan (d. 1566 and 1567). Two kneeling figures from the Bells' tomb were among monuments placed in the crypt in the early 1840s. Of those moved from the chancel at that time that to Daniel Lysons (d. 1681), which includes a kneeling figure, is in the north chapel. (fn. 336) In the north transept are the remains of brasses to Alderman John Cooke and his wife Joan (d. 1528 and c. 1545). (fn. 337) Brasses to William Henshaw's wives Alice (d. 1520) and Agnes, once part of a monument in St. Michael's church, were placed in the north aisle in 1959. (fn. 338)

Richard Manchester by will proved 1454 gave his largest brass pot towards the purchase of five bells. (fn. 339) In the late 1640s one was replaced by a bell from St. Owen's church and sold to Badgeworth parish, and a clock was erected in the tower. In 1678 William Covey and Richard Purdue of Bristol recast the tenor and a sanctus bell for an enlarged peal. It was recast by Abraham Rudhall in 1686, when the clock was replaced, and again in 1710. Two bells from the Rudhall foundry were added in 1749. (fn. 340) The church plate includes a chalice and paten cover given c. 1679 by the rector Abraham Gregory, a salver of 1684, a flagon purchased in 1699, and pieces given anonymously in 1718. (fn. 341) The registers survive from 1653 and contain entries for Littleworth. (fn. 342)

St. Mary de Grace.

The church or chapel, in the middle of Westgate Street near the Cross, (fn. 343) had been built by 1176. It was then known as St. Mary in the market (fn. 344) but by 1201 it was usually distinguished by its position by the entrance to Grace (later St. John's) Lane; (fn. 345) in 1498 it was also called the church or chapel of Graceland. (fn. 346) In the early 13th century the church was a separate benefice with parochial rights and in the gift of the Crown. (fn. 347) By 1287 it was held with Holy Trinity, presumably because of its poverty, (fn. 348) and later it came to be regarded as a chapel to Holy Trinity, with which it was appropriated to Gloucester Abbey in the 1390s. (fn. 349) In 1541 St. Mary de Grace was granted to the dean and chapter of Gloucester cathedral. (fn. 350)

In 1403 Gloucester Abbey undertook to appoint and support a secular chaplain to serve St. Mary de Grace, (fn. 351) and in the early 16th century the chaplain or curate took the profits of the church and paid the abbey a pension of 10s. (fn. 352) In 1535 the profits were valued at £5 16s. 1d. from personal tithes and offerings. (fn. 353) In 1540 the curate was paid by Alderman Henry Marmion, (fn. 354) a leading parishioner, (fn. 355) and in 1603 he had a stipend of £6. (fn. 356)

In 1648 St. Mary's parish was included in that served from St. Michael (fn. 357) and in the mid 1650s the church was demolished. (fn. 358) After the Restoration most inhabitants of St. Mary's parish continued to attend St. Michael's church (fn. 359) and made voluntary contributions to the rector of St. Michael. (fn. 360) The rector was licensed to the cure of the parish from 1737 (fn. 361) and the benefice of St. Mary, described as a rectory, was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1745 and 1750 (fn. 362) and was considered annexed to St. Michael by 1789. (fn. 363)

A chantry of St. Mary had been founded in St. Mary's church by 1328, (fn. 364) and in 1365 the rector of Holy Trinity and John Monmouth were licensed to alienate a rent of 33s. 4d. in Gloucester to the chaplain serving it. (fn. 365) The chantry had an income from lands and tenements of £8 5s. in 1548 when its endowments included a house called Gracelane College, in Grace Lane, which had been the home of priests. (fn. 366) The house was sold in 1548 to Sir Miles and Hugh Partridge. The remaining endowments comprised five messuages and rents totalling 36s. 8d. in Gloucester. (fn. 367)

The church of St. Mary de Grace, which was damaged by fire in 1223, (fn. 368) later comprised chancel, nave, and west tower and spire. (fn. 369) The building, which was in disrepair by the time of the siege of 1643, (fn. 370) was used by the city corporation as a magazine until 1651. The corporation, which in 1653 gave the churchwardens of St. Michael's leave to take material from St. Mary's church for repairing their parish church, (fn. 371) completed the demolition in 1654 and 1655 and used some stone for a market house. (fn. 372) Three bells and a chalice with cover from St. Mary's church, given to St. Michael's church in 1652, were sold and a monument was moved to St. Michael's church c. 1654. (fn. 373)

St. Mary de Lode.

The church, standing just to the west of Gloucester Abbey's precinct, in the later St. Mary's Square, was pre-Conquest in origin. When first recorded, in the mid 12th century, it was subject to the abbey, (fn. 374) and it was presumably founded to serve the abbey's extensive estates in and around Gloucester. Its parish later included Tuffley, much of Barton Street and Wotton, and parts of Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth, (fn. 375) and the churches of Barnwood, Maisemore, and Upton St. Leonards were originally dependent on it. (fn. 376) The present name of the church, recorded from 1523, (fn. 377) was taken from a passage of the nearby Old Severn, a channel of the Severn; in the Middle Ages it was usually called St. Mary before the abbey gate (fn. 378) and in the 16th century it was also known as St. Mary Broadgate. (fn. 379) From 1778 Holy Trinity was held with St. Mary de Lode and by 1838 the benefices were considered united. (fn. 380) In 1951 St. Nicholas was united with St. Mary. (fn. 381)

In the early 13th century the incumbent of St. Mary's church was called a rector (fn. 382) but he received only a portion of the profits of the church. (fn. 383) A dispute over the status of the living between the incumbent, who claimed it was a rectory, and the abbey was settled in 1302 when the archbishop's court declared it to be a vicarage. (fn. 384) In 1388 the abbey was licensed to appropriate the vicarage and serve the cure by monks. (fn. 385) The appropriation had been carried out by 1391 but in 1403 a new vicarage was ordained. (fn. 386) The abbey, which by 1394 paid the bishop a pension of 6s. 8d. for the church, (fn. 387) retained the advowson of the vicarage until the Dissolution, (fn. 388) and in 1541 advowson and impropriate rectory passed to the dean and chapter of Gloucester cathedral. (fn. 389) The Crown presented in 1580 and 1697 by reason of lapse. (fn. 390) In 1980 the dean and chapter shared the patronage of the united benefice with the bishop. (fn. 391)

In 1291 the incumbent's share of the profits of the church was valued at £15 6s. 8d. He also had a portion of 5s. in Matson church. The remaining profits of St. Mary's church were divided between Llanthony Priory, which took £1 6s. 8d. in tithes, and Gloucester Abbey, which received a portion of £3 6s. 8d.; (fn. 392) that portion had been confirmed to the abbey between 1164 and 1179. (fn. 393) The vicar, who paid the abbey's portion of the profits, was in dispute with the abbey over certain tithes and mortuary payments in 1304. It was then agreed that the vicar would have some tithes of sheep and would continue to receive a corrody in the abbey, where he would also have hospitality for himself, a chaplain, a deacon, and two clerks on feast days and fodder for his horse. (fn. 394) The vicarage, which was valued at 10 marks in 1313, (fn. 395) was said in 1388 to be endowed with lands. (fn. 396) In 1403 the abbey assigned the vicar a pension of £10 and the vicarage house, and undertook to support any other chaplains needed to serve the church and its chapels. (fn. 397) The vicar's pension took the form in 1523 of a lease of tithes of calves and dairy produce, personal tithes, and offerings, (fn. 398) and in 1535 of a payment of £10 13s. 4d. (fn. 399)

The dean and chapter, who continued the same pension, gave the vicar an additional sum of £43 from 1690. In 1697 the increment was reduced to £8 10s., representing small tithes, offerings, and fees with which the living was endowed in 1704. From that time the vicar had a stipend of £21 6s. 8d., (fn. 400) which was paid by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the late 19th century. (fn. 401) In 1664 and 1670 the impropriators also granted the vicar leases of some corn and hay tithes for terms of 21 years. (fn. 402) The vicar's tithes were commuted at inclosure of the fields around Gloucester in 1799 for 41 a. and a corn rent charge of £8 0s. 0½d. (fn. 403) The benefice was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1794 (fn. 404) and 6 a. at Epney, in Moreton Valence, were bought in 1795. (fn. 405) The glebe, which in 1894 covered 89 a., (fn. 406) was sold off piecemeal in the 20th century. (fn. 407) The living was valued at £286 in 1856. (fn. 408)

The vicarage house was being let at farm in 1535 (fn. 409) and in 1743 there was no glebe house. (fn. 410) By the early 1880s a house in College Green had become the vicarage house. (fn. 411) It was replaced, possibly in the late 1930s, by a house in Miller's Green, and in the late 1960s a new vicarage house was built in St. Mary's Square. (fn. 412)

There were two chantries in the church. That of St. Mary had been founded by 1331, (fn. 413) and in 1392 Richard Barbour was licensed to alienate four messuages and a shop in Gloucester and Leonard Stanley to support the chaplain serving it. (fn. 414) In 1548 the chantry had an income from lands and tenements of £4 3s. 4d. The endowments included two burgages sold to Sir Thomas Bell and Richard Duke in 1548, and land in Gloucester, Tredworth, and elsewhere, and a rent of 12d. in Pedmarsh field. (fn. 415) The other chantry was supported by the guild of the Holy Trinity, founded by 1420. (fn. 416) Richard Manchester by will proved 1454 left two shops to support its chaplain. (fn. 417) The chantry had an income of £3 0s. 1½d. in 1546, and its endowments comprised six messuages in Gloucester, a messuage and land in Minsterworth, and a rent of 12d. in Cheltenham. (fn. 418)

An obit for Walter Froucester, abbot of Gloucester, supported from the rectory estate, was celebrated in the church by three priests until the Dissolution. (fn. 419)

A charity founded by Edward Nourse in the late 17th century provided for the payment of 10s. a year to the vicar for an annual sermon. (fn. 420) In 1971, at a reorganization of charities, including those founded for St. Nicholas's parish, the payment was reserved to the vicar with small sums for five other sermons, and Thomas Withenbury's charity was divided, one part forming a separate charity for general church expenses. (fn. 421)

The church of St. Mary de Lode comprises chancel, central tower, and aisled nave with south-east vestry and north and south porches. The chancel and tower survive from the medieval church and the body of the church from a rebuilding of 1825. During the laying of the foundations of the new nave the church was found to be on the site of a Roman building (fn. 422) and excavations in the nave in the years 1978–9 (fn. 423) revealed that there may have been a timber church or oratory on the site as early as the 6th century and that a nave was built there, largely of timber, in the 9th or early 10th century. For a time that nave may have had a west gallery or screen but by the mid 11th century a stone addition had been made to the west end, perhaps to support a gallery. A font stood in the centre of the nave. In the late 11th or early 12th century the church was rebuilt with chancel, central tower, and nave. In the mid 12th century aisles of three bays were added to the nave, which had a west doorway. Later the tower, which probably fell during a fire in 1190, (fn. 424) and chancel were rebuilt. In the 13th century the chancel was extended eastwards by a bay and the aisles westwards along the length of the nave.

The chancel was said to have fallen down by 1576 when the church needed repairs. (fn. 425) In 1643 the church was used as a prison for royalist soldiers taken at Highnam and, although it fell into disrepair, (fn. 426) royalists captured near Stow-on-the-Wold early in 1646 were held in it. (fn. 427) By the early 18th century a spire which the tower carried had been blown down by a violent storm, perhaps that of 1703, (fn. 428) there was a transeptal bay in each aisle, and the vestry had been added. (fn. 429) A gallery erected by the early 19th century was paid for with charity money, the seat rents being distributed with another charity. (fn. 430)

In the years 1825–6 the nave and vestry were rebuilt and the porches added, all in a stuccoed early Gothic style designed by James Cooke, a local mason. The gallery was moved to the west end. (fn. 431) The cost of rebuilding was met partly by loans. In 1845 circular windows were inserted in the nave over the north and south porches, and the tower was restored. (fn. 432) The chancel had been restored and the east window replaced by 1850. (fn. 433) Further restoration work was carried out in 1865 when the church was repewed, in 1869 when the chancel fabric was partly renewed, (fn. 434) c. 1885 when part of the gallery was removed and the vestry enlarged, (fn. 435) in 1896 when choir stalls and a low stone screen were placed at the east end of the nave, (fn. 436) and c. 1912. (fn. 437) The gallery was removed in 1980 when a church hall was built in the west part of the nave. (fn. 438)

The most notable monument in the church is an effigy of a priest, which has been reset in a defaced early 14th-century tomb recess on the north wall of the chancel. (fn. 439) The carved wooden pulpit dates from the 15th century. The organ, an 18th-century instrument, was brought from St. Nicholas's church in 1972. (fn. 440) There are six old bells: (i–iii) 1705 by Abraham Rudhall; (iv–v) 1636 by Roger Purdue; (vi) 1710 by Abraham Rudhall. (fn. 441) The church plate includes a paten given in 1724 by Margaret Cartwright, a chalice and paten given in 1736 by Anne Walter, and a chalice of 1756. (fn. 442) There is a register for the period 1656–61, and the parish registers, which survive from 1695, contain transcripts of entries for the period 1675–93. (fn. 443)

St. Michael.

The church, at the Cross on the south side of Eastgate Street, (fn. 444) had been built by the mid 12th century (fn. 445) and anciently served a parish which included part of Barton Street. (fn. 446) The living was a rectory in 1263. (fn. 447) By 1789 St. Mary de Grace was considered annexed to it (fn. 448) and in 1931 the benefice was included in the new united benefice of St. Michael with St. John the Baptist. (fn. 449) The church was closed in 1940 as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War, (fn. 450) and its parish was united with that of St. Mary de Crypt in 1952. (fn. 451)

In the mid 13th century the advowson of St. Michael's church and its dependent chapel of St. Martin belonged to the bishop of Exeter. Gloucester Abbey, which in the 1270s was in dispute with the rector over tithes and claimed the patronage, (fn. 452) purchased the advowson from the bishop in 1285. After the Dissolution it was retained by the Crown, (fn. 453) which in 1625, following a long vacancy, ordered an inquiry into the patronage. (fn. 454) By the mid 18th century the Crown usually presented through the Lord Chancellor, (fn. 455) who was patron of the united benefice created in 1931. (fn. 456)

The rector took tithes from land east of Gloucester. In the early 1270s Gloucester Abbey claimed that he had deprived it of tithes there, and in 1280 the rector relinquished corn tithes from two strips of land to the abbey. (fn. 457) The rector received no mortuary payments before the mid 14th century when land south of the church was dedicated as a graveyard. Before then parishioners had been buried in the abbey churchyard and in 1366 the abbey gave up its right to burials in return for 20s. a year. In 1368 the diocesan bishop lifted an interdict on the new graveyard, which had been dedicated without his authority. (fn. 458)

In 1291 the church and its chapel were worth £6. (fn. 459) The living was valued at £21 5s. 9½d. clear in 1535 (fn. 460) but it was said to be worth barely £13 6s. 8d. in 1603 (fn. 461) and £8 16s. 4d. in 1625. At the last date, when the rectory was vacant, the income comprised tithes, voluntary contributions, and Easter payments. (fn. 462) Thomas Woodruffe, who became rector later that year, (fn. 463) recovered some tithes and cancelled a modus of 13s. 4d. from 11 a. in Upton St. Leonards, (fn. 464) but in 1704 tithes were withheld from c. 30 a. (fn. 465) The living's value was £12 excluding voluntary contributions c. 1708, (fn. 466) £50 including £15 from small tithes in 1743, (fn. 467) and £235 in 1856. (fn. 468) The rector's tithes outside Gloucester were commuted at the inclosure of 1799 for 15 a. and a corn rent charge of £7 2s. 2½d., (fn. 469) and those within the city in 1850 for a corn rent charge of £2 5s. (fn. 470) The benefice, which in the early 18th century included voluntary contributions from the inhabitants of St. Mary de Grace parish, (fn. 471) was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1759, 1766, and 1791. (fn. 472) The sums received were used to buy 4 a. in the city (fn. 473) and in 1795 11 a. at Epney. (fn. 474) In 1869 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed the living with £78 a year. (fn. 475) The glebe was sold piecemeal in the late 19th century and the early 20th. (fn. 476)

In the 18th century and the early 19th the rector received a rent charge of 40s. from an estate in Down Hatherley and Twigworth; (fn. 477) it derived from a bequest to the corporation by William Drinkwater to support a public lecturer in the city (fn. 478) and had been applied to a weekly lectureship in St. Michael's church. (fn. 479)

The chapel of St. Martin, at the Cross on the north side of Eastgate Street, (fn. 480) was recorded in the mid 12th century (fn. 481) and was a chapel to St. Michael in the mid 13th. (fn. 482) The Crown presented a priest to it in 1334. (fn. 483) The chapel was closed between 1364 and 1368 by the diocesan bishop, who gave the site to the rector for a dwelling house, (fn. 484) and it had been pulled down by 1371. (fn. 485) That year the Crown granted the site, called St. Martin's Place, to the burgesses for a clock tower, but in 1372 restored it to the rector. (fn. 486) The rectory house built there was apparently in use in 1523 (fn. 487) but in 1551 the Crown exemplified the grant to the burgesses. (fn. 488) Architectural features from the 14th century were discovered at the site in 1894. (fn. 489)

Richard Elly by will dated 1754 left a house in Maverdine Lane for the rector. In 1801 it was exchanged for a new house which William Bishop had built on the glebe in the later Brunswick Road. (fn. 490) That house passed to the united benefice of St. Mary de Crypt with St. John the Baptist. (fn. 491)

Several masses and obits were celebrated in St. Michael's church. A service of the Blessed Virgin Mary was supported by rents in the early 13th century, (fn. 492) and in 1321 Andrew of Pendock was licensed to alienate to the rector a messuage adjoining the church for rebuilding as a chapel of St. Mary and a rent of 5s. in Gloucester for supporting a chaplain serving in it daily. (fn. 493) The chantry, which may have been endowed with property and rent in the town and Barton Street by William Heyberare and two others in 1364, (fn. 494) had an income from lands and tenements of £11 17s. 7d. in 1548. (fn. 495) The endowments were sold in 1549, a small part being acquired by Anthony Bourchier. (fn. 496) The chantry's goods presumably included the small bell called Pendock in 1611 and sold by the churchwardens in the mid 17th century. (fn. 497)

A guild of St. John the Baptist, founded in the church by 1449, (fn. 498) supported a chantry which was served in its own chapel and had an income of £9 1s. 6d. in 1548. (fn. 499) Its endowments, including St. John's or Brethren Hall in Eastgate Street, messuages, cottages, gardens, stables, and land in Gloucester and Barton Street, and land at Sneedham's Green in Upton St. Leonards, were sold in 1549, a small part being bought by Bourchier. (fn. 500)

John Trye and his wife Catherine gave land in Sandhurst for a chantry in the chapel of St. Anne in St. Michael's church, (fn. 501) and John by will proved 1485 left the reversion of his estate in Nailsworth to feoffees, including the master and wardens of the weavers' company in Gloucester, to provide a chaplain serving it daily. The chantry may have been refounded in the early 16th century by Margaret van Eck, who gave land to help poor weavers, and the master and wardens acted as proctors of the chantry. Of its income of £9 1s. 4d. in 1548, 8s. was distributed among the poor. (fn. 502) The endowments comprised the weavers' hall, a few messuages and gardens, and 1½ a. in and near the city, and property in Sandhurst, King's Stanley, and Nailsworth. They were sold in 1549 and Bourchier bought part including the hall. (fn. 503)

In 1499 the abbot of Gloucester at the request of John Hartland gave the church some ornaments and vestments on condition that, among other things, an obit was held on the morrow of St. Kenelm (18 July). (fn. 504) A tenement, which in 1548 brought in an income of 10s. to support an obit, possibly founded in the late 15th century by Thomas Whitfield, (fn. 505) was sold to Thomas Chamberlayne and Richard Pate in 1549. (fn. 506)

For several years from 1639 the city corporation paid the rector or a curate £1 for preaching two sermons under the will of Henry Redvern, and from the early 1650s the incumbent had 10s. for one sermon under the same gift. (fn. 507) The charity founded by Edward Nourse in the late 17th century provided for a sermon by the rector. (fn. 508) From 1733 the corporation also paid the rector for reading prayers twice a day under a bequest from the Revd. Charles Trippet of East Knoyle (Wilts.), and that stipend was increased in 1734 under a bequest by Francis Yate. (fn. 509) In the later 18th century and early 19th bequests by Richard Elly and Richard Seyer and an anonymous gift provided for payments to the rector for Sunday services, sermons, and prayers. (fn. 510) In 1973 the sermon and prayer charities mentioned above for St. Michael's parish were included with a charity of Jane Punter, who in 1755 gave a house for the parish clerk, (fn. 511) in a reorganization which is treated under St. Mary de Crypt.

Bequests by John Browne, Sarah and Giles Marden, and John Blanch of Barton Street in or before the 18th century provided for annual sermons in St. Michael, and the rector held the principals and preached the sermons until at least 1824. (fn. 512) The charity founded by Margaret Cartwright before 1704 provided a bible for a poor parishioner each year. (fn. 513)

St. Michael's parish was receiving rent in the town by 1364. (fn. 514) Feoffees, apparently appointed from 1475, granted leases of tenements belonging to the parish and in 1568 applied the income from three messuages in Eastgate Street to repairing its church, highways, and bridges and to helping its poor. (fn. 515) Two houses providing an annual income of £4 for church repairs in 1825 (fn. 516) were let for £80 from the 1840s and for £92 from 1864. (fn. 517)

The medieval church of St. Michael comprised chancel with south chapel, nave with south aisle, and west tower and porch; (fn. 518) the porch had an upper room. (fn. 519) Architectural evidence suggests that the church was rebuilt in the early 14th century, (fn. 520) and the chapel was added in the 1320s to house the chantry of St. Mary. (fn. 521) The chancel was reconstructed in 1392. (fn. 522) In 1401 a bequest was made to the fabric of a new belfry, (fn. 523) and the west bell tower was built between 1455 and 1472. (fn. 524) The church included several side altars in the later Middle Ages when among the lights and images recorded were those of St. Catherine, St. James, (fn. 525) and the Holy Rood. There may have been an altar of All Souls. (fn. 526)

The chancel was repaired c. 1561. (fn. 527) The church underwent a major reconstruction in 1653 and 1654 when the south arcade of four bays was rebuilt. Fabric from the churches of St. Aldate and St. Mary de Grace was used in the rebuilding, some glass from the latter being incorporated in the windows. The cost, almost £200, was met by the sale of materials and fittings from those churches, a rate, and a gift from the corporation. (fn. 528) In 1622 the corporation appointed a committee to allot seats in the church to its members, (fn. 529) and the mayor and aldermen had seats at the east end in 1704. (fn. 530) Repairs to the church were made in 1669, when the parishioners removed the chancel roof without the rector's consent, in 1670, when the church was ceiled, and in 1680, when the aisle was repaired. The chancel and chapel, called the parish chancel in 1704, had ceased to be separate features by then and were described as the pine end, probably from the wainscotting and other fittings, in 1736, (fn. 531) when the south-eastern corner was rebuilt and the church refurbished. (fn. 532) There was more rebuilding in the late 1770s and extensive repairs were carried out c. 1795 and c. 1802. (fn. 533) A gallery had been built by 1648, and in 1678 the seats in the south aisle were set facing the pulpit, in the fashion of a gallery. (fn. 534) A gallery in the base of the tower was apparently erected in the early 19th century. (fn. 535)

As a result of the many alterations the plan of the church ceased to be rectangular and by 1846 it had been decided to rebuild it except for the tower. (fn. 536) Work began in 1849 and the new church, to a design of Thomas Fulljames and F. S. Waller, was consecrated in 1851. It was larger than the old and on a different alignment which permitted a widening of the street. The cost was met by a grant from the Incorporated Church Building Society and subscriptions. The west porch was probably removed at the rebuilding, when the base of the tower was cleared. (fn. 537) The south chapel housed a vestry and organ loft until 1875 when a south vestry room was added and the organ rebuilt. (fn. 538) During a restoration in 1893 the chancel was partly refitted, a carved stone reredos and a stone screen with sedilia being erected. (fn. 539) In 1894 an oak screen was placed in the tower arch. (fn. 540) After the Second World War the church, which occupied a commercially valuable site projecting into the street, was not reopened and in the years 1955–6 it was demolished except for the tower. (fn. 541)

Of the fittings some glass was taken for a church in Bath and the reredos for Saul church. (fn. 542) The remains of one memorial were placed in St. Mary de Crypt church and several monuments were moved to St. John's church. (fn. 543) The church plate, which included pieces acquired in 1691 with a bequest of Nicholas Webb (d. 1691) and pieces given by his son Alderman Nicholas Webb in 1710, by Elizabeth Austin in 1731, and by Nathaniel Lye in 1749, (fn. 544) passed to St. John's and St. Mary's churches. (fn. 545)

The 'common' or 'curfew bell' was tolled at St. Michael's church at the borough's expense in 1393, (fn. 546) and in 1550 the corporation paid for a bell to be rung at 4 a.m. and 8 p.m. (fn. 547) A clock and chimes had been installed in the church by 1546, (fn. 548) and in 1612 the common council made a grant towards a dial being erected on the tower by the parish for the public benefit. (fn. 549) The corporation contributed to works on the bells and clock. (fn. 550) The dial was removed in 1770 because of its disrepair. (fn. 551) The 'curfew bell' at 8 o'clock was rung until the Second World War, save in the period 1854–72 when the peal was silent. (fn. 552) Between 1752 and 1849 the market (later the fire) bell hung in the tower. (fn. 553) In 1611 St. Michael's church had a ring of six bells, which was recast in 1667 by Richard Keene of Woodstock (Oxon.). (fn. 554) Two bells were added in 1887, (fn. 555) and the corporation gave the fire bell and the mayor, Albert Estcourt, a new bell in 1898 for an enlarged peal. (fn. 556) The bells were taken down in 1956, and the treble and second were given to the cathedral and the others sold. (fn. 557)

The registers of St. Michael's parish survive from 1553. (fn. 558)

St. Nicholas.

The church, in lower Westgate Street, had parochial rights by the end of the 12th century (fn. 559) and was described as a minster (monasterium) in the early 13th. (fn. 560) In 1203 the church, which was in the gift of the Crown, was called St. Nicholas of the bridge of Gloucester, (fn. 561) and in 1221, when the burgesses claimed it, (fn. 562) it was said to have custody of the later Westgate bridge. (fn. 563) In 1229 Henry III gave the church to St. Bartholomew's Hospital to support the poor there. (fn. 564) The hospital, which was later included in St. Nicholas's parish, (fn. 565) appropriated the rectory (fn. 566) and served the church through chaplains or stipendiary curates. (fn. 567) The right of nomination passed with the governorship of the hospital under a royal grant of 1564 to the city corporation. (fn. 568)

The corporation granted leases of the rectory (fn. 569) and the curate was the farmer in 1576 and in 1603 when he had a stipend of £10. (fn. 570) From c. 1610 the rectory was held by the parishioners who supported a preacher out of the profits. (fn. 571) The parishioners claimed a similar arrangement at a vacancy in 1686, (fn. 572) but the corporation nominated to the curacy from the next vacancy in 1708. (fn. 573) In the early 18th century the curate's income came from voluntary contributions, valued at £60 a year in the 1730s, (fn. 574) and sermon charities. (fn. 575) Between 1738 and 1742 the corporation, then attending the church during a dispute over its cathedral seats, employed the curate as its chaplain. (fn. 576) It also usually paid him, perhaps from 1656, a salary of £6 for services in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. (fn. 577) The church was sometimes described in the 18th and 19th centuries as a free chapel annexed to the hospital. By 1735 there was thought to be a perpetual curacy, (fn. 578) a status acquired or confirmed through endowments from Queen Anne's Bounty in 1747, 1749, 1781, and 1789 and from the parliamentary fund in 1810 and 1813. (fn. 579) Those were laid out on land in Haresfield and Sud Meadow. The glebe, including land in Norton given for a weekly lecture, comprised 40 a. in 1828 (fn. 580) and was sold piecemeal in the 20th century. (fn. 581)

Vacancies in the church in 1843 and 1852 were filled by the municipal charity trustees with the concurrence of the city corporation. (fn. 582) In 1870 the trustees sold their rights in the living, then called a vicarage, to the incumbent, William Balfour. (fn. 583) He transferred them to the bishop in 1871 (fn. 584) when the benefice, which had been worth £118 in 1856, was endowed with £156 a year by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 585) In the mid 19th century the incumbent paid the dean and chapter of Gloucester a pension of 13s. 4d., charged on the impropriate rectory in 1541 and granted to the vicar in 1886. (fn. 586) The benefice was united with St. Mary de Lode in 1951 (fn. 587) and the church, which was closed in 1967, (fn. 588) was declared redundant in 1971 when the parish was merged with St. Mary's. (fn. 589)

In 1415 the chaplain lived in the church. (fn. 590) In 1607 the curate had lodgings in St. Bartholomew's Hospital (fn. 591) and after its rebuilding in 1790 he was paid £3 for the loss of his rooms. (fn. 592) In 1879 a house in London Road was purchased for a vicarage house. (fn. 593) It was replaced in 1924 by a semidetached house in Park Road. (fn. 594)

Several chantries and obits were supported in the church. William of Sandford c. 1240 gave his lands and rents to St. Bartholomew's Hospital to provide payments for inmates and to support a secular chaplain celebrating daily in the church, who was to have 20s. a year and accommodation in the hospital. The hospital, which until 1278 appointed one of its own chaplains to serve the chantry, used land in Gloucester, given for a chantry in 1338 by the executors of Owen of Windsor, (fn. 595) to augment the chantry priest's stipend. In 1535 he received 100s. and served daily at the altar of St. Thomas of Canterbury. (fn. 596)

A chantry of St. Mary was possibly founded by John of Elmore and John Teek who were licensed in 1366 to alienate 2 messuages, ⅓ a., and 12s. rent in Gloucester and its suburbs to a chaplain to serve daily at an altar of St. Mary, presumably in the south aisle. (fn. 597) John Cooke by will proved 1528 directed his executors to pay a priest a stipend of £5 to serve the chantry for two years so that the chantry's proctors could augment the endowments to make better provision for services. (fn. 598) In 1548 the chantry had an income of £6 9s. 8d., (fn. 599) and its endowments, in the city and including two vacant plots, were sold in 1549, part to Anthony Bourchier. (fn. 600)

William Crook by will dated 1401 left the reversion of tenements and rents in Gloucester to support a chaplain celebrating before the Holy Cross in an upper chamber in the church. (fn. 601) In 1548 the chantry, called the rood service, had an income of £6 12s. Bourchier bought part of its endowments when they were sold in 1549. (fn. 602) Thomas Gloucester by will proved 1447 left land in and around London and in Gloucestershire to found two chantries, one in a London church and the other in St. Nicholas. The priest of the Gloucester chantry was to have a salary of 20 marks and a house and was also to teach grammar for no payment. (fn. 603)

An obit for Alderman William Francombe (d. 1488) and his wife Agnes was founded in 1491 (fn. 604) and one for Walter Beech was mentioned in 1548. A rent of 10s. supported a lamp in the church before 1548, (fn. 605) and in the early 18th century the income from three tenements, said to have been given in the mid 15th century to maintain lights at the high altar, was used for church expenses. (fn. 606)

Charities founded by John Thorne, Thomas Singleton, William Windowe, Thomas Withenbury, and Sarah Clutterbuck in the 17th and 18th centuries provided for payments for annual sermons, and in the early 1820s the perpetual curate received a total of £3 17s. 8d. for preaching them. (fn. 607) The reorganization of those charities in 1971 is treated under St. Mary de Lode. Anthony Ellis gave c. 16 a. in Norton in 1809 to pay the perpetual curate or his nominee for a lecture on Sunday mornings. (fn. 608)

The church of St. Nicholas, which is built of oolitic limestone, comprises a chancel with north chapel, a nave with north aisle, south aisle with porch, and south porch with upper room, and a west tower and spire. (fn. 609) Two bays of the north arcade and a carved tympanum in the south wall of the nave survive from the 12th-century church, which was rebuilt and enlarged in the 13th century. The 13th-century south aisle was a chapel of St. Mary in 1347. In that year, when a west bell tower was recorded, the south porch was added to the nave and the ground to the west was built on by the parishioners to provide revenue for church repairs. In 1440 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which had contested the parishioners' title to the room above the porch and the building to the west, granted those parts on lease for 40 years. (fn. 610) In the early 15th century, presumably after the parishioners' acquisition in 1403 of land next to the church for a graveyard, (fn. 611) the north aisle was reconstructed and continued alongside the tower (where there may have been a transept), the tower was rebuilt with a spire, incorporating a coronet and surmounted by a ball and cross, (fn. 612) and the south windows of the south aisle were replaced. There were many side altars and lights in the church in the later Middle Ages, including those of St. Catherine, St. John the Baptist, Holy Trinity, and the morning mass. (fn. 613)

In the 16th century squints were inserted in the north and south walls of the chancel and a small porch and doorway were made on the south side of the south aisle. The north chapel was rebuilt in the 16th or 17th century, apparently as a vestry. A west gallery was erected c. 1621, and in 1622 the city corporation appointed a committee to allot seats in the church to its members. (fn. 614) The top of the spire, damaged during the 1643 siege, (fn. 615) was in disrepair in 1776, and in 1783 John Bryan removed the part above the coronet, on which he erected pinnacles, battlements, and copper ball finial with weathercock. By then the tower and spire were leaning and poor drainage was causing subsidence. In 1786, when the church was deemed in danger of collapse, services were discontinued and the fittings removed. Repairs were done after a plan to rebuild was dropped. (fn. 616) In 1865 at a restoration, apparently by John Jacques & Son, (fn. 617) the main south porch was rebuilt, a new window put in the nave wall, and two windows in the south aisle were remodelled. The church was repewed, the gallery was removed and part of it fitted in the tower arch, and the floor was raised. (fn. 618) Following a fire in 1901 the church was repaired. (fn. 619) The chancel was restored in the early 1920s (fn. 620) and the tower strengthened in the mid 1920s. Between 1935 and 1938 the church was reroofed, the north aisle restored, and the south wall strengthened. (fn. 621) In the early 20th century a doorway was made at the east end of the north aisle and a vestry room added. (fn. 622) The room was demolished in the later 1970s when the redundant church was restored. (fn. 623) In 1980 it was used for concerts and exhibitions. (fn. 624)

Before 1980 some fittings were removed from the church, including a closing ring on the main south door which incorporated 14th-century bronze work. The front of the gallery, which had been removed from the tower arch in 1924, stood at the east end of the south aisle in 1980. (fn. 625) The most notable of many monuments, that to Alderman John Walton and his wife Alice (d. 1626 and 1620), has two full-size recumbent effigies on the tombchest in the south aisle; (fn. 626) it was restored in 1980. The chancel has a monument to the Revd. Richard Green (d. 1711) with an upright halflength effigy. (fn. 627) A clock had been fixed to the tower by 1716. In 1785 or 1786 the chimes were repaired to play the tune 'Britons Strike Home' (fn. 628) but they no longer worked by the 1970s. The church has six bells: (i) 1608 probably by John Baker; (ii–iii) 1636 by Roger Purdue; (iv) 15th century by Robert Hendley; (v) 15th century from a Bristol foundry; (vi) 1725 by Abraham Rudhall the younger, being received from him in exchange for the old tenor in 1726. An early 16th-century sanctus bell was given to the cathedral c. 1973. (fn. 629) The church plate included a paten cover dated 1573, which may have belonged to a chalice given away in 1716 in an exchange. (fn. 630) Gifts by Alderman Christopher Capel and Ann Robins in 1626 and Alderman Richard Massinger in 1668 were used to buy plate, and other pieces were given by Ann Clayfield in 1716 and Charles Hyett in 1731. By 1970 one flagon had been sold to the city museum. (fn. 631)

The parish registers, which contain entries for the castle, survive from 1558. (fn. 632)

St. Owen.

The church, outside the south gate, was probably founded in the late 11th century by Roger of Gloucester who appointed two chaplains to serve it. His son Walter greatly increased the endowments, including St. Kyneburgh's chapel and several chapels outside Gloucester, and the church was dedicated at his request. Its parish on both sides of the town wall may have included one served earlier from St. Kyneburgh. The church, its graveyard, and dependent chapels, including Elmore, Hempsted, and Quedgeley, were part of the endowment of Llanthony Priory made by Walter's son Miles of Gloucester in 1137. (fn. 633) A few years later the priory assigned a portion of £1 in St. Owen's rectory to Lire Abbey (Eure) for tithes and land, and at the dispossession of the alien houses in 1414 it passed to Sheen Priory (Surr.). (fn. 634) In the late 12th century St. Owen's church had a parson who received the living's revenues and paid Llanthony 2 marks. (fn. 635) By the mid 13th century the living was a vicarage in the gift of the priory, (fn. 636) which continued to present vicars, notwithstanding a licence in 1395 to appropriate the living and nominate one of its canons to serve the cure. (fn. 637) The advowson belonged to the Crown in the early 17th century. (fn. 638)

St. Owen's church was pulled down just before the siege in 1643 when the area outside the south gate was fired, and in 1648 its parish was included in that served from St. Mary de Crypt church. (fn. 639) After the Restoration the inhabitants of St. Owen's parish continued to attend St. Mary's church (fn. 640) and from 1737 the rector of St. Mary was licensed to the cure of St. Owen. (fn. 641) The two benefices were later considered united. (fn. 642)

In the mid 13th century Llanthony Priory assigned the vicarage a portion comprising the small tithes and offerings of the church, a house once occupied by a chaplain serving the church, and tithes and other property in Elmore, Hempsted, Quedgeley, and Woolstrop. The first vicar to receive that portion claimed that it was insufficient and that the priory was bound by an earlier charter to build a vicarage house, but following arbitration in 1256 he surrendered that charter in return for 6 marks, of which 3½ marks were for providing a house in Hempsted. (fn. 643) Elmore, Hempsted, and Quedgeley later won full parochial status and in 1535 St. Owen's vicarage was worth £4 19s. 5½d. clear. (fn. 644) Its profits did not exceed £4 10s. in 1603 (fn. 645) and a payment of £1 from the site of the church was the sole income of the living in the early 18th century. (fn. 646) In 1737 the benefice was augmented by lot from Queen Anne's Bounty with £200 which was laid out on 19 a. in Westbury-on-Severn. (fn. 647)

A chantry of St. Mary, founded in the church by 1356, (fn. 648) had an income of £8 9s. in 1548, when the chantry priest assisted the vicar. Of its endowments, all in Gloucester, part was sold to Sir Thomas Bell and Richard Duke in 1548. (fn. 649)

In the early 16th century the church had several side altars and lights, including those of the rood, All Souls, and St. Catherine. (fn. 650) The chancel roof was in decay in 1547, and by 1552 the church had been repaired and provided with new seats. A bell was sold in 1551, leaving three bells and a sanctus bell in the church tower. (fn. 651) The demolition in 1643 was carried out by the city corporation, which used part of the fabric and fittings for repairs at the Crypt school. (fn. 652) Following the corporation's decision in 1648 to develop the waste ground outside the south gate for public walks and the drying of cloth, the site of the church was cleared, some rubble being used for works at the city quay, (fn. 653) but the parishioners of St. Mary de Crypt secured the site in 1650 and let it for £1. (fn. 654) Part of the site was taken for an extension of the docks in 1847 (fn. 655) and St. Owen's parish sold a long lease of another part in 1851 to the Independent chapel, then being enlarged. (fn. 656)

Footnotes