The Parish Church of Cheltenham is by far the oldest building in the town and the only mediaeval one still standing. As you see it now, the fabric is substantially as it has been for over six hundred years and the oldest parts are more than eight hundred years old. It is very likely that there was a Saxon church on the same site before the present one was built, though that cannot now be proved, but Christians have probably been worshipping here for well over a thousand years.
As early as 773 there was a monastery in Cheltenham, established perhaps towards the end of the previous century, during the same period as the great abbeys of Bath, Worcester, Gloucester, Evesham and Pershore. The site of this monastery is not now certain, but it may have been around the Saxon church where the Parish Church stands today.
A church synod in 803 referred to a priory in Cheltenham, and another one held in Gloucester in 1086 mentions "a church with its chapels" here. Domesday Book (1086) tells us that the church at Cheltenham was held by Reinbald, Dean of the Canons of Cirencester Abbey. He was a great man of the time and had been Chancellor to Edward the Confessor. He held at least sixteen other churches elsewhere in the country.
In 1133 Henry I formally granted to Cirencester Abbey "the church of Cheltenham, with the land thereof, and the mill, and the chapels, and all other appurtenances to the said church belonging". The Augustinian canons of Cirencester were great church builders and they began to build the present church soon after that date. By 1190 it was important enough for the nearby churches of Charlton Kings and Leckhampton to be "made subject to the mother church of Cheltenham" by Bishop William de Vere of Hereford.
It remained subject to Cirencester Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 when the Crown confiscated all the Abbey's properties. Cheltenham Church and its lands were then leased to a succession of laymen, who were responsible for employing curates to serve the Church and parish, while they themselves enjoyed the profits of the church land and properties. The most famous of these laymen was Francis Bacon (1561-1626) to whom the Church, and the Chapel at CharIton Kings, were leased in 1598. From 1619 to 1626 there was a very long and complicated law-suit about the stipend paid to the Curate of Cheltenham as a result of which it was increased from £10 to £40 a year.
Soon after this the advowson (the legal right to appoint the curate and to benefit from church property) passed to Jesus College, Oxford, on condition that they appointed only bachelors, who held no other living. The college's close connection with Wales meant that many of the curates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were Welshmen.
Early in the nineteenth century, when the town was developing rapidly as a spa, the advowson was secured by the property developer, Joseph Pitt, MP, after whom Pittville is named, who in turn sold it to The Revd. Charles Simeon, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, for £3,000 in 1816. He appointed Cheltenham's most famous and controversial incumbent, Francis Close, in 1826, and he remained here until he was appointed Dean of Carlisle in 1856.
In 1862 Close's successor, Edward Walker, bought the chancel, which Pitt had sold to a firm of solicitors, and became the first Rector of Cheltenham in modern times. His successor, Charles Bell, built St. Matthew's Church in 1879, following the existence of a temporary "Tin Chapel" on the same site.
August 3rd 1859. A letter from the Rev. E. Walker to the Parishoners of St. Mary's announces that the Parish Church is no longer fit for public worship. The reasons given are:
This matter was complicated by the fact that the galleries were mostly of facultied pews to certain houses, and it was necessary to receive permission from all living persons connected to those houses. After many proposals and meetings it was pointed out that under a clause in the Recent Burial Act, the secretary of State had the power to interfere where a building was in a state dangerous to the health of the worshippers, the expense to be defrayed out of the public poor's rate. The Sanitary Officer of the Burial Board came to Cheltenham on the 7th October 1859, and an Order in Council was issued on 24th January 1860, requiring that the vaults be filled with a mixture of earth and charcoal, and the whole covered with concrete of not less than nine inches thickness.
This was attended to and the other defects, so that the Church was reopened for public worship on the 8th March 1861, Mr. Walker preaching the Sermon. The cost to the Poor Rate was £600, and it is noteworthy that the Dissenting Churches of the town raised no objection to this.
During the closure of the Parish Church a Temporary Church was erected in 1859, on the site of the Clarence Hotel. The material was corrugated iron, fluted and painted stone colour. It seated 1500 persons, and was 132 ft in length and 69 feet breadth. The interior has a very light appearance, and is fitted up with all the usual accompaniments of a Church. The organ was in a gallery at the west end. It was completed on November 1st 1859. When the Parish Church was reopened the congregation was so large that it was found necessary to continue use of the Temporary Church. In fact a Confirmation Service for 706 candidates was held there on 23rd May 1860. This Church was finally replaced by St.Matthew's during the Incumbency of Canon Bell, 1872-1895.
St. Matthew's Church was built to seat 1500, with galleries to accommodate pupils from the Ladies' College and (as it was then known) the Gentlemen's College. He intended that to become the Parish Church of Cheltenham and for the old Parish Church to serve a separate parish consisting mainly of the lower High Street, but his plans were opposed by the towns-people and were abandoned.
St. Matthew's was refurbished in 2000 in a forward looking style. The old wooden pews were replaced by comfortable chairs and the floor covered with a carpet. The fittings were modernised with comprehensive video and audio equipment. A highly functional kitchen was fitted to meet present day needs during church functions and for conference facilities.
The school was built by the Diocese of Cyangugu following the genocide massacres in Rwanda. The school is primarily for children who were made orphans. St Matthew's Cheltenham raised the money to build the school (£13,000).The school is a great success under the headship of Juliet. We have a special link through Bishop Ken Barham, the former Bishop of Cyangugu, and Amos Mukiza, the Archdeacon. Amos has visited us in Cheltenham.
A feature of St. Mary's bound to strike the visitor is the large number of memorial plaques of various kinds on the walls. The unhurried visitor will find in these a great deal to interest, to intrigue and even to amuse. Many of them reflect Cheltenham's close connection with imperial India in the nineteenth century. The oldest one is a double-panelled plaque just inside the south door between the entrance and the south-west corner and dating from 1645, when the English Civil War was in full swing.
On the east wall of the north transept a sombre plaque records a dastardly murder committed by "a cruelly wicked livery servant." It is situated below and slightly to the north of the centre of the rose window.
A full listing of the
plaques in St. Mary's
has been kindly made available by Revd. Mac Farmborough and may help
relatives trying to locate their family roots. Also, the library contains a
book entitled "Memorial Inscriptions of Cheltenham" Volume 1, by J. A. Rawes
(63G929.5RAW) should you want more detailed information.
The following three graveyard inscriptions can be found in the grounds of St. Mary's church.
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"To the memory of John Higgs, died 1825. Here lies John Higgs, A famous man for killing pigs, For killing pigs was his delight Both morning, afternoon and night Both heats and cold he did endure, Which no physician could e'er cure; His knife is laid, his work is done, I hope to heaven his soul is gone." |
Click on the picture to enlarge it. |
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"To the memory of John Paine, blacksmith, died 1796. My sledge and hammer lies reclined, My bellows pipe have lost its wind, My fire's extinct, my forge decayed, And in the dust my vice is laid, My coal is spent, my iron's gone, My nails are drove, my work is done." |
"To the memory of Isaac Ballinger, died 1721. Reader! pray covet not this world, Out of it you may soon be hurled, For as a wheel it turns about, And it was a wheel that turned me out." |
The text on this page has been lifted, with little modification, from the church guide "PARISH CHURCH of St. Mary, Cheltenham" written by Canon G.W. Hart, Rector of Cheltenham in 1983. The full text is available for purchase from the church for £1.
Information about the Temporary Church has been extracted from History of Cheltenham by John Goding, 1863. which is mainly extracts from "The Examiner", Clarence St., Cheltenham.
Last Updated: 25/02/07