User:Carolyngardner England Staples


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https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=4QgVAAAAQAAJ lewis's Topo Dictionary FamilySearch now has all of the British Censuses available. Description of the Parish

Parish History

St. Mary's Church, Cheltenham

Denomination: Church of England Churchmanship: Evangelical Dedication: St. Mary Administration: Parish: Cheltenham Diocese: Gloucester Province: Canterbury Website: www.stmaryschelt.org.uk

"St. Mary's Church "is the only surviving medieval building in Cheltenham. It has been in continuous use for 850 years, though between 1859 and 1877 it was closed intermittently for repairs." "It is believed to have replaced a Saxon church erected on this site in the 8th century. In the Domesday Book the church and its land were recorded as belonging to William I's chancellor, Reinbald, who the bequested it to Cirencester Abbey. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII it became crown property and remained so until the mid-nineteenth century."

"St. Mary's was condemned as unsafe and closed in July 1859. During the closure the congretation worshipped first in the Town Hall (the predecessor Cheltenham's current Town Hall) and then in a temporary church built of timber encased with corrugated iron in Clarence Street."

"In 1863 The Rev. Edward Walker proposed the enlargement or replacement of St. Mary's. Thirty-four plans were submitted, but because of opposition, the proposal was abandoned and instead betwen 1875 and 1877 the church was restored and equipped with gas lighting.

"The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient cruciform structure in the early, decorated, and later styles of English architecture, with a square tower rising from the intersection and surmounted by a lofty octagonal spire; on the east side of the north transept is a grand circular window, fifteen feet in diameter, divided into thirty-three compartments, and filled with tracery of the decorated and later styles intermixed; the east window of the chancel and others are also fine compositions; an antique altar-piece, presented by the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester, has been lately erected; there is also a piscina planted with double rows of lime-trees; and there is an ancient stone cross of one single shaft, with an ascent of several steps.."[2]

"A notable feature of the church is the spire and bell tower which contains a peal of twelve bells. The upper part of the tower dates from 1200 and the broach spire was added early in the fourteenth century. The tracery of most of the windows is varied and dates from around 1250 to 1350." "The stained glass of the windows is late Victorian and regarded as of particularly high quality."[3] [edit] Cheltenham, A Market Town "Cheltenham, a market town and parish in the hundred of Cheltenham, county of Gloucester, 8 miles (E.N.E.) from Gloucester, and 95[miles] (W.N.W.) from London..." "This place takes its name from the small river Chilt, which rises at Dowdswell, in the vicinity, and runs through the town in its course to the Severn." Parish History

BATH, a city, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Bath-Forum, E. division of Somerset, 12 miles east by south from Bristol, 19 (north by northeast from Wells, and 107 west from London, on the direct road to Bristol; containing, with it the whole parish of Walcot, and the parishes of Bathwick, Widcombe and Lyncombe.

The parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, or the Abbey parish, and the parish of St. James, form a rectory, with the vicarage of Lyncombe and Widcombe (which see) annexed. The church was rebuilt in the year 1606. Jointly with Wells, Bath is the head of a diocese comprising very nearly the whole of the county of Somerset.[1]