Sapperton, Gloucestershire.

The village of Sapperton is situated just off the A419 approximately half way between the towns of Stroud and Cirencester. It associates itself emphatically with the historical character of the latter rather than with industrial Stroud.


The village is well known for having a large proportion of Arts and Crafts buildings, mainly by the Barnsleys and Ernest Gimson and Norman Jewson, all of whom are buried in the churchyard, ( Jewson is commemorated by a singularly inapt gravestone of pinkish marble, completely out of place in a limestone village with such associations).



The church is interesting for , although it has obvious origins as far back as the C12th, it has, unusually for the area, a very strong atmosphere of the Classical Period of the C17th/18th.


The original Norman and Early English church was rebuilt in approx. 1730 to such an extent that it feels almost entirely C18th in character but of course the chancel arches are C13th and are the base of the tower expressed in the interior of the church. Unusually the transepts are entered West of the tower, thus creating a very long chancel which stretched from the beginning of the tower to the East end.






Both nave and chancel have huge round headed windows full of clear, slightly greenish class which flood the church with light.



Just below the church , on the slope of the hill is the large terrace on which stood Sapperton Manor which was demolished by its owners in the early C18th., ( for reasons unknown to me). Much of the woodwork in the church was in fact removed from the manor and this explains to some degree the lack of religious references in its profuse imagery. There are Mermaids, and indeed mermen, and all sorts of exotic looking creatures parading themselves on the pew ends., as well as a great deal of heraldic work , in places running from floor to ceiling.

There are two really fine tombs, one in each of the transepts, elaborate, architectural ensembles, with obelisks, urns and all manner if Jacobean fantasy. But the effigies themselves are touchingly lifelike.

Sapperton is also famous for its tunnel. The canal which links the Thames at Lechlade with the Atlantic at Sharpness passes under the village by means of a tunnel approximately five miles long. It is so shallow that the boats were propelled along it by " leggers", boatmen lying on their backs and pushing with their feet on the roof of the tunnel. The illustration is of the opening of the tunnel hidden away in the wood at the bottom of the valley.

There are controversial plans under way to reopen the canal but it is such a remote and quiet place that I could not be in favour.

Didmarton Churches.

There are two churches of interest at Didmarton, in South Gloucestershire, a small village on the Road between Tetbury with the main A46 at Dunkirk.



If you are travelling from the A46 you skirt the Badminton Estate and pass on the right hand side the astounding Worcester Lodge, designed by William Kent and about the best bit of architecture for miles about. But I've not got a photo, apologies.


St Lawrence is the original parish church and was essentially abandoned in Victorian times when a new church, dedicated to St. Michael, was built just a few hundred yards along the street. This has saved St. Lawrence from being brought in line with the thinking of the Ecclesiological reformers and so it retains the appearance of a Georgian parish church. It was built in two campaigns, the nave and chancel in Norman times and a transept in the early C13th. This has resulted in a somewhat unusual L shape.
This is a famous photograph taken of the interior by that exceptional photographer of churches and cathedrals Edwin Smith. I plan to do a post on him sometime as his photographs capture the magical essence of these buildings like few others. I find it amazing that this photograph was taken as late as 1961.
You can see the same bench in the Edwin Smith photograph.


The church was restored very sensitively in the 1980s and retains a special atmosphere; it is very intimate and pleasingly unfussy. The woodwork is painted an unusual but authentic limey green.



About three years ago I first visited the church and it was then vested in the Churches Conservation Trust and obviously unused. When last there I was surprised to find it once again being used for parish worship. It may be that with falling numbers the Victorian replacement was no longer needed and the parishioners of Didmarton have returned to their original parish church. The only downside is that some accommodation for modern expectations of comfort have been made, so there is rush matting covering the stone flagged floor and modern chairs in that part of the nave which previously had no seating.



The workings of the clock hang down through the transept roof and the loud ticking fills the air.

Less than a mile away is the Church dedicated to St. Alrid at Oldbury-on-the-Hill. This is very definitely not used and has no prospect of ever being used again. It too is vested in the Churches Conservation Trust but here the decision seems to have been made to allow it to slide into quite sleep. It has been made watertight but no more.

It was first built in the C13th., much altered in the Tudor period and again in Georgian times.

It too escaped the Victorians and is much more rustic than St. Lawrence. It is dusty, there are birds nesting inside, and even a few weeds growing in the floor of the nave but somehow it too is special.

Elkstone , Church of St. John.

Elkstone is situated high on the Western Cotswolds, not far from the main road, ( A417), between Cirencester and Cheltenham. It seems quite a mysterious place, a tiny village, several converted barns and a great church which is partly hidden among trees and to all appearances turns its back on the village.

The bulk of the church, apart from the tower, is Norman. There is an absolute wealth of well preserved Norman features. Around the exterior of the church runs a frieze of mythical animals, some of them surprisingly classical in inspiration, incl. a centaur, a Sphinx and the like, along with exotic animals such as a leopard, etc.

There is a very striking tympanum over the main door, which as is very common in the West of England is not at the West end but to the West end of the South side of the nave.

The tympanum is surrounded by a great band of dogtoothing and beak heads and is obviously an expression of the great work going on on the continent at this time. It depicts Christ in Majesty, surrounded beasts, ( Evangelists?), and is probably among the best work of its date in Gloucestershire.

As you can see the head of Christ has been hacked off.

Inside the effect is almost entirely Norman and the church is dominated by the very fine double chancel arches. The first one has been restored, mainly due to subsidence of the masonry but the second one is in more of its original state. They create a fitting entry to the wonderful chancel itself. It is low and entirely stone vaulted, which is quite rare, especially as the vaults are decorated by strange and unusual visions. At the point where the ribs of the vault interlock there are four beasts heads. There is a lovely , very tiny, East window of the virgin and child and the whole chancel is suffused with a golden light from a similarly small window in its south wall.

The whole place is very quiet and mysterious. If you visit, try the little door to the left as you enter the chancel. If you find it open, climb the tiny staircase and you will emerge above the chancel into an unusual feature, a columbarium or pigeon loft. Why is it here? No one knows.

The tower to the extreme West of the church is very fine and quite too grand for the church. It was built in the late 1300s at a moment of great prosperity for this little hidden hillside.

Duntisbourne Rouse

There is not really a village to speak of at Duntisbourne Rouse but there is a most wonderful church. It is one of the most hidden gems in the gem studded part of the world and quite difficult to locate. The Duntisbournes, Rouse, Leer, Abbots, are stone built villages hidden in the valley of the Dunt Stream, to the north of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but seemingly at the end of the world.


There is an old weather beaten, unpainted, wooden signpost half hidden in the hedgerow and a rickety wooden lychgate in a gap in the foliage. Alec Clifton-Taylor in his book The English Parish Church as A Work of Art, describes it as one of his favourite churches in the whole of England and is very taken with the slight angle at which one approaches it along the path. In other words it is not aligned with the path. Such little irregularities are part of the fabric of the English scene.

There is some debate as to the exact age of the church but it is now thought that it actually straddles the critical date of 1066 A.D., so some of the stonework is Saxon and some is Norman. The little saddleback tower was completed in the late 1500s. You can see that the windows are all of different dates.

The porch is completely stone built, unlike the one at Kempley which is substantially wooden. Here we are in the Cotswold Hills where good stone is everywhere under your feet but good timber is scarce. On the gable of the porch is a Mass Dial, a sundial used to tell the time for Mass.

Inside it is the simplicity and honesty the impress. It is as if nothing has changed for hundreds of years. There are simple oak box pews, a Jacobean pulpit, a fine strong plain Norman chancel arch, some unusual panelling in the chancel, very little stained glass, and just a little medieval painting surviving here and there, in this case just decorative patterns. The simplicity of it is moving, the very stones of the floor are worn by generations of worshippers.

The churchyard itself is magical, sloping quite steeply down to the tiny stream which gives the villages their names. There are some good tombs and the remains of a churchyard cross. The few neighbouring houses are all of the same stone and the gardens are full of simple flowers and vegetables. Everything is right.

There is a surprise. Made possible by the steeply sloping ground, hidden under the chancel is a tiny one cell chapel, accessible from the outside, which feels infinitely old, a single dark, low vaulted room with a single tiny window in the East wall. It reminds me very strongly of those tiny oratories you find in the Southwest extremities of Ireland but which date from centuries before.

The church is still used for services but as the villages are within easy reach of one another the service moves from one church to another. I have no idea what attendances might be.

( I should point out that unless otherwise stated all the churches I post about are Anglican/ Church of England. They were, almost without exception, built for Catholic worship, but due to historical circumstances, ( " that's one way of putting it", Ed.), there are very very few medieval parish churches still in Catholic hands. )

Kempley Church.

I am going to start an occasional series of posts on Historic English Churches, mainly medieval and mainly West of England. Let me know if you like the idea and I will continue. First off is Kempley in the County of Gloucestershire, ( but only just).

Situated North West of the City of Gloucester, on the border with Herefordshire, set among rolling countryside where in Spring there are masses of native wild daffodils, is the pink rendered and stone towered medieval church of St. Mary at Kempley. The village itself is a mile or more away to the Southwest and at the turn of the C19/20th. a new church was built in the village in the Arts and Crafts Style.


The medieval church is Early Norman and has a tunnel vaulted chancel almost entirely covered with wall paintings of approximately 1130A.D. They were completely whitewashed over at the Reformation and rediscovered in 1872. At that time they were covered with varnish to prevent their deterioration but soon began to darken until almost nothing could be seen of them. A brave person discovered in 1955 that only the varnish had discoloured and it could safely be removed to uncover the paintings in good condition underneath.






In the centre of the barrel vault of the chancel is the Logus or Christ in Majesty, seated upon a rainbow, his left hand holds an open book in which are written the monograms IHC and XPS. His right hand is in the process of benediction. He is surrounded by the sun, moon and stars, seven golden candlesticks, and the symbols of the four Evangelists, and in each corner is a winged Seraphim.





On the east wall of the chancel is a very fine figure of a bishop in Mass vestments, green Gothic chasuble, short plain miter and a very long maniple.








The twelve apostles are ranked on the north and south walls of the chancel


In the nave there are lots of other paintings of several dates in various stages of visibility, including a Wheel of Life which is apparently very unusual.






There are also images of the Three Mary's at the Empty Tomb, which is said to be a depiction of that event as enacted in the Medieval Miracle Plays, and several others incl. a group of men wearing extraordinary plumed hats. It is much more difficult to make sense of the paintings in the nave, partly because they are in a less good state of preservation and partly because, unlike the chancel, they do not form a complete, thought out , sequence but jostle together.
There is also quite a bit of nice glass, mostly dating from the late C19th., and thankfully not too dark or intrusive. I really like the East Window which is by Charles Kempe, depicting angels presenting the infant Christ with the instruments of the Passion, though I have heard it described as " in poor taste" and " unfortunate". There is also a lovely little window, in the nave, by the Wheel Of Life painting, with some very good painted glass with symbolic representations of the Virgin, eg, Hortus Conclusus, Font of Ivory, etc. dating from early in the C20th century.


Among other marvels is probably the oldest church roof timbers in England, ( hidden by a early C17th ceiling), and what is widely regarded as the oldest church door in the country, three planks cut from the same log, with the original ironwork.



The church has an extraordinary atmosphere whether you find it completely deserted or with a few tourists about. It is very well cared for, with fresh wild flowers on the altar, and well dusted, though I could not find any indication that any services take place. If you go to visit bring a picnic lunch, otherwise there are slim pickings about.