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St Martin's Church,
Charlton Abbots, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1250, and we understand it is still open.

My source, for the foundation date of St Martin's Church is the book The Story of Sevenhampton by Ros Stewart (2006). She also mentions nearby Whittington Church built c.1100, and Sevenhampton Church itself (c.1150).

Of the group as a whole she says:

"They were already sited next to the Manor Houses but not as their chapels; the churches were in place long before the present Manor Houses were built".

In 1085, as 'Cerletone', it belonged to and paid tithes to Winchcombe Abbey. The monks of the abbey founded a leper colony, walled-in to isolate the sufferers, close to where the church now stands.

In 1712, according to the historian Thomas Atkyns, 'the Chancel is quite down and the church has been disused near 12 years. The inhabitants bury at Winchcombe or Sevenhampton'. Samuel Rudder, in 1779, said the church was 'small and very ruinous', but it was restored later that century, and again in 1886. The single bell, dating from 1346, bears the name of St Martin of Lombardic, and is still tolled regularly for services.

The window at the West End of the church is dedicated to the memory of three men of the parish who died in WWI - Pte. James SIMPSON, d.1918 and commemorated on the Menin Gate; Lieut. Alan MIELKE (RAF), d.1917 and buried in the churchyard; and Pte. Ernest NORRIS, d.1918 and buried in Israel.

Today (2018), St Martin's is part of the united parish of "Sevenhampton with Charlton Abbots", for which further details are available on the website of the Coln River Group of parishes. [Other Source: 'Welcome to St Martin's, Charlton Abbots' - booklet available inside the church]

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference SP0339024275. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Martin's Church, Charlton Abbots shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Charlton Abbots shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Charlton Abbots, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The United Benefice of Withington, Sevenhampton with Charlton Abbots, Hawling, Whittington, Dowdeswell and Andoversford, Shipton and Cold Salperton - the Coln River Group (null) (verified 2018-11-01)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.