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St Michael's Church,
Dowdeswell, 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 the 15th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire of 1895 tells us Dowdeswell is a parish and village on the road from Cheltenham to Northleach, 1½ miles west from Andoversford, and 4½ mile east south east from Cheltenham.

The church of St Michael, Kelly says, was built in 1577 and is a cruciform edifice of stone, in the Late Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, aisles, south porch and a tower with spire, containing 3 bells. "There is a brass, with effigy of a priest in cope, c.1529, and evangelistic symbols". The parish registers date from 1575, and in 1895, the living was a rectory in the gift of the trustees of the late R.R. Coxwell-Rogers esq., and had been held since 1894 by the Rev. Richard Coxwell-Rogers B.A. of St John's College, Cambridge.

Andoversford is described as a hamlet, "partly in this parish and partly in Withington", with two stations, one on the Cheltenham and Bourton branch of the Great Western railway (station master Wm. Harvey), and the other on the South Western Junction railway (station master Charles Pugh).

Today, St Michael's parish encompasses both Dowdeswell and Andoversford. A brief history on the website of the Coln River Group of parishes, tells us that a Norman church once stood on the site, but it is said it burned down, and the present church erected on its foundations. The date "1577" is "'graffiti' on a window base in the north transept", but one of its 3 bells is older than that, said to date from the previous century.

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 SP0012219914. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Michael's Church, Dowdeswell shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Dowdeswell 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 Dowdeswell, 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.