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Copyright of John Williams

St Andrew's Church,
Aston Blank (Cold Aston), 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 904, and we understand it is still open.

"It is almost certain that the first church in this parish was built about AD 904" … "much of the stonework of the chancel wall would appear to be of Saxon origin" … These are quotes from a captivating account of its church's history, on the Cold Aston Village website. The bulk of the church is however Norman, though it was restored in the late 19th century.

Of particular note however is that it has been built without an East window. And buried in the churchyard is the last resident vicar of the parish, who had been the owner of 27 cats! [Source: John Williams]

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes the church as "an ancient building of stone in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles and containing 5 bells". It reiterates that the chancel has no east window, but adds that the east wall is adorned with two richly carved and canopied niches, mentioning also that the chancel retains a credence and piscina. At that time (1923), the living was a vicarage, annexed to that of Notgrove, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and had been held since 1922 by the Rev. Ernest Paul Richard Blackburne Grundy M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford. "Cold Aston, otherwise Aston Blank" was described as a parish and village, about 1 mile west from the old Roman fossway, 2½ miles from Bourton-on-the-Water station and 2 miles from Notgrove station, both on the Banbury and Cheltenham section of the Great Western railway, and 20 east from Gloucester.

Further information, and some nice photographs, may be found on the website of St Peter & St Paul, Northleach (St Andrew is one if its Benefice Churches).

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 SP1279019899. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Andrew's Church, Aston Blank (Cold Aston) shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Aston Blank 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 Aston Blank (Cold Aston), and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Situated between Cheltenham and Bourton-on-the-Water, and “one of the Cotswolds' most beautiful”… Cold Aston Village (null) (verified 2018-11-24)
• Information provided on the St Peter & St Paul, Northleach website. (verified 2018-11-24)

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.