Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

St Aldate's Church (Demolished),
St Aldate's Street (south side),
Gloucester, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 Saxon period, but we understand it was closed in 1927.

The original St Aldate's Church is said to have dated from Saxon times, but it was demolished in 1653 - like many of the city centre's churches, a casualty of the Civil War, or as expressed by the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (1988), pp.292-311 (Churches and Chapels):

"In 1653 the city corporation agreed that the churchwardens of St Michael's could demolish the church, use the fabric in repairing their church, and inclose the churchyard".

Kelly's Directory of 1923 says the materials were taken for (re) building 'St-Michael's-at-the-Cross', that it was rebuilt in 1730, and the church was "a plain brick structure in Early English style, consisting of nave, west porch and a turret containing one bell: the stained east window was the gift of Mr. H. Bruton, as a memorial to his deceased wife; and another window on the south side commemorates the Rev. Francis Baily, a former rector". There is a photograph of it in Jill Voyce's book Gloucester in Old Photographs (from the County Library Collection, 1985), taken circa 1900.

Kelly's date of 1730 is probably incorrect, as the VCH account says Elizabeth Aram (d. 1742) left £500 for a new parish church. Rebuilding began in the 1749s, "on or near the same site", and it was used for services from 1756.

Kelly (in 1923) mentions restorations in 1888-9, and in 1907, but then four years after their account, in 1927, it was declared redundant. The profits arising from its sale were used to form a new parish of St Aldate's on the city's outskirts, where new housing development was taking place.

The VCH account records that in 1387 it was called St Laurence, and it comprised chancel, nave, and (by the later Middle Ages) a tower and short spire. It is shown on OS Maps of 1887-91 as having a Rectory and a Graveyard.

Revd. Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke, in his An Original History of the City of Gloucester (1819), says it had a low spire, covered with shingles, and stood not far from the upper North gate. A city Map published in Bryant's Directory of Gloucester in 1841 shows it in a plot bordered by Northgate and St Aldate's Street, and St Aldate's Square.

Its burial ground was on the opposite side of St Aldate Street to the Church. When this was closed, as with other churchyards in the city centre, the remains were exhumed and reinterred in the Old Gloucester Cemetery, "B Ground" (q.v) on Tredworth Road. The area was subsequently redeveloped, and it is now part of the block occupied by Debenhams department store complex.

The present St Aldate's which became its replacement is to be found near to the City Ring Road, adjacent to the roundabout where Eastern Avenue joins Finlay Road. It was built in 1962, but between the city centre closure and then, the congregation were meeting in a wooden building nearby. [Sources: I. Gray & E. Ralph, Guide to the Parish Records of the City of Bristol and the County of Gloucester (1963), and the British Listed Buildings website]

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 was located at OS grid reference SO8331718619. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Aldate's Church (Demolished), Gloucester shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Gloucester 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 Gloucester, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)

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.