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St Oswald's Church (partly Demolished),
Lassington Lane,
Lassington, 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 before 1095, but we understand it was closed in 1975.

St Oswald's Tower is all that remains of what is believed to be a late Saxon church. It is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

According to a notice-board they have prepared, outside the church, the manor of Lassington as listed in the 1086 Domesday survey, belonged to the Archbishop of York. The earliest known reference to a church is its re-dedication to St Oswald, on Palm Sunday 1095, after the building of the Norman nave, chancel and side-chapel. St Oswald was the Christian king of Northumbria, killed by the pagan Penda of Mercia in 642. His relics were brought to Gloucester in 909 by the lady Æthelflæd, wife of Æthelred, Lord of Mercia, to be laid to rest in the Priory they had founded, which was then re-dedicated to St Oswald. St Oswald's Priory subsequently received a pension from Lassington Church, presumably until its dissolution. In 1786, according to Ralph Bigland in his record of Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester, this amounted to 8 shillings, which was then due annually to the Dean and Chapter of Bristol.

In common with many churches in the area, there is an associated Lassington Court. The CCT notice-board suggests the medieval manor house was probably on the site of Lassington Court Farmhouse, with a priest's house adjacent to present-day Astman's Farm. They add that the settlement was always a small one and in 1607 consisted of only 10 dwellings. By the 20th century, the Church was little used; and in 1928, its parish was united with Highnam, which possesses - according to John Betjeman - the most complete Victorian church in the country.

The last marriage in the church was in 1947 and the last baptism in 1956. It was demolished, apart from the tower, in 1975, as it had become unsafe.

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

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 SO7960221169. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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

• Preserving “irreplaceable examples of architecture, archaeology and art from 1,000 years of history” - Churches Conservation Trust (null) (verified 2018-10-07)

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.