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St Katharine's Church,
Matson Lane,
Matson, Gloucester, 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 before 1130, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes Matson as a small parish, 2 miles south of Gloucester and between that city and Upton St. Leonards. The church of St Katherine is recorded as "so named in 1893", and "a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and central turret [with] 2 bells". The former church (the dedication of which was unknown) was rebuilt in 1739, by the direction of the will of Albinia, widow of Gen. Selwyn, formerly governor of Jamaica. The chancel was rebuilt in 1852, the church restored in 1876, and in 1883-94, the nave was entirely rebuilt. The west window was given by the Rev. Canon Bazeley and his family in memory of the Hon. Misses Rice, daughters of the third Lord Dynevor, and of the Canon's mother and aunt. There are 200 sittings. The parish records date from 1553. The living in 1923 was a rectory in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester.

Kelly also provides information about the manor, held in the 12th century by the De Mattesdons, who retained it until 1457. Ralph De Mattesdon gave the church of Mattesdon to the monks of St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester during the time of Abbot William (1113-1130). An ancient family named Robins, said to have given their names to Matson Hill, were tenants under the abbey for many generations. In the time of Henry VIII and long after, it appears in legal documents and the County Histories as Robin Hood's Hill. In Saxon times it was probably called Whaddon (Woden's Hill).

The present (ie in 1923) manor house was built in 1594 by Sir Ambrose Willoughby, a descendant of the lords of Parham, Eresby and Willoughby. It was sold to Jasper Selwyn of King Stanley in 1597, and the Selwyn's occupied it until the death of George Augustus Selwyn, "the celebrated wit", in 1791. It then passed to the Townshend family, one of whom had married the heiress of the Selwyns in 1730. Dr. G.A. Selwyn, metropolitan of New Zealand, and subsequently bishop of Lichfield (d.1878) was a member of the Selwyn family of Matson. Matson was the headquarters of the Royal army during the siege of Gloucester, in 1643, and the manor house was occupied by King Charles and his two elder sons.

Further details, including the information that "the first church was of oak and elm and the first stone church was built 1224-43" may be found in a History of St Katherine's Church to be found on the A Church Near You 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 is located at OS grid reference SO8475315457. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Katharine's Church, Matson, 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 Matson, Gloucester, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Church of England's finding aid - A Church Near You (null) (verified 2018-09-25)

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.