St Peter & St Paul's Church, Northleach, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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St Peter & St Paul's Church, Northleach (1) (111k)

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Alf Beard/John Williams

St Peter & St Paul's Church, Northleach

St Peter & St Paul's Church,
Market Place,
Northleach, 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 12th century, and we understand it is still open.

According to Kelly's Directory of 1923, St Peter & St Paul's Church was erected about the middle of the 15th century. However, it is a Grade I Listed Building, and the British Listed Buildings website says the structure dates from the 12th and 14th centuries, and was rebuilt in the 15th century "largely at the expense of the wool merchant John Fortey". It was subsequently restored in 1877-84 by James Brooks, with further restoration in 1961.
A very iconic church.
The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/341/1/8/10) describes it as "Northleach Ancient Parish Church", and notes that the Parish of Northleach and the adjoining Parish or Hamlet of Eastington are identical for all Ecclesiastical purposes". As to "where situated", the returning officer Revd. Aston, who resided at the Vicarage in Northleach, remarked that "the Church commonly designated as Northleach Church is really situated in the Hamlett of or Parish of Eastington" [RRL: the ancient parish of Northleach was actually tiny, in comparison with Eastington]. The free sittings in the Church he deemed "insufficient" but other (paid for) sittings were "generally adequate for the accomodation required". The total sittings overall were "about 700, or 750". The question of attendance on 30th March 1851 he suggested "should have been assigned to the Churchwardens, certainly not to the Clergyman", as "I had no time or opportunity for enumerating. But in truth, the inclemency of the weather yesterday afforded no (?conclusion) as to the number of persons usually attending Divine Service". For the rest of the year, however, he estimated an attendance of 200 to Morning services, and 400 in the afternoon, with 150 and 180 Sunday Scholars respectively. The Reverend Frederick Aston was born c.1798, was educated at University College Oxford, and was vicar of Northleach from 1833-1855. The same year he became an honorary canon of Gloucester Cathedral, having served as an honorary canon of Bristol Cathedral between 1850 and 1855. [Source: Alumni Oxoniensis]

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 SP1119414568. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

St Peter & St Paul's Church, Northleach shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Northleach 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 Northleach, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

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.

Information last updated on 24 Nov 2018 at 11:35.

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Further Information

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This Report was created 18 Nov 2024 - 07:47:16 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

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