We have 1 Image Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Alf Beard

St Michael & All Angels Church,
School Road, GL52 8BA,
Bishops Cleeve, 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 1190, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 records that Bishops Cleeve as "a township, parish and extensive village, forming with its hamlets the hundred of Cleeve". It is on the road from Cheltenham to Evesham, 1½ miles north-east from the Cleeve station of the Midland railway. A new line was opened in 1906 by the Great Western Railway Co. from Cheltenham to Honeybourne, which had a station close to the village and another at Gotherington, about 1 mile from the village. Gotherington, Stoke Orchard, Southam, Woodmancote and Cleeve Hill were then listed as hamlets in the parish.

St Michael's Church is described as "a large cruciform structure of stone, mostly in the Norman style, with some later additions, and consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, transepts, a noble south porch of curious workmanship and an embattled central tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells with chimes". There is a handsome marble monument with two recumbent effigies to the De la Bere family, dating from 1735 to 1742, and restored in 1803 by Thomas Baghott De la Bere esq. In the south transept, in a recess, is the recumbent effigy of a knight, cross-legged and still bearing traces of colouring. At the east end of the south aisle is a recumbent effigy of a nun, and there are remains of mural paintings on the wall of the north aisle. In 1898 a stained window was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; there also a memorial window to Arthur Henry Jones Carroll, d.1890, and a memorial brass to the Rev. William Lawrence, 56 years rector of the parish, d.1883. There is a beautiful triptych, painted by Eadie Reid, and given by the widow of the Rev. B.F. Hemming M.A. curate 1871-83, and rector 1883-1895. In 1912, a stained window was placed in the north aisle by the Rev. Thomas Jesson LLB, a former rector. There is a handsome carved oak gallery at the west end.

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 is located at OS grid reference SO9608227733. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Michael & All Angels Church, Bishops Cleeve shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bishops Cleeve 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)