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Copyright of John Williams

St Nicholas's Church,
Standish Lane, GL10 3DW,
Standish, 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 1188, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1897 tells us that Standish is a parish three quarters of a mile south from Haresfield station on the Bristol and Birmingham section of the Midland railway, and on the South Wales branch of the Great Western railway, 6 miles south from Gloucester and 5 north west from Stroud.

It describes St Nicholas's Church as a building of stone, in the Late Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and a western tower, with broach spire, containing 6 bells. It also informs us that the registers date from 1558.

The living, in 1897, was a vicarage, with that of Hardwick annexed, in the gift of the Bishop of Gloucester, and had been held since 1889 by the Rev. Alexander Nash M.A. of Brasenose College, Oxford. The living included 86 acres of glebe, with two houses.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 10: Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds (1972), pp.239-241 (Standish - Churches) informs us that as the mother church of a large parish that once included Hardwicke, Randwick, and Saul, and as a church that belonged to Gloucester Abbey, Standish church is likely to have been built many years before the first known reference to it c.1188 - the reference being in Gloucester Abbey Rolls.

Pevsner's Buildings of England has a detailed description of the fabric, which is "all of one period, the first part of the 14th century". He presumes the building predates the death of Edward II in 1327, but "the east window looks c.1340 rather than c.1320…" The reference to the death of Edward II, though not stated, probably relates to the tradition that his body rested here on its way from Berkeley Castle, where he died, to be buried in St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester.

Pevsner's further comments on the east window describe it as "very beautiful [with] five lights, forming two intersecting arches, which are filled with reticulated tracery and many cusps; the contrasting flow of the tracery in the space above is horizontal, forming a kind of horizontal cross". And indeed, the window may be seen in one of our photographs (although I'm not so sure about the cross!). The font, so Pevsner tells us, dates from 1860 and is by F. Niblett. Our other photos show a fine collection of ancient monuments in the Churchyard. It was not possible to obtain a clear view of the Church itself, as it is surrounded by trees on all sides.

Also mentioned by Pevsner is a monument on the south wall, of Sir Henry Winston, Lord of the Manor in the 16th century - a rustic classical monument with short fluted Ionic columns supporting a rich entablature and pediment flanked by ball finials". It was painted and restored in 1965, "to commemorate the marriage in 1618 of his daughter Sarah to John Churchill", the date of the dedication presumably indicating it was also as a tribute to their descendant, Winston Churchill, who died in January that year. Descent was via John and Sarah's grandson, the first Duke of Marlborough.

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 SO8007508430. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Nicholas's Church, Standish shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Standish 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 Standish, 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 10: Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

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.