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Copyright of Alf Beard/John Williams

St Matthew's Church,
Tewkesbury Road,
Twigworth, 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 1842, and we understand it is still open.

Twigworth parish was created in 1842 out of the parishes of St Mary de Lode, and St Catharine. For ecclesiastical purposes, it includes the parish of Longford. St Matthew's Church comprises a nave of four bays, chancel, north aisle, porch and a distinctive spire containing a single bell. The east window in the chancel is a memorial to Colonel W.J. HOLT and family, and the east window in the north aisle is a memorial to various members of the GORDON-CANNING family. There are other memorials to Charles and Mary Ann PRIDAY, Mrs E.A. SYMES, and members of the SHEEPWAY family. The west window has the arms of the Rev. Benjamin Saunders CLAXON, first vicar of Twigworth; and according to Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire of 1923, there is also a south aisle with a window which is a memorial to Mr Joseph ROBERTS, who was a churchwarden for many years.

The War Memorial was erected in 1920 in memory of the 15 men of the parish who were killed in the Great War, 1914-1918. It is of Portland stone on a hexagonal base, and is situated in the north west corner of the churchyard. The dedication, and the names of the fallen are inscribed on 3 sides of the base.

The inscriptions read:

G.W. BATSFORD	In Memory	D.H.A. DYER
A. BEAK	of the Men	E.J. HARRISON
R.E. BENDALL	of this Parish	H. JOHNSON
S.F. BOND	who gave their	J.F. SELOUS-JONES
A.J. BOUCHER	Lives for their	J. MANSELL
E.C. CAKE	Country during	E.J. ROBERTS
J.C. CLIFFORD	The Great War	C. SIMS
	1914-1918	R. WORKMAN

The names of those who died in WWII are inscribed on the rear. Their names were Donald BEALE, Richard William JORDAN, and Cyril Doyle TRAVIS.

The churchyard also contains the grave of Ivor GURNEY, the composer, and WWI poet. His memorial reads "Composer, Poet of The Severn and Somme, 1890-1937". He was born on 28th August 1890 at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester, and his composing career began when he was 14, in 1904.

More details of his life are available on the Ivor Gurney Society website.

Naturally, also he ("Ivor Bertie Gurney") is mentioned in the description of St Matthew's on the website of the Benefice the parish now (in 2018) belongs to - the romantically named "Seven Towers" - seven churches in 6 parishes - Boddington, Down Hatherley, The Leigh, Norton, Sandhurst, Staverton and Twigworth itself. [Other Sources: Kelly's Directory (1923) and John Williams]

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 SO8421521699. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Matthew's Church, Twigworth shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Twigworth 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 Twigworth, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The dedication of a memorial window in Gloucester's St Mary de Lode Church and a new memorial stone in the churchyard at Twigworth are thanks to the Ivor Gurney Society (null) (verified 2018-11-20)
• You may want to visit "Seven Towers" website for present-day information.

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.