Cheltenham Minster (St Mary's)

Cheltenham Minster, formerly St Mary's parish church, originated in the mid-12th century. The lower stage of the tower dates to the mid-13th century, while the 14th century saw major rebuilding, enlargement and the addition of the spire. The church's present form is otherwise early 14th century, with a late 15th-century north porch.

Restorations were undertaken in 1859-61 by DJ Humphris, with the spire restored in 1866 by Ewan Christian. Christian carried out a much more thorough restoration in 1875-77. In 1890 Middleton, Prothero and Phillott added the south porch and converted the north porch into a baptistery. A vestry was added in the late 19th century and stained glass was inserted between 1876 and 1893. The interior was reordered in the 20th century and again in 2012.

The church is constructed from limestone ashlar with a stone slate roof. It is orientated north-west to south-east, though described here using liturgical compass points. The plan is cruciform with a four-bay aisled nave, north and south porches, transepts, a three-bay chancel and a central tower with spire.

The building is almost entirely in the Decorated style, though the presence of mullions in the south aisle west window, the east window and the south transept south window anticipates the Perpendicular style. It has a chamfered plinth with lateral buttresses and angle buttresses, both with offsets. Window and door openings are pointed with hoodmoulds terminating in either label stops or animal or human-head stops. All gables are stone coped.

The south face has a gabled porch of 1890 with a pointed, moulded doorway. Its spandrels are carved with foliage motifs enclosing quatrefoils with floral carvings. Above the doorway is a hoodmould with stops carved with the crests of the Diocese of Gloucester and the Borough of Cheltenham. The gable contains a recessed plaque with a pair of blind lancets with trefoil heads and quatrefoil-traceried lights set above a shield bearing the inscription IHS. Inside the porch, over the church door, is the blocked head of a 14th-century window. The porch is flanked by a single window to the left and three stepped windows to the right. All are two-light windows with trefoil-cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery with quatrefoils. The south wall of the gabled south transept has a large five-light window with reticulated tracery emphasised by mullions. An oculus with quatrefoil tracery sits within the apex and below the right-hand springing stone is a mass dial. The transept's right-hand return has two three-light windows with trefoil-cusped pointed lights and geometrical tracery. The south face of the chancel has three two-light windows with trefoil-cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery with quatrefoils.

The west end has a five-light window with reticulated tracery emphasised by major and minor mullions in the head and a broad horizontal band of large quatrefoils.

The east face of the chancel has a gabled vestry flanked by two-light windows with trefoil-cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery with quatrefoils; the vestry has a similar but narrower window. In the angle between the chancel and south transept stands a narrow stair turret with arrow-slit windows and a pointed doorway. Above the stair tower is a small section of the earlier chancel roof which sits above the ridge line of the present chancel roof. The east wall of the gabled south transept has a large rose window with flowing, cusped tracery whilst its north face has a large five-light window with curvilinear tracery. Above this is an oculus with tracery comprised of three cusped spherical triangles. To the right of the transept, the north aisle has two two-light windows of differing sizes with trefoil-cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery with quatrefoils. Further right, the left-hand return of the gabled north porch has a quatrefoil whilst its north face has a blocked-up, ogee-arched doorway, the head containing a late 19th-century, stepped, five-light window. Its first floor has a three-light window and the right-hand return has a two-light window, both late 19th century, with trefoil-cusped lights and Perpendicular tracery. In the angle between the porch's right-hand return and the north aisle is a polygonal stair turret with a pointed doorway accessed via a short flight of stone steps. The north aisle has a two-light window with trefoil-cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery with quatrefoils.

The east end comprises three gabled ranges, with the central chancel range set at a higher ridge line than the flanking aisle ranges. Each range has a tall five-light window with varying tracery: the north aisle with reticulated tracery, the chancel with intersecting tracery rising to a pointed quatrefoil and the south aisle with reticulated tracery with major and minor mullions in the head and a broad horizontal band of large quatrefoils. The chancel range is set between 12th-century lateral buttresses with offsets and has a mid-19th-century ashlar-faced door surround with boarded double doors and a cornice ornamented with four-leaf flower carving. Flanking the doorway, at the level of the cornice, is a much worn 12th-century stringcourse with billet moulding.

The central tower has mid-13th-century lancets linked by hoodmoulds on each face of the lowest stage whilst the upper stage has two-light belfry windows with louvres. It is surmounted by a ribbed broach spire with two tiers of trefoil-headed lucarnes.

Inside, the 14th-century nave arcade has four bays with pointed, double-chamfered arches carried on tall octagonal piers with moulded octagonal capitals and abaci. Above is a clerestory, mainly of paired two-light windows, but with two circular windows at the east end of the north aisle, all with deep splays. The lower stages of the double-chamfered arches to the crossing are mid-13th century, with the western arch having roll-moulded piers and trumpet-scalloped and foliate capitals whilst the northern arch has a reused stiff-leaf capital. The ceiling of the crossing is rib vaulted. The chancel arch has a double-chamfered east face and a moulded west face, the latter carried on roll-moulded piers with stylised foliate capitals, including a bishop's head on the south side. At the west end of the north wall is a moulded doorway to the former north porch, now a baptistery. It has a lierne vaulted ceiling with bosses carved with roses. To the right of the doorway is a small, blocked, ogee-headed doorway which originally gave access to the gallery above the north porch. Altered in the late 19th century, the gallery now has a pointed, chamfered surround and a pierced quatrefoil balustrade. The arched-braced roof is 19th century with ribs carried on stone corbels carved with foliage motifs and intermediate ribs carried on wooden eaves corbels. It probably conceals earlier fabric.

The chancel contains a mid-14th-century piscina, along with an elaborate reredos, communion rails and wall panelling installed in 1915-16 to designs by Healing and Overbury and carved by RL Boulton and Sons. In the south transept are a 13th-century piscina and aumbry cupboard. In the north wall are two cusped tomb recesses with ballflower ornamentation. The eagle lectern, pulpit, pews and choir stalls are all of oak and were installed in the late 19th century. The octagonal stone font was installed in 1890.

The church contains an extensive collection of 17th, 18th and 19th-century wall memorials. Notable examples include: an inscription by John English to his wife (died 1643); a very large monument to Sir William Myers (died 1811) by Oldfield and Turner; a monument to Thomas Gray (died 1835), one of many in the church by G Lewis; a late 18th-century tablet to the Skillicorne family with a 53-line epitaph; Adam style monuments including those to Elizabeth Hughes (died 1786) and Anne Dewes (died 1780); a monument to Katherine A'Court (died 1776) by James Wyatt and R Westmacott (the tablet records her infamous murder by poison administered by livery servant Joseph Armstrong who was executed at Gloucester and hanged from a gibbet in line with Henrietta Street); a brass to the architect DJ Humphris (died 1879); and a brass to William Greville, Justice of Common Pleas (died 1513), his wife and children.

The upper porch north window of 1858 by Joseph Bell of Bristol was moved to its present position in 1889. The other twenty-six windows have stained glass installed between 1876 and 1893. Depicting over fifty scenes, mainly biblical, fourteen windows are by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, with others by Clayton and Bell, Heaton Butler and Bayne, Hardman, Joseph Bell, Burlison and Grylls, and William Wailes.