Anglican Church of St Mary de Lode

Anglican parish church of St Mary de Lode

This is a medieval church of which the tower and chancel survive from around 1190. The chancel was extended by one bay and vaulted in the mid 13th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1825–26 by James Cooke, a local mason, in a plain Early Gothic style. The chancel was restored in 1853, with further restorations in 1865, 1869, 1885 and 1912. The west part of the nave was converted to a church hall in 1980.

The church is built from ashlar and rubble, with the nave stuccoed. The gabled roofs are covered in Welsh slate to the nave and Forest stone slates to the chancel.

The plan comprises a broad nave of four bays with north and south aisles, north and south porches projecting from the eastern bay, a central tower, a two-bay chancel, and a vestry attached at the south-east.

Exterior

The church has a wide nave and narrower chancel, each with different external treatment, clearly denoting the main building phases. The nave and aisles have a gabled west wall with bays defined by buttresses, diagonal buttresses with pinnacles at the west end all having two offsets, a crowning string course and embattled parapets. The west wall contains a two-light window to the nave and a two-light window to each aisle. Each of the three western bays of the aisles contains a two-light window on each side. All windows have simple cusped tracery in pointed arched heads with stopped hoodmoulds. Each porch has diagonal buttresses, a coped parapet and arched doorway, with a circular window inserted above in 1845. The square central tower is in three stages with clasping angle buttresses to the upper stages. On each face of the upper stage is a two-light belfry window, above which is an open, arcaded parapet between attenuated pinnacles at the corners. The chancel has diagonal buttresses at the east end and bays defined by a buttress on each side, all with two weathered offsets. The east gable wall is coped and contains a window formed from three 19th-century stepped trefoil-headed lancets and a small vesica window in the gable. Each bay in the sides contains restored two-light lancets with trefoil heads.

Interior

The church is entered through the west door, which gives access to a church hall created in 1980 by partitioning off the area beneath the western gallery, which has been brought one bay eastwards to increase the space for the hall. Its internal finishes date from the late 20th century. The nave dates from the early 19th-century rebuilding with later alterations. The nave arcades have octagonal columns with moulded collars, around which are set elaborately detailed scrolled iron lighting fixtures. The aisles have flat, boarded ceilings, rising to a pitched ceiling in the nave. The floors are of parquet with stone flags to the aisles. The walls are plastered and painted. The west end retains the form of the gallery, with Doric columns supporting its panelled front, which has an elaborately scrolled iron rail above. The space beneath the gallery is separated from the nave by a panelled partition with double doors at its centre, flanked by the columns. The nave and aisles retain dark-stained pews with rectangular, panelled ends. The choir stalls are separated off by a dwarf stone wall with elaborate scrolled railings above. The windows have diamond-pattern glazing with blue margins. One window includes a memorial to the Gloucestershire poet Ivor Gurney (1890–1937). The south nave windows, including this one, are all by Roy Coomber, date from 1999–2000, and include heraldic motifs.

A very wide round arch in the east wall gives access to the chancel through arches supporting the west and east sides of the central tower. On the west side, the 12th-century archway has square responds with scalloped capitals and an arch with an outer order of chevron moulding formerly supported on angle shafts. The tower stonework is exposed, in contrast with the nave, and the floor is covered in stone flags. A number of tablet monuments are attached to the walls. The windows have Art Nouveau-style glazing dating from around 1903. The 13th-century arch on the east side has clustered shaft responds with foliated capitals and a plain roll moulding, and gives access to the two-bay chancel beyond the tower. The chancel has a two-bay quadripartite vault with diagonal and transverse ribs springing from clustered wall shafts with foliated capitals, mostly restored or recut. The interstices are plastered and painted. The principal ribs have moulded ball decoration. The remainder of the stonework is exposed. The altar is set up a shallow stone step and the floor has 19th-century polychrome tiles beyond. There are 19th-century wrought-iron communion rails in the form of arcades with pierced and foliate spandrels. In the north wall of the chancel is an altered 14th-century arched recess housing an effigy. Under a trapdoor in the west end of the nave, about 3 metres below the current ground level, the remains of the Roman building beneath the church are visible in the form of a fragment of monochrome mosaic. The adjoining fragment of stone wall may have belonged to an 11th-century annexe at this location.

Principal Fittings

The hexagonal timber pulpit is made from richly carved ogee-crocketed panels of the 15th century, set on a later timber plinth. The east window and the north and south windows in the chancel have stained glass by George Rogers dating from 1848–49.

The foremost monument is an early 14th-century effigy of a priest in Eucharistic vestments, set in the mutilated 14th-century recess in the chancel; it possibly commemorates William Chamberlayne (died 1304) or John de Rodberrow (died 1302). There are several other minor monuments, including two by James Cooke, who built the present nave, dating from around 1819–21.

The organ, formerly in the Church of St Nicholas, Westgate Street, Gloucester, is housed in a fine mahogany case of around 1760–80, having towers to either side with draped urns and a crown in the centre. Some of the stopped wooden flutes are dated 1766.

There are six old bells: three cast in 1705 by Abraham Rudhall; two cast in 1636 by Roger Purdue; one cast in 1710 by Abraham Rudhall.