Church Of St Matthew

Church of St Matthew, Cainscross

The Church of St Matthew at Cainscross, located approximately 1½ miles west of Stroud, is a parish church created from parts of Stroud, Stonehouse and Randwick in 1837. The area's growth from around 1800 was stimulated by the opening of the Stroudwater Canal in 1779, which eased coal supply to the Stroud valley, the flourishing of the woollen cloth industry before its mid-19th century decline, and a new road to Stroud completed in 1825.

The church comprises a west tower, six-bay nave with lean-to aisles, porches at the east and west ends of the aisles, a long chancel with an organ loft to its north, and a south chapel. The main structure dates from 1835-7 and was designed by Charles Baker of Painswick, with the east end rebuilt by Walter Planck in 1897-8. The building is constructed of ashlar limestone with slate roofs and features structural cast-iron nave arcades.

The tower and west end display the thin detailing and unarchaeological treatment typical of 1830s Gothic work. The two-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet and slim pinnacles. Narrow Y-traceried windows appear in the ends of the aisle, the porches and the belfry lights. The three-light west window contains reticulated Perpendicular tracery. The aisles are embattled, with most of the aisle windows replaced in Perpendicular style in 1897-8 to match the east end, which was entirely rebuilt by Planck after plans to rebuild the whole church were abandoned. Planck employed a respectable Arts and Crafts Perpendicular style with nicely detailed canted corners to the chancel. The broad east window is set high in the wall, with twinned east windows to the south chapel separated by a buttress between them.

The interior possesses considerable spatial interest. The nave features four-centred arcades on slim shafted piers of cast iron, raised on octagonal plinths. On the back of each pier is a bracket carrying the former galleries. The shafts facing into the nave continue as very thin wall shafts carrying the ribs to a segmental plaster tunnel vault. The aisles have flat ceilings with a thin moulded rib at each bay. A stone respond and chamfered arch from the 1890s at the west end of the south aisle perhaps indicate the abandonment of more ambitious plans to replace the 1830s nave and aisles. The 1890s chancel is Perpendicular freely treated, with a broad east window with rich tracery and three windows set very high at the sides. The timber roof features arch-braced collars, each with a demi-angel in the centre. Three-seat sedilia with blind Perpendicular tracery and a matching piscina in moulded frames complete the chancel fittings. The junctions between 1830s and 1890s work are awkward and have an unfinished appearance, particularly the low and high chancel arches seen from the east.

Principal fixtures include altar rail and choir stalls of oak with Perpendicular Gothic motifs, probably dating from 1898, and a Caen stone pulpit from 1892 with shallow trefoil-headed panels carved with foliage and inscriptions. An octagonal Perpendicular panelled font, probably 1897-8, is of the same date as plain oak benches with squared bench-ends.

The church contains considerable stained glass. The east window dates from 1897, with three in the north aisle (1912-22) by James Powell & Sons. Three in the south aisle date from c. 1897-1906 by Burlison & Grylls, sandwiching one by Joseph Bell & Son from 1898. The west window by Belham & Co. dates from 1895.

A large churchyard lies to the west of the church, with 19th-century cast-iron railings and gates to the south-east. An angular hall designed by David Barnes of the Ronald Edwards Partnership was attached at the north-west in 1995-6 and is excluded from this listing.

Charles Baker (1791-1861), architect, engineer and surveyor of Painswick, was a prolific local designer. His firm of Baker & Shellard designed Neo-Gothic churches, including Slad (1831-4), a noble classical chapel at Bedford Street, Stroud (1835-7), and respectable Late Georgian housing, notably on the Bayshill estate, Cheltenham, from around 1838.