I Uley Old Church. N a previous number we were able to give a view of the old church at Uley, taken shortly before its demolition, and reference was made on page 104 ante, to a rough sketch of it from another point of view. The original of this we have since VOL. V. EE learned was a pencil sketch made by Mr. B. W. Leach, of Uley, and by his courtesy it is here reproduced. Some additional particulars have been collected since the publication of our former article. This drawing, it will be seen, shows the south side of the Church, and the reader will readily notice how much the old building had been pulled about. There were three external staircases leading to the galleries; one at the west end of the nave, of this, only the back can be seen in the engraving. Another, east of the porch, led to a gallery on the south side of the nave; and a third to the gallery, erected by the Rev. W. Ll. Baker, for the use of Stoutshill, when he enlarged the chancel. Over the porch, as at Cam, was a parvise, in which vestry meetings were held. It was a very small room, with a fire-place in the north-eastern corner, which more often than not, to the discomfort of the village fathers when in council assembled, was apt to smoke. The entrance to the parvise was by an external staircase, which evidently was of modern construction. The nave was remarkable for its width; there was no aisle, and the wide coved ceiling was a noticeable feature of the interior. Whether there ever existed an aisle seems doubtful; one, however, was erected at the building of the present church. As we have already said, there was a gallery at the west end, extending the whole width of the nave, and another against the south wall of the nave. In this the organ was placed, though this was afterwards removed, and fixed on the ground, near the schoolchildren's seats. The Stoutshill gallery was in the modern addition to the south side of the chancel, which was erected by Mr. Baker early in this century. It did not improve the appearance of the church, but in those days architecture was little regarded, and Mr. Baker was perhaps in advance of his time in adding to the church at all. In this addition, under the Stoutshill gallery, were placed the seats for the schoolchildren, as Mr. Baker was desirous that they should have good places. The pulpit occupied the position it now does against the north wall of the nave, and the font, like its successor, was at the entrance to the tower. The remains of this old font are still in Uley churchyard. It is an octagonal basin, twenty-three inches across, inside measurement; its inside depth is eight inches, but outside it is eleven inclusive; there is a fillet round the upper edge, and on each face of the octagon are two shallow plain-pointed arches. No fragment of the stem remains, The addition of the Stoutshill enlargement of the chancel, it is said, rendered the church in plan an oblong, with a tower on the north, and a porch on the south. As to the chapel of St. Godbold, which was early appropriated by the Bassett family as their burying place, and hence known as Bassett's chapel, no tradition remains, and it is uncertain if it was pulled down, or if it formed the northern part of the chancel shown in the photograph of the exterior [see p. 103, ante]. It may be that it was only a small portion of the chancel screened off to form a chapel, and not an annexed building with a separate roof. However this may be, every trace of it seem to have been swept away before the end of the last century, and with it the monuments of the Bassetts, for it is singular that no reference to them occurs in Bigland's Collections, although Atkyns, who wrote some 70 or 80 years earlier, specifically mentions a sixteenth-century monument belonging to the family, and we know from their wills that others must have been erected subsequently. The Stoutshill aisle was separated from the chancel by three or four pillars, and the communion table was placed in the old or north part of the chancel. Anciently there were many monuments and inscribed floor stones in the church. None of the latter, and only a few of the former have been preserved. Many were doubtless destroyed prior to the re-building, but more must have disappeared at the demolition of the old church. The monument of John Eyles, "the first that ever made Spanish cloth in this parish," formerly was on the south wall of the nave, and informed the reader that his remains lay behind it. Some fifty years ago it was removed, and fixed near the pulpit against the south wall. At the re-building, it was fixed against the west wall of the tower, high up, and almost out of sight. The few other monuments which have escaped destruction, like the Eyles tablet, are now in the tower, hidden away in deference to a sentiment which seems to stigmatize the existence of tablets on the walls of a church, commemorative of the departed, as a kind of desecration, and a species of dishonour to the house of God. This mistaken feeling, fostered in great measure we suspect by architects, who dread the introduction of anything likely to clash with the style of their own designs, has led in recent years to many of our churches resembling what some with much reason have satirically called ecclesiastical barns, which contain nothing, after they have been denuded of plaster and monuments, to relieve the cold bareness in many instances of mere pointed rubble walls. The pious commemoration of the dead should be encouraged, and this can scarcely be done more appropriately than in the church which is constantly filled with worshippers to whom often the tablets on the walls must prove veritable "sermons in stones." That good taste and propriety have before now been violated in foolish laudatory epitaphs is true, but that is no sufficient reason for that wholesale destruction of the monuments of the dead, which has taken place during the last half century. The walls of Uley church now appear singularly bare, and since its rebuilding, no monuments have been placed within it save two or three small brasses, and three or four stained glass windows. Frocester Marriage Registers, 1559-1800 (continued). Incip annus 1645. Guill Marling Jun' et Editha Wilkins, des., April 7° 1645. Thomas browning was married June 25. [fol. 48.] Johannes Watkins et Eliza Adams desp. 23° Septembris. Walter Beard et Charity Huntley wid. desp. 14th May. Incipit ann's 1647. [fol. 49.] Mauritius Bendall et Sarah Coles, desponsat decimo die, Februari 1647. 1648. Richard Coles and maria Ferebe, desp., Juli 19o. Gualterus Pritchard and Eliza Midlmore, desp., Juli 21°. Incipit annus 1652. [fo. 50.] Georgius Smyth de Ebly in parochia de stonehouse, et Margareta de Cham, despons., Martii 17o. Incipit Annus 1653. Thomas Munday et Hanna Parker de Came despons. April 11° A° 1653. Daniel Waite et Cicilia tobbins [? Jobbins] de Nibley septentrionali despons. Septemb. 28 A° 1653. William Heaven ye Sonne of Richard Heaven yeoman, and Margerie his wife was married unto Edith Herrod ye daughter of John Herrod yeoman and Edith his wife of ye parish of Slimbridge this present 26 day of Januarie, A° 1653. Thomas Audley, Register. John Taylor ye son of Thomas Taylor yeoman, and Margerie his wife was joine in marriage unto Abigail, ye daughter of Christopher Adams Daryman and Agnes, his wife, all of the Parish of Frocester this eleventh day of Septemb., A° 1654. Thomas Audley Regs. Edward Cowles of this Parish broadweaver et Susanna Veisy of Estington were married April 16 A° 1655. John Fesser junior ye sonne of John Fesser ye elder widdower was joyned in marriage unto Sarah Pegler an orphan both of ye parish of Froceter this eighteenth day of october A° 1655. John Adams et Deborah Marling were married Novemb. 8. 1655. Anno Domini 1665 William Heyward de parochia de Stonehouse et Maria Nurse de parochia de Froc: desponsati octa. die Februarij. James Eiles et Joane heaven rid desponsati Feb. 26. [on a piece of parchment numbered 36. h.] Sponsali Ann. Dom. 1670 Thomas Curneck desp. oct 2 die Guilimus Chapman Nov. 7. We now give a list of all the marriages comprised in Vol. II. of the Registers. [p. 37.] 168. John Condell and Mary Fessar, 28 Feb. 1682. Richard Wilkins and Anne Zelly, 2 Oct. 168. John Fessar and Sarah Harman, 12 Jan. 1683. Joseph French and Edith Haven, 7 June. 1684. James Wilkins and Frances Hicks, 3 Apr. 1685. None. 1686. John Flower and Maria Couls, 10 July. Richard Horston and Sarah Smith, 31 July. Thomas Wilkins and Mary Williams, 7 Sept. |