All Saints Church is the parish church for

Selsley Selsley is a village within the civil parish of King's Stanley and district of Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. It is composed of around 175 houses, scattered around the western and eastern edge of a Cotswold spur, located approximately so ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Background

It is a celebrated early work by the important church architect G F Bodley, incorporating notable

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and his company Morris & Co. Bodley was given the commission by

Samuel Marling Sir Samuel Stephens Marling, 1st Baronet (10 April 1810 – 22 October 1883) was a British cloth manufacturer and Liberal Party politician. He was particularly associated with the village of Selsley, Gloucestershire. Biography Marling in 185 ...

, patriarch of the mill-owning family, who lived in the adjacent Stanley Park House. The church has a distinctive 'saddleback' tower, derived from French Gothic architecture, which was a significant influence on Bodley's early style. Construction took place in 1861–62. Local labour and contractors were used: Harrison of

King's Stanley King's Stanley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, situated southwest of the town of Stroud. The village is part of what is known locally as 'The Stanleys', along with its neighbours Leonard Stanley and Stanley Downton. Marling Close, whic ...

were the main contractors; stone carvings were undertaken by Joshua Wall; woodwork by William English and ironwork by T.J. Chew. Another source of inspiration for the tower can be found in the parish church of

Marling, South Tyrol Marling (; it, Marlengo ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about northwest of Bolzano. Geography As of the year 2017, it had a population of 2,710 and an area of .All demographics and other statistics: ...

near the spa city

Meran Merano (, , ) or Meran () is a city and ''comune'' in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Generally best known for its spa resorts, it is located within a basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to above sea level, at the entrance to the Passeier ...

, where Samuel Marling stayed in the 1860s. Bodley designed the

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

s and choir-stalls using poppy-heads and

fleur de lys The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

as key motifs, and the font, the inlaid

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, communion rails and door iron work all show the attention to design that Bodley paid to all aspects of the church. Equally spectacular is the stained glass. Bodley was a friend of William Morris and at Selsley he gave Morris & Co their first commission for ecclesiastical stained glass. Philip Webb provided the scheme for the whole church and the detail of the

Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

window at the west end.

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...

and Campfield were all involved. The church is rated with 3 stars in

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

' ''England's Thousand Best Churches''.

Organ

The church has a pipe organ by Nicholson dating from 1862. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.National Pipe Organ Register
/ref>

Churchyard

The churchyard contains

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of a soldier of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and another of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.
CWGC Cemetery Report, breakdown obtained from casualty record.

References

External links

*
A History of Selsley Church

OS Bench Mark on near corner (106 Metres ASL)
Church of England church buildings in Gloucestershire, Selsley

George Frederick Bodley church buildings {{England-church-stub