St Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester 20 Aug 2011 01

St Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester 20 Aug 2011 03

St Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester 20 Aug 2011 05

St Mary de Lode Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

St Mary de Lode, Gloucester.
A Church Near You, 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2011. church immediately outside the grounds of

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to S ...

. It is believed by some to be on the site of the first Christian church in Britain. The church is in the

Diocese of Gloucester The Diocese of Gloucester is a Church of England diocese based in Gloucester, covering the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire. The cathedral is Gloucester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Gloucester. It is part of the Province ...

and Grade I listed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It has also been known as ''St. Mary Before the Gate of St. Peter'', ''St. Mary Broad Gate'' and ''St. Mary De Port''.

History

The word "Lode" is from the old English word for water course or ferry and in this case it refers to a ferry that once crossed a branch of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

to the west of the church, which no longer exists. In 1979, archaeological excavations in the nave showed that the church is built over two Roman buildings. The first, probably a baths building erected in the second century, was destroyed in the fifth century and replaced by a timber

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

containing three burials. The mausoleum was destroyed by fire and followed by a sequence of buildings interpreted as churches, culminating in the medieval church of St Mary. It is suggested that the original church was a post-Roman British foundation, before the

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

occupied this area. The earliest reference to a church in written records dates from the late eleventh century. It then comprised a nave, chancel and tower which was destroyed by fire in 1190. A new chancel was built in the thirteenth century. A local legend, first recorded in the eighteenth century, holds that the church was the burial place of the legendary

King Lucius Lucius (Welsh language, Welsh: Lles map Coel, Lleirwg, Lleufer or Lleufer Mawr) was a supposed 2nd-century List of legendary kings of Britain, king of the Britons traditionally credited with introducing Christianity into Great Britain, Britain. L ...

, first Christian king of Britain, who was said to have established a bishopric in Gloucester in the second century A.D. This legend combined with the results of the archaeological work has apparently inspired the local belief that the church was built on the site of an ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

temple, and was the first Christian church in Britain. A tomb effigy in the north wall of the chancel formerly pointed out as marking the grave of King Lucius is of fourteenth-century date, and shows a tonsured priest, perhaps William de Chamberleyn who was vicar in 1302–5. In March 1643 and also in 1646, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, the church was used as a prison to hold royalist soldiers captured by Sir William Waller and Lieut. Col. Edward Massey.St. Mary de Lode Church.
City of Gloucester, Places of Worship, 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2013.

Architecture

The church has a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

central tower of about 1190. The nave was rebuilt in 1826 in early

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style with cast iron columns, by James Cooke, a local

monumental mason Monumental masonry (also known as memorial masonry) is a kind of stonemasonry focused on the creation, installation and repairs of headstones (also known as gravestones and tombstones) and other memorials. Cultural significance In Christian cu ...

. A Norman arch leads from the nave into the tower, which is barrel-vaulted and connected through a thirteenth-century arch with the chancel. The chancel was begun like the tower in about 1190 but extended and vaulted in the thirteenth century. Further restorations to the church took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the west part of the nave was converted for use as a church hall in 1980. There is an octagonal pulpit, apparently made up of fifteenth-century carved wooden panels, and an eighteenth-century organ brought in 1972 from the now-redundant church of St Nicholas, Westgate Street. There are stained glass windows commemorating the

Royal Gloucestershire Hussars The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was a volunteer yeomanry regiment which, in the 20th century, became part of the British Army Reserve. It traced its origins to the First or Cheltenham Troop of Gloucestershire Gentleman and Yeomanry raised in ...

and the Gloucester poet Ivor Gurney. In the grounds is a monument to Bishop John Hooper, who was burnt at the stake in Gloucester.

Today

St Mary de Lode remains a functioning church with regular services and a Sunday School. The parish is now combined with those of St Swithun's, Hempsted, and St Mary de Crypt. The church is the regular venue for concerts by the ''Gloucester Music Society''.The Gloucester Music Society.
Retrieved 20 June 2011.

References

External links

Detailed description of the church organ.Inside view.Location map.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester Church of England church buildings in Gloucester Grade I listed churches in Gloucestershire History of Gloucester English churches with Norman architecture Gothic Revival church buildings in England

History

Architecture

Today

See also

References

External links