Semi-circular seat, St Mary de Crypt Churchyard, Gloucester - geograph

St Mary de Crypt Church, Southgate Street,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

GL1, is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

St Mary de Crypt, Gloucester.
A Church Near You, 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2011.

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

, which was first recorded in 1140 as ''The Church of the Blessed Mary within Southgate''. It is in the Diocese of Gloucester and is located adjacent to the ruins of ''Greyfriars''. It has also been known as ''Christ Church'' and ''St. Mary in the South''.St. Mary de Crypt Church.
City of Gloucester, Places of Worship, 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2011. St Mary de Crypt is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The church was first recorded in 1140 and has played an important part in Gloucester's history since then. The Crypt School was founded adjacent to the church in 1539 by Joan Cooke with money she inherited from her husband John, and the school room still exists, although the school has now moved to larger premises. Mr and Mrs Cooke were both buried in the church and the north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

includes brasses to their memory.John and Joan Cooke.
Living Gloucester, 2011. Retrieved 23 June 2011. In 1643, during the Siege of Gloucester in the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Angl ...

, the church was used as an ammunition factory and store.

George Whitefield George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at ...

, one of the founders of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

, gave his first sermon at the church in 1736.St Mary de Crypt & Greyfriars.
Gloucestershire Portal, 2006. Retrieved 23 June 2011. In 1811,

Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was educated at The Crypt School Gloucester. He was noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Family Raikes was born at ...

, the founder of

Sunday Schools A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

, was buried beneath the South Chapel. He had been baptised there in 1736. In 1836, Jemmy Wood, ''The Gloucester Miser'', was buried there. In 1952, the parish was united with the parish of the former St Michael's Church.St Michael’s Tower at Gloucester Cross.
Gloucester Civic Trust, 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2011. In 2019, the church and Crypt schoolroom reopened after a two-year restoration project. Previously the buildings had fallen into disrepair and disuse, and were reopened for worship as well as a creative, community and events centre. The restoration project was primarily funded by a £1.36 million grant from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

Architecture

The church was built in the 12th century and includes a number of surviving Norman features. One of the most significant is the well-preserved carved tympanum over the west door (opening into Southgate Street), which depicts the ''

agnus dei is the Latin name under which the "Lamb of God" is honoured within the Catholic Mass and other Christian liturgies descending from the Latin liturgical tradition. It is the name given to a specific prayer that occurs in these liturgies, and i ...

'' (lamb and flag), symbols of the Resurrection of Christ, based on the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...

. The church was rebuilt and extended in the late 14th century, incorporating some of the 12th- and 13th-century work, and further work was carried out in the 15th and 16th centuries. The

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

referred to in the name is at the western end of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

. The nave is 15th century and includes a 17th-century

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

-style

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, acces ...

Records

The Registers of the church for 1653 to 1906 are held by the ''Gloucestershire Record Office''.

References

External links

Gloucester, Southgate Street, St Mary de Crypt Grammar School.Location map.The War Memorial, St Mary de Crypt, Gloucester.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester Church of England church buildings in Gloucester Grade I listed churches in Gloucestershire History of Gloucester English churches with Norman architecture