St Andrew's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church in

Naunton Naunton is a village in Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the River Windrush in the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, area of outstanding natural beauty. Stow-on-the-Wold is about 6 miles to the east. Community The populati ...

, Gloucestershire, dedicated to St

Andrew the Apostle Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

History

Dating from the 13th century, the church replaced a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church on the same site. It was rebuilt in the 15th, when a tower was added, and restored in 1878. It was named a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1960. It has two 18th-century

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

s, one inscribed in Latin ''Lux Umbra Dei'': "Light sthe shadow of God." The Renaissance playwright and poet

Ulpian Fulwell Ulpian Fulwell (1545/6 – before 1586) was an English Renaissance theatre playwright, satirist and poet. Later as a Gloucestershire parish priest, he appears to have neglected his duties. Church, stage and satire Born one of the two sons of a li ...

was Rector of Naunton from about 1570 until his death in about 1586, but seems to have neglected his clerical duties. An episcopal visitation in 1572 concluded that the church building was decaying. Four years later Fulwell was fined when his clerk was found to be illiterate and that parents had ceased to send their children to catechism classes. Another Rector, from 1660, was the prolific author and translator

Clement Barksdale Clement Barksdale (November 1609 – January 1687) was a prolific English religious author, polymath and Anglican priest. He lost his London parish in the English Civil War, but gained Gloucestershire livings at the Restoration and taught at a p ...

(1609–1687), who held the parish in plurality with

Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman ...

Present day

At present the parish of Naunton is part of the Archdeaconry of Cheltenham 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 ...

. The church has opted to continue using the 1662 ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

'' for its services.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naunton, Saint Andrew 13th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in Gloucestershire Grade II* listed churches in Gloucestershire Diocese of Gloucester