CHURCH.
The church at Haresfield was first
recorded in 1161; in that year Henry of Hereford,
the lord of the manor, granted it to Llanthony
Priory. (fn. 78) The rectory was appropriated, and a
vicarage had been ordained by 1270. (fn. 79) In 1932 the
benefice was united with Harescombe. (fn. 80) The patronage was exercised by Llanthony Priory until the
Dissolution; (fn. 81) by 1546 the Crown had granted it to
Sir Anthony Kingston whose successors as lords of
the chief manor were patrons. (fn. 82)
The valuation of Haresfield church at £4 6s. 8d.
in 1291 presumably included the portions of both
rector and vicar, while a portion of the profits
valued at 10s. belonged to Tewkesbury Abbey.
Llanthony Priory, as rector, and the vicar also had
small portions in the churches of Harescombe and
Pitchcombe (fn. 83) which were described as chapels to
Haresfield in 1341, (fn. 84) but no later evidence of the
connexion between the churches has been found.
The vicar received the small tithes of the parish. In
1319 an agreement about the tithing of calves, sheep,
apples, and pears asserted the continuing right of the
vicar to the tithes of orchards and gardens converted
to fields, and of the rector to the tithes of fields
which ceased to be cultivated. (fn. 85) In a dispute over
the vicar's right to tithes from the park in 1585
it was said that he had formerly received the shoulder
of any deer killed. (fn. 86) About 1680 the vicar and parishioners agreed to a composition for the tithes of
pasture grounds but the tithes of apples, hens,
ducks, and geese continued to be paid in kind. (fn. 87)
The vicar had 29½ a. of glebe in 1572; (fn. 88) some had
been sold by 1807. (fn. 89) At inclosure in 1831 the vicar
received c. 130 a. for his tithes and c. 16 a. for
glebe. (fn. 90) The vicarage was worth £13 3s. 5½d. in
1535. (fn. 91) Its value was put at £57 in 1650, (fn. 92) at £60
in 1750, (fn. 93) and at £270 in 1825. (fn. 94)
The vicarage house was mentioned in 1434, (fn. 95) and
in 1572 when its timber and tiling were out of
repair. (fn. 96) It was perhaps the same house that was in
such bad repair in 1679 that Richard Capel, the
vicar presented in that year, considered legal action
against his predecessor's widow. Capel demolished
the house, (fn. 97) and by c. 1775 another vicarage house
had been built. (fn. 98) That house was later burnt down
and in 1792 the vicar, Thomas Rudge, mortgaged
the profits of the vicarage to raise money for a new
house, which had been completed by 1807. (fn. 99) The
vicarage house was again rebuilt c. 1840, as a large
stone house in the Tudor style, by the impropriator
Daniel Niblett. (fn. 1)
Henry Kirk, vicar from 1551, was found unsatisfactory in doctrine; (fn. 2) he was deprived for marriage in
1554. John Jennings (1556-71) (fn. 3) was resident in
1563, (fn. 4) but in 1569 when the church lacked a bible,
prayer-book, and Erasmus's Paraphrases, the
services were apparently being performed by a
curate, who was reprimanded for not following
the prescribed order of saying the prayers. Thomas
Woodcock, vicar from 1578, (fn. 5) was described as
neither a graduate nor a preacher in 1584, (fn. 6) but as
both in 1593. (fn. 7) Anthony Andrews (d. 1679) (fn. 8) was
described as a preaching minister in 1650; (fn. 9) from
1664 he was also Vicar of Standish. From 1780 to
1825 (fn. 10) the living was held by Thomas Rudge,
Archdeacon of Gloucester, who wrote a history
of Gloucestershire and an account of its agriculture. (fn. 11)
The church of ST. PETER
(fn. 12) comprises nave,
chancel of two compartments, west tower and spire,
and north and south porches. Some parts of the
fabric of the church mentioned in the 12th century
survive: the tympanum of the north doorway is
scored with diagonal lines and has an order of star
ornament and a row of the same ornament below,
and in the north wall of the western chancel is a
restored window with internal shafts and chevron
ornament. (fn. 13) The western compartment of the chancel
possibly formed the base of a tower. It was later
the responsibility of the rector and the eastern
compartment that of the vicar; the arrangement
was recorded from the 16th century. (fn. 14) In the 13th
century a cusped light was inserted in the south wall
of the eastern compartment. The church was rebuilt
in the 14th century when the embattled west tower
of three stages with a spire, gargoyles, and a staircase
turret on the north, and the porches were added.
There are two restored 14th-century windows in
the south wall of the nave. The perpendicular east
window is apparently a 19th-century replacement. (fn. 15)
The church was reroofed in 1751, and in the next
year orders were given for repairing the tower and
spire. (fn. 16) Repairs to the interior carried out c. 1780
were said to have obliterated many ancient details. (fn. 17)
The church, described in 1841 as 'unwholesome,
uncomfortable, and squalid', (fn. 18) was very thoroughly
restored in the next year by Daniel Niblett. (fn. 19) The
Decorated window replacing one of the 14th
century (fn. 20) and the Tudor-style doorway in the south
wall of the western chancel were presumably added
then.
The font has a lead bowl ornamented with cusped
arcading and is probably 14th-century work,
although it has been suggested that the beaded
shafts of the arcade indicate a 17th-century date. (fn. 21)
There are two early 14th-century female effigies in
stone in the western chancel, (fn. 22) one in an ogee recess
with cusping, the other placed alongside it, apparently during the restoration of 1842. (fn. 23) A wall
monument to John Rogers (d. 1683), bears the
epitaph written for him by John Dryden. (fn. 24) The
north doorway has an ancient oak door, and a
dugout chest is preserved in the south porch. There
is a rough carving, thought to represent David with
his sling, on the north-east buttress of the nave. (fn. 25)
The four bells of the church were broken in 1686
when it was decided to recast them and add a fifth. (fn. 26)
Two of the bells, however, the work of Abraham
Rudhall, are dated 1702, a third 1725, and a fourth,
by Thomas Rudhall, 1779; another was recast in
1846 when a sixth was added. (fn. 27) John Rogers of
Moat Place (d. 1698) by his will dated 1695 gave
Starsmead House as a dwelling for the parish clerk
or another who was to ring a bell for half an hour in
the morning and evening during the winter months. (fn. 28)
He also gave the church clock in 1692. (fn. 29) The plate
includes an alms-dish dated 1674 and a flagon
dated 1750, given by members of the Pulton family,
and a chalice and paten of 1737. (fn. 30) The registers
begin in 1558. (fn. 31)
A medieval stone coffin discovered in the western
chancel in the 19th century lies in the churchyard
by the north porch; it contained a lead coffin paten (fn. 32)
which is kept in the vestry. Near the north porch is a
coped gravestone thought to be Saxon; (fn. 33) its ornamentation, medallions with floral devices, could no
longer be made out in 1967. Beside it are two
medieval grave slabs. (fn. 34)