CHURCHES.
As the mother church of a large
parish that once included Hardwicke, Randwick,
and Saul, (fn. 81) and as a church that belonged to Gloucester Abbey, Standish church is likely to have been
built many years before the first known reference
to it c. 1188. (fn. 82) The church then had a rector;
Lawrence the priest of Standish in 1229 (fn. 83) may
have been Rector of Standish, like R. de Lewes in
the mid 13th century. R. de Lewes disputed the
division of the great tithes with Gloucester Abbey,
and it was stated that the rector was entitled to all
the small tithes and one yardland of glebe but only
to a specified amount of grain representing the
great tithes of 30 yardlands. (fn. 84) Master Ellis, Rector of
Standish in the mid 13th century, (fn. 85) was apparently
the same, as Ellis of Bromfield, who held only a
portion of the rectory. Thomas of Stoke was instituted on the abbey's presentation to the same
portion in 1270, (fn. 86) and he received only £4 out of the
total profits of the church of nearly £15 in 1291.
He held other benefices (fn. 87) and was an absentee, (fn. 88)
so that it is possible either that there was a Vicar of
Standish in his time, as in 1303, (fn. 89) or that on his
resignation or death the abbey appropriated the
remaining portion of the rectory and presented
vicars instead of rectors as incumbents.
The vicar's portion had become intermixed by
1348 with that of Gloucester Abbey, and to put an
end to disputes Bishop Bransford confirmed an
ordination of the vicarage. (fn. 90) The vicarage remained
in the gift of the abbey (fn. 91) until 1534, when the abbot
and convent made a grant of the next presentation. (fn. 92)
In 1551 the Bishop of Gloucester, who held the
impropriated rectory, (fn. 93) was named as patron of the
living, (fn. 94) and the presentation in 1580 by Richard
Hands was made by virtue of a grant from the
bishop, as may have been that made in 1554 by
Robert Jones. (fn. 95) In 1552, however, the Crown had
granted the advowson to Sir Anthony Cooke (fn. 96)
along with the manor, (fn. 97) and the advowson was
included in settlements of the manor in 1579 and
1624. (fn. 98) The first presentation after 1580 was of
Walter Powell in 1618 and was made by John Powell
of Clapton; (fn. 99) both men may have been related to
William Powell, churchwarden of Standish in the
late 16th century, (fn. 1) and to Henry Powell, steward of
Standish manor in 1582, (fn. 2) suggesting that John
Powell's right derived from the lord of the manor
rather than the bishop. On the next vacancy, in
1664, the bishop filled the living by collation, (fn. 3)
and on the next again, in 1678, Sir Joseph Sheldon
presented. (fn. 4) In 1692 Bishop Fowler granted the
next presentation to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
but the Crown presented in 1709. Thereafter the
advowson belonged to the Bishop of Gloucester,
the archbishop exercising turns in 1760 and
1839, (fn. 5) and the bishop was still patron in 1967.
The value of the vicarage, included with that of
the rectory in 1341, (fn. 6) was high, at £44 clear, in
1535. (fn. 7) The cost of maintaining a chaplain or
chaplains to help perform services at Hardwicke,
Randwick, and Saul made possible a great difference
between the gross and the net value. In 1650 the
vicarage was valued at £80, excluding £76 shared
among the three chapelries, all of which it was
thought should be severed from Standish. (fn. 8) The net
value in 1689 was said to be less than £40. (fn. 9) Twenty
years later the living was said to have fallen in
total value from £200, (fn. 10) and it was put at £130 c.
1710 and £160 in 1750. (fn. 11) In 1839 the vicar was
awarded rents of £200 in place of small tithes, (fn. 12)
and the vicarage was worth £540 gross in 1856. (fn. 13)
The 14th-century ordination of the vicarage gave
the vicar a pension of £15 5s. payable by the abbot
and convent of Gloucester, (fn. 14) and after the Dissolution by the bishop. (fn. 15) It also gave him the small tithes,
glebe, and a house at Little Haresfield. (fn. 16) The
glebe amounted to 60 a. in Standish in the late 16th
century, to c. 80 a. in the late 17th, (fn. 17) and to 86 a. in
the late 19th. (fn. 18)
The vicarage house at Little Haresfield, a building
of stone with a roof partly of Cotswold stone,
appears to date from the 14th century. The windows,
however, have mullioned lights with four-centred
heads, suggesting a 16th-century rebuilding, and
Bishop Frampton spent much money rebuilding
the house when he was vicar in the late 17th
century. (fn. 19) The north range, the oldest part of the
house, is of two stories and has diagonal buttresses;
it is rectangular on plan, and in the middle of the
south side is a richly moulded, ogee-headed doorway, later enclosed within the house. Two projections on the north wall may have been garderobes.
The two ground-floor rooms of the north range have
heavily moulded ceiling beams. A wing projecting
southward from the original range is later but may
also be medieval. In the mid-19th century the angle
between the existing ranges was filled with an
entrance hall, stairway, and study, and other changes
may have included reroofing the house. (fn. 20)
Richard of Leigh, vicar from 1338, Walter of
Evesham, vicar in 1345 and 1348, William Stoke,
vicar 1406-27, (fn. 21) and William Blomer, vicar in 1498, (fn. 22)
were all graduates. Dr. Thomas Greenwood, who
was vicar by 1532 (fn. 23) and died in 1542, was also
reader in divinity at Gloucester Abbey; (fn. 24) he
provided a curate for Standish (fn. 25) and leased part of
the glebe. (fn. 26) His successor, John Moore, was nonresident in 1551, claiming to be a royal chaplain,
and employed a curate. (fn. 27) He was described as
contumacious in 1548, (fn. 28) and was disputing with
his parishioners about tithes in 1550. (fn. 29) In 1554 he
was replaced, because he was married, by John
Yannes, (fn. 30) who regained possession of the glebe
and tithes leased by Moore on giving the lessees a
covenant to perform services at the parish church
and its chapels. (fn. 31) Moore recovered the living in
1559, (fn. 32) but remained non-resident. (fn. 33) Francis Yate,
vicar 1580-1618, was a graduate and a preacher; (fn. 34)
by 1603 he was also Vicar of Painswick. (fn. 35)
Walter Powell, who as mentioned above may have
had earlier connexions with the parish, was vicar
1618-64, (fn. 36) his tenure in the later years being interrupted. He tried to buy an estate in Standish and
Haresfield, failed to pay the purchase price, (fn. 37) and
was imprisoned for debt. (fn. 38) His claim that he had
been plundered by the king's army (fn. 39) helped to
restore him to the vicarage when the county committee ejected him in 1645. (fn. 40) Though he subscribed
the Presbyterian Testimony
(fn. 41) and was called a
preaching minister in 1650, (fn. 42) by 1653 he had again
been ejected (fn. 43) and from 1655 to 1660 disputed
possession of the vicarage with William Hill, who
had been admitted in 1654 as the Protector's
presentee. (fn. 44) In 1661 there was said to be no minister, (fn. 45)
and in 1662 Powell subscribed as vicar. (fn. 46)
In 1684 Robert Frampton, then Bishop of Gloucester, became Vicar of Standish; when he was deprived
of his bishopric as a non-juror the authorities
connived at his retention of the vicarage, and he
died at Standish in 1708. (fn. 47) Four of the next five
vicars held other benefices in Gloucestershire, (fn. 48)
and the cure may normally have been served by
curates. One curate, Vincent Rice, (fn. 49) was in 1715
said to be 'of the high side' and to have Jacobite
leanings. (fn. 50) In 1785 Robert Hallifax began his
incumbency which lasted until his death in 1838. (fn. 51)
The church of ST. NICHOLAS
(fn. 52) comprises
chancel, nave, west tower with spire, north porch,
and south vestry, all built of ashlar with Cotswold
stone roofs. Except for the south vestry, formerly a
porch, (fn. 53) the whole church was built in the early
14th century and has a chamfered plinth running all
round. Each side of the nave has three windows,
and each side of the chancel two, all of the same
design, of two lights with quatrefoil tracery and
splays recessed both inside and out. The large east
window, which is slightly south of centre, has five
lights and elaborate tracery. The chancel is unusually
large, even in proportion to the wide, aisleless nave.
At the east end of the south wall is an ogee-headed
piscina, and there is a similar, piscina at the east end
of the north wall of the nave. There is a small
priest's door in the south wall of. the chancel. The
continuous chancel arch, of two plain, chamfered
orders, is almost as high and as wide as the chancel
and is supported on the outside by straight buttresses. The nave roof is ceiled with timber panelling
ornamented with 180 carved bosses. (fn. 54) The north
porch contains stone benches. In the west wall,
slightly north of centre, is a 14th-century doorway
to the tower.
The west tower, its unusual narrowness accentuated by its tall, ribbed broach spire of ashlar,
shares the west wall of the nave and overlaps the
verge of the nave gable-end. The western angles
have tall diagonal buttresses. The ringing chamber
at first-floor level has narrow rectangular lights,
the belfry and the cardinal faces of the spire have
cusped single lights.
The church has been altered remarkably little
since the early 14th century. The medieval additions
included the south porch, and a rood loft the stairway to which survives. The church was restored and
reseated in 1762-4, (fn. 55) but the size of the nave made a
gallery unnecessary. (fn. 56) It was again repaired and
reseated in 1867, (fn. 57) when the chancel, which had
previously been ceiled, (fn. 58) was reroofed. (fn. 59) The font is
of 1860. (fn. 60)
The monuments include the pediment, entablature, and columns of the memorial of Sir Henry
Winston (d. 1609) and his wife Denise, from which
the effigies, together with that of Sir Henry's
father Thomas, were removed from Standish to
Long Burton church (Dorset) by Sir Henry's
daughter, Eleanor; (fn. 61) the monument was in the
chancel, (fn. 62) and what remains of it was moved to the
nave and in 1966 was restored to commemorate
Sir Winston Churchill's association, through the
Winstons, with Standish. To the north of the altar is
the gravestone of Bishop Frampton. A thick slab
bearing a lady's head of the early 14th century
incised in low relief (fn. 63) lies by the nave piscina.
The tenor bell, inscribed with the name of William
Lawley, vicar, is apparently from Holy Trinity
Church, Gloucester, and cast by Robert Hendley c.
1500. It was brought to Standish in or before
1651, when another bell was acquired. Two more
bells, by Brian Eldridge of Coventry, were added in
1656, (fn. 64) and by 1667 there were five bells. (fn. 65) A bell
of 1720 by Abraham Rudhall was added, and in
1748 the younger Abraham recast another. (fn. 66) All
six bells, which had been out of order for 20 years,
were rehung in 1930. (fn. 67) The plate includes a chalice
of 1651, and a chalice and paten-cover of 1573 that
once belonged to the chapel at Colethrop. (fn. 68) The
registers begin in 1559 but have extensive gaps in
the early 17th century.
The mission church of ST. MARY MAGDALEN
at Colethrop, 700 yds. NW. of the pound, was
opened in 1874; it was built at the expense of J. D.
T. Niblett, who in 1866 had become the first lay
reader in the Church of England. The building
incorporated a trefoil-headed window brought
from the. church house at Harescombe. The church
was closed in 1932 (fn. 69) and demolished soon after. (fn. 70)
In 1967 enough of the foundations remained to
show that it had been a small stone building.