CHURCHES
Before the 19th century the royal demesne land
of the Forest of Dean was extraparochial and
had no churches. Newland church, the rector of
which was entitled under grants of 1283 and
1305 to the tithes of Whitemead and of new
closes and assarts within the Forest, (fn. 15) was regarded as the Foresters' parish church (fn. 16) and in
the early 16th century one of its chantry priests
was required to preach the gospel twice a week
at forges and mines within the parish. (fn. 17) By the
late 18th century Foresters and inhabitants of
detached parts of Newland lying intermingled
with the Forest attended several churches near
the extraparochial area. (fn. 18) A society formed at
Coleford under the auspices of Henry Ryder, the
new bishop of Gloucester, in 1815 to sell bibles
cheaply in the Forest region was supported by
local clergy, both Anglican and nonconformist, (fn. 19)
and a similar society was started at Lydbrook in
1830. (fn. 20) The Forest's first consecrated churches
or chapels,Christ Church (1816) at Berry Hill,
Holy Trinity (1817) near Drybrook, and St. Paul
(1822) at Parkend, were built with some assistance from the Crown, acting mostly through
the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, and
Land Revenues, for missions conducted by
neighbouring clergymen, one of whom also provided a Sunday schoolroom at Lydbrook. The
cost of the chapels, which had congregations of
poor people drawn from surrounding settlements, was largely borne by their clergy, and in
1830 the Commissioners of Woods established
a trust fund to keep the three buildings in repair.
The chapels remained without parishes and
some parts of the Forest continued under the
clergy of adjoining parishes (fn. 21) until the mid 1840s
when, under an Act of 1842, the Forest was
divided into four ecclesiastical districts, one
being for a new church at Cinderford, (fn. 22) dedicated to St. John the Evangelist in 1844. More
churches and school-chapels were built in the
later 19th century, including the churches at
Lydbrook and Viney Hill, and missions were
opened in lesser hamlets before the First World
War, some of them organized by Bream, Clearwell, and Coleford churches, (fn. 23) which in the later
19th century were given charge over parts of the
Forest. (fn. 24)
The church of ALL SAINTS, Viney Hill,
begun in 1865 and consecrated in 1867, was built
as a memorial to Charles Bathurst (d. 1863) of
Lydney Park by his wife Mary and his brother
and heir, the Revd. W. H. Bathurst. (fn. 25) In the mid
1830s the Viney Hill area was visited by the
curate of Blakeney and the vicar of Awre. (fn. 26) Later
Henry Poole organized missions from St. Paul's
church, Parkend, and in the early 1850s he built
school-chapels between Viney Hill and Oldcroft
and at Blakeney Woodside with the help of
Charles Bathurst and Edward Machen, deputy
surveyor of the Forest. (fn. 27) That between Viney
Hill and Oldcroft, which became known as St.
Swithin, (fn. 28) was replaced for services by All
Saints' church, further east. All Saints was in
1866 assigned a parish taken from that of St.
Paul's church and including Blakeney Hill and
Yorkley Slade. (fn. 29) The benefice, described as a
perpetual curacy (later a vicarage), was given a
stipend of £150, of which £100 was secured by
an endowment from Mary and W. H. Bathurst, (fn. 30)
and a new house north of the church. (fn. 31) The
patronage was vested in W. H. Bathurst (fn. 32) and
descended with the Lydney Park estate (fn. 33) until
1936 when Viscount Bledisloe gave it to University College, Oxford. (fn. 34)
All Saints' church, built of local red sandstone
with grey sandstone dressings, was designed by
Ewan Christian (fn. 35) in a late 13th-century style
with an apsidal chancel flanked by quadrant
chapels and a nave with north transept and
south aisle and porch. The north chapel was
used as a vestry and the south chapel was
converted in the early 20th century as a choir
vestry. Of the fittings the organ, in the transept,
was bought between 1900 and 1904 to replace
another instrument. (fn. 36) The two bells hanging in
a bellcot over the chancel were cast in 1867 by
Mears & Stainbank. (fn. 37) The plate includes an
almsdish donated in 1901 by Charles Bathurst
(later Viscount Bledisloe) (fn. 38) and a chalice and
paten given in memory of C. R. Williams, vicar
1922-50. (fn. 39) The mission to Blakeney Woodside
continued under All Saints' church until its
abandonment before 1950. (fn. 40) In 1875 A. D.
Pringle, vicar of Blakeney, began holding Sunday services in a former Baptist meeting house
at Blakeney Hill. (fn. 41) The building was presumably that used as a mission hall until at least
1901. (fn. 42)
CHRIST CHURCH, Berry Hill, was consecrated in 1816 (fn. 43) but dates from 1812 when P. M.
Procter, vicar of Newland, built a school-chapel
for his mission to the Forest. The site was
acquired from Thomas Morgan, a coal miner in
whose cottage, to the north, Procter had started
preaching in 1804, (fn. 44) and grants and subscriptions towards the school-chapel came from,
among others, the duke of Beaufort, the bishop,
and the National Society. (fn. 45) The building was
opened in 1813 and after a year or so was used
solely as a free chapel (fn. 46) by people from the
settlements around Berry Hill and sometimes
from as far afield as Lydbrook, Worrall Hill,
Hillersland, and the Lane End district. (fn. 47) To
endow the chapel Procter obtained a grant of 5
a. in the Forest from the Commissioners of the
Treasury in 1813 and, having raised funds by a
public appeal, purchased 26 a. in Coleford in
1815 and Morgan's cottage. The endowment,
which he vested with the chapel and its patronage in trustees, (fn. 48) was augmented by Queen
Anne's Bounty in 1817 with a grant of £2,000 (fn. 49)
and included c. 92 a. of glebe in Coleford in
1840. (fn. 50) It provided an income of £140 in 1832 (fn. 51)
and £118 10s. 6d. in 1842. (fn. 52) Procter, who paid
part of his debt arising from the chapel's foundation with £500 in grants obtained in 1818 with
the help of Nicholas Vansittart, Chancellor of
the Exchequer, (fn. 53) was minister until his death in
1822. His successors, sometimes described as
perpetual curates, included from 1824 T. R.
Garnsey (d. 1847), who held weekday meetings
in the Lane End district, Joyford, and elsewhere. (fn. 54)
In 1844 Christ Church was assigned a district
or parish extending to Mirystock, Cannop, and
Broadwell Lane End. (fn. 55) It lost Broadwell in 1890
to the ecclesiastical parish of Coleford. (fn. 56) Under
the Act of 1842 the patronage of Christ Church
was transferred to the Crown and the chapel
became a perpetual curacy with an income increased to £150 by an endowment from the
Commissioners of Woods. (fn. 57) The benefice, later
styled a vicarage, (fn. 58) was united with English
Bicknor in 1972. The patronage of the new
benefice was shared by the Crown and the
Society for the Maintenance of the Faith, the
latter having the right to fill the second of every
four vacancies. (fn. 59) Christ Church vicarage house
in what had been Thomas Morgan's cottage,
enlarged c. 1840 (fn. 60) with later additions, was retained for the benefice in 1972. (fn. 61) By 1989 it was
used for retreats and conferences, (fn. 62) the incumbent living in a new bungalow south of the
church.
The original church, on the road between
Coleford and English Bicknor, was the schoolchapel of 1812, a simple building with a west
bellcot. (fn. 63) The chapel became a north aisle in
1815 when a new nave was added to double its
size and a west gallery was erected. A west tower,
designed by the Revd. Henry Poole, was added
a few years after 1819 (fn. 64) and a chancel with
octagonal apse and north organ chamber, designed by the firm of Waller, Son, and Wood for
the vicar, Christopher Barnes, in 1884 and
1885. (fn. 65) The church was restored in 1913, when
a south-west vestry was added, the gallery removed, the nave repewed, and a chancel screen
erected; the screen was removed before 1966. (fn. 66)
The church has one bell (fn. 67) and its font is similar
to that provided for the church which Henry
Poole built at Parkend in the early 1820s. (fn. 68)
The church of HOLY JESUS, Lydbrook, was
begun in 1850 and consecrated in 1851. (fn. 69) It was
built in Upper Lydbrook in the grounds of a
Sunday schoolroom (fn. 70) which Henry Berkin, minister of Holy Trinity church, Harrow Hill, had
erected in 1821. Services were held in the room
from 1822, the mission to Lydbrook being conducted by Berkin's curate. (fn. 71) Some Lydbrook
people attended church at Welsh Bicknor
(Herefs., formerly Mon.), on the opposite side
of the river Wye. (fn. 72) Impetus for building
Lydbrook church came from John Burdon, rector of English Bicknor, (fn. 73) and £2,000 for the
project was given by Edward Machen and his
relatives. The remaining cost was met by grants
and voluntary contributions, including £250
from local tinplate manufacturers Allaway &
Partridge. (fn. 74) The church served an area centred
on Lydbrook and created a consolidated
chapelry in 1852 out of parts of the parishes of
Holy Trinity, English Bicknor, Newland, and
Ruardean. The living was styled a perpetual
curacy (fn. 75) (later a vicarage) (fn. 76) and its initial endowments included a stipend of £90 from the
Commissioners of Woods and, by the grant of
John Burdon, £30 from the English Bicknor
tithe rent charge. (fn. 77) The Crown and the patrons
of English Bicknor had alternate rights of presentation. The bishop, to whom the right for
English Bicknor was transferred in 1884, (fn. 78) became sole patron after 1939. (fn. 79) The endowments
were augmented in 1854 when Queen Anne's
Bounty gave £200 to meet gifts totalling £800. (fn. 80)
Soon afterwards a parsonage was built some way
south-east of the church on land given by the
Commissioners of Woods. (fn. 81) The house was sold
after the Second World War and the incumbent
was provided with a new house at Mirystock, to
the south-east. (fn. 82) The Sunday schoolroom, which
housed a day school from 1849 to 1909 and
served as a church hall after that, (fn. 83) was pulled
down in 1975 and a new vicarage house was built
on its site. (fn. 84)
The church, built of local gritstone with Bath
stone dressings, was designed by Henry
Woodyer in a 14th-century style, having a chan
cel with north sacristy, a clerestoried and aisled
nave with south porch, and a west tower with
saddle-back roof. (fn. 85) In 1912 an organ chamber
was built between the sacristy and the north aisle
and a choir vestry was added at the north-west
corner of the church. A few windows have been
filled with memorial glass, that in the east window of the chancel being provided in 1908 by
Richard Thomas, formerly owner of the
Lydbrook tinplate works. (fn. 86) The church has a
bell cast in 1850 by John Warner and Sons of
London (fn. 87) and a set of plate made in the same
year by John Keith. (fn. 88)
Holy Trinity Church And School, Harrow Hill, Built in 1817.
HOLY TRINITY at Harrow Hill, near Drybrook, known locally as the Forest church, (fn. 89) was
opened in 1817 and consecrated later the same
year. It was built as a free chapel by its first
minister, Henry Berkin, (fn. 90) then curate of Weston
under Penyard (Herefs.), who began holding
services in the Forest in 1812 while at
Mitcheldean. (fn. 91) In 1816 the Commissioners of
the Treasury acting for the Crown granted 5 a.
for the church to trustees. The land lay in two
pieces, the smaller on Quarry hill where Berkin
built the church and a schoolroom and the larger
to the south-east where he built a parsonage. (fn. 92)
The costs were met partly by grants, including
£500 from the Treasury, and by a public subscription to which the duke of Beaufort,
constable of St. Briavels, contributed. (fn. 93) In 1817
Queen Anne's Bounty endowed the church with
£2,200, which produced an income of £88, and
in 1825 the endowment was augmented with
grants totalling £500. The income from the
endowments fell in 1829 from £108 to £91 13s. (fn. 94)
and in 1832 Berkin's income was £97 16s. (fn. 95)
Berkin, under whom the church was attended
by people from as far away as Lea Bailey, Pope's
Hill, Blaize Bailey, Cinderford, and Lydbrook, (fn. 96)
was sometimes styled a perpetual curate. (fn. 97) From
1821, when he also had the cure of Hope Mansell
(Herefs.) adjoining the Forest, he was assisted
by a curate, (fn. 98) whose stipend was paid by a
benefactor. Berkin entrusted the curate with a
mission to Lydbrook, for which he built a
Sunday schoolroom. (fn. 99) Isaac Bridgman, the first
curate, also preached at Littledean Hill, Cinderford, and Gunn's Mills but his affinities with
nonconformist preachers led to his estrangement
from Berkin (fn. 1) and in 1822 to the revoking of his
licence and to an interdict against his officiating
in any church in the diocese. (fn. 2)
In 1844 Holy Trinity was assigned a district
or parish comprising the northern part of the
Forest and extending from Pope's Hill in the
east to Lydbrook in the west. The parish was
created under the 1842 Act, (fn. 3) by which the
patronage of Holy Trinity, vested in 1816 in its
trustees, (fn. 4) was transferred to the Crown and the
church became a perpetual curacy with an income of £150 secured by a further endowment
from the Commissioners of Woods. (fn. 5) The living
was later styled a vicarage. (fn. 6) Berkin, who conducted cottage lectures as part of his mission to
the Forest, remained at Holy Trinity until his
death in 1847. (fn. 7) His successor H. G. Nicholls,
author of a history of the Forest, (fn. 8) also organized
missions to outlying parts of the parish, where
services were held on Sunday evenings in a
factory, called the Mill, from 1849 and in schoolchapels opened at Ruardean Woodside, Hawthorns, and Littledean Hill in the early 1850s. (fn. 9)
Under William Barker, minister 1866-97, services were held for a time at Ruardean Woodside
and at the new Drybrook school. (fn. 10) Berkin's
successors lived in his parsonage until the 1970s
when it was sold. (fn. 11) A new vicarage house was
built north of the church. Holy Trinity parish
was reduced in size in 1852 and 1880 when parts
were transferred to new parishes at Lydbrook
and Cinderford respectively (fn. 12) and between 1909
and 1912 when outlying areas in the north and
east passed to ancient parishes adjoining the
Forest. (fn. 13)
The church, of roughly coursed stone with
ashlar dressings, was built under Henry Berkin's
personal supervision (fn. 14) to a plan comprising a
small chancel with north vestry, a broad nave
with north and south porches, and a west
tower. (fn. 15) It had galleries running along three
sides of the nave (fn. 16) until 1853 when those on the
north and south sides were taken down and other
fittings were rearranged. In 1902 the church was
reseated, a new pulpit installed, and the organ
moved from the west gallery. (fn. 17) The font presumably provided by Berkin was kept in the church
in 1992 when another font, given in 1904, was
in use. The east window contains a stained-glass
memorial to James Lawton, vicar 1897-1922.
The church has two bells, one for the sanctus,
cast by John Rudhall in 1817 and a set of eight
tubular bells installed as part of a memorial to
the dead of the First World War. (fn. 18)
The church of ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, Cinderford, was begun in 1843 and
consecrated in 1844. (fn. 19) The site on Cinderford
Tump, the hill north-east of Cinderford bridge,
was given by the Crown, which in 1855 also
provided a few acres of land to the north-east
for the minister's glebe and parsonage. (fn. 20) The
cost of the church was borne principally by
Charles Bathurst together with the Crown, the
philanthropist the Revd. S. W. Warneford, and
the solicitor Thomas Graham, formerly clerk to
the Dean Forest commissioners. (fn. 21) During its
construction T. G. Smythies, who was to become the first minister, held services in Edward
Protheroe's new school to the south. (fn. 22) Under the
1842 Act the church was a perpetual curacy in
the gift of the Crown and its fabric was maintained by the Commissioners of Woods from a
trust fund. (fn. 23) In 1845 the church was given a
district or parish comprising the eastern part of
the Forest from Blaize Bailey in the east to
Cannop in the west and including Ruspidge and
Soudley in the south. (fn. 24) The benefice, which
under the Act had an income of £150 secured
by an endowment from the Commissioners of
Woods, (fn. 25) was later styled a vicarage. (fn. 26) Its parsonage, built to designs by Francis Niblett in
1855, (fn. 27) was sold in the later 20th century and a
house provided elsewhere. Missions were sent
from the church to the northern part of Cinderford, which became a separate parish in 1880, (fn. 28)
and to Soudley, where a permanent church was
built. (fn. 29)
St. John's church, built of sandstone rubble
with ashlar dressings, was designed by Edward
Blore (fn. 30) in an early 13th-century style with an
apsidal sanctuary with north vestry and an aisled
nave with short transepts, south porch, and
small south-west tower and spire. (fn. 31) Galleries in
the transepts and at the west end were taken
down during restoration work in 1874 when the
internal walls of the nave were lined with brick and
the west gallery was rebuilt. In 1905 a new organ
was put in the north transept and in 1912 a chancel
was formed by raising the floor at the eastern end
and erecting a low stone screen between it and the
rest of the church. A wooden screen was added to
the partition in 1913 and a wooden reredos was
erected in 1923. (fn. 32) A bell cast by Thomas Mears in
1844 was replaced in 1927 by a chime of eight bells
given by A. J. Morgan of Abbotswood, Ruspidge. (fn. 33)
The church of ST. PAUL, Parkend, was
consecrated in 1822. (fn. 34) It was built by Henry
Poole, minister of Bream and Coleford chapels,
who in 1819 appealed publicly for funds for a
church and school at Parkend. The Crown gave
5 a. for the project and contributed towards the
cost of the church, which was paid for primarily
by voluntary contributions. Edward Machen of
Whitemead Park and Edward Protheroe were
among the principal benefactors. The patronage
was vested in the bishop, (fn. 35) and in 1822 Queen
Anne's Bounty endowed the church with
£2,200. The benefice, augmented in 1826 and
1827 by two grants of £300 from Queen Anne's
Bounty and gifts totalling £400, (fn. 36) was worth c.
£74 in 1832. (fn. 37) Poole, who as the first minister
was sometimes called a perpetual curate, (fn. 38) in
1828 took up residence in the parsonage built
north the church and in a similar style. (fn. 39)
The church, which contained free benches for
most of its congregation and pews for Forest
officials and colliery masters and agents, (fn. 40) served
Yorkley, Pillowell, Whitecroft, and Ellwood (fn. 41) and
was assigned a district or parish covering the
southern part of the Forest in 1844. The parish,
extending from Blakeney Hill in the east to Clearwell Meend in the west and reaching Cannop and
the Speech House in the north, was created under
the 1842 Act, (fn. 42) by which the church became a
perpetual curacy with an income of £150 secured
by a further endowment from the Commissioners
of Woods. (fn. 43) The benefice was later called a
vicarage (fn. 44) and in 1920, because of its poverty, it
was assigned part of the endowment of Bream
vicarage. (fn. 45) Poole, who remained incumbent until
his death in 1857, started missions to Yorkley (fn. 46) and
to the settlements around Viney Hill and Blakeney
Hill. (fn. 47) The parish has been much altered. Parts in
the west were lost to the churches at Bream and
Clearwell in 1854 and 1856 respectively, the
eastern part, including Viney Hill and Blakeney
Hill, became a separate parish in 1866, and the
north-western part at Coalway Lane End was
transferred to Coleford church in 1890. (fn. 48) In 1909
St. Paul's parish gained two detached parts of
Newland at Yorkley, to the south. (fn. 49)
St. Paul's church, built of ashlar, was designed
by Henry Poole in a Gothick style. The plan is
octagonal and cruciform, the arms formed by the
sanctuary, north and south transepts, and the
west end of the church. There is also an east
vestry, north and south porches, and a west
tower. (fn. 50) The transepts and west end contained
galleries and in the late 1890s, when much of the
church was repewed, a screen under the west
gallery was removed and the space below the
south gallery adapted as a choir vestry. That
vestry and platforms introduced at the same time
to raise the altar were removed as part of alterations begun in 1957. (fn. 51) Among the original
fittings retained in 1992 were the wooden gallery
fronts, reredos, and pulpit and the font. The
organ, in the west gallery, incorporates part of
an instrument built for Salisbury cathedral in
the early 18th century and brought to Parkend
from Ross-on-Wye (Herefs.) church by 1858. (fn. 52)
Edward Machen gave a bell, cast in 1831 by
Thomas Mears, and a clock. A set of eight
tubular bells was installed apparently as a memorial to the dead of the First World War. (fn. 53)
The church of ST. STEPHEN, Cinderford,
begun in 1888 and consecrated in 1890, (fn. 54) was
built for a new ecclesiastical parish called Woodside at the northern end of Cinderford. Several
missions had been sent to the area, including one
by William Barker, minister of Holy Trinity,
Harrow Hill, from 1866. (fn. 55) Woodside parish,
formed in 1880 out of parts of the parishes of
Flaxley, Newland, St. John, and Holy Trinity
with the extraparochial place known as Hinder's
Lane and Dockham, (fn. 56) had its origins in a scheme
launched in 1870 by Thomas Wetherell, vicar of
Flaxley, for a school-chapel in Flaxley Meend. (fn. 57)
St. John's church, Cinderford, held services in
a room at Flaxley Meend and in Dockham
chapel, a new building on Littledean hill, from
1872 (fn. 58) and also in Cinderford town hall in 1873. (fn. 59)
In that year Woodside was made a conventional
district with its own curate (fn. 60) and from 1875 a
new school at the corner of Abbey Street and
Forest Road, next to the Flaxley Meend mission
room, served as a temporary church. (fn. 61) In 1992
the building was St. Stephen's church hall. The
establishment of Woodside parish was funded
privately and in 1880 the scheme's promoters,
chief among whom was Sir Thomas CrawleyBoevey, Bt., of Flaxley Abbey, endowed the
benefice, styled a perpetual curacy, with £2,500
stock and assigned the patronage to the Church
Patronage Society. (fn. 62) Part of the endowment may
have derived from a gift by James Parsons (d.
1847), incumbent of Newnham and Littledean. (fn. 63)
The benefice, later called a vicarage, (fn. 64) was united
in 1984 with Littledean, which had the same
patrons, (fn. 65) and the vicarage house built next to
St. Stephen's church c. 1912 (fn. 66) was retained by
the united benefice in 1992. Within the parish
missions were sent to Upper Bilson and Littledean Hill. In the latter place Dockham chapel,
which the Primitive Methodists had acquired in
1879, was used by the Anglicans again in 1901 (fn. 67)
and was closed after 1936. (fn. 68)
St. Stephen's church, designed by E. H. L.
Barker in an early 14th-century style, has a
chancel with north vestry and organ chamber
and a clerestoried and aisled nave. It was paid
for mainly by voluntary contributions, including
a gift of £700 from a Mrs. Rogers of Weston
under Penyard (Herefs.), and was built of grey
sandstone with Bath stone dressings. The nave,
which has a west gallery, was completed in 1890,
the chancel was built in 1892 and 1893, the cost
being met by Sir Thomas Crawley-Boevey's
wife Frances for a memorial to her parents, and
the vestry and organ chamber were added in
1896. (fn. 69) Elizabeth Crawley-Boevey, widow of Sir
Martin, gave a set of communion plate in 1890. (fn. 70)
The single bell had been taken down and stored
in the building by 1981. (fn. 71)
In the 19th and 20th centuries several mission
churches or chapels were established by some
churches within or near the Forest. At Ellwood,
where the assistant curate of Coleford held
cottage lectures c. 1830, (fn. 72) a chapel opened for a
mission from Clearwell by 1876. (fn. 73) It stood west
of Marsh Lane and was closed not long afterwards. (fn. 74) Christ Church, Berry Hill, also organized
early missions to the west side of the Forest, the
Revd. T. R. Garnsey (d. 1847) holding weekday
services in the Lane End district (fn. 75) and Sunday
services being conducted in the National school
built at Broadwell Lane End in 1863. (fn. 76) Between
1883 and 1888 a mission from Coleford held
services in a former Baptist chapel at
Mitcheldean Lane End (fn. 77) and in 1890 the Lane
End district, parts of which had been included
in the ecclesiastical parishes of St. Paul,
Parkend, and of Clearwell, was transferred to the
ecclesiastical parish of Coleford (fn. 78) and services
resumed in Broadwell school. An iron mission
church, dedicated to the Good Shepherd and
paid for by voluntary contributions, was erected
next to the school in 1891. (fn. 79) It was replaced by
a permanent church designed by William Leah
and built to the north-west in 1938. (fn. 80) The iron
building was retained as a church hall. (fn. 81) Coleford church also organized a mission to Milkwall
from 1895. A wooden hall erected for it in 1909 (fn. 82)
was brought from Moseley Green by Thomas
Morgan (fn. 83) and was replaced in 1935 by a small
brick church designed by William Leah and
dedicated to St. Luke. The new church, much
of the cost of which was met by a gift of £500,
had fittings taken from St. Luke's church in
Gloucester. (fn. 84) The single bell was cast in 1840 by
Thomas Mears. (fn. 85)
On the east side of the Forest a mission to
Soudley was begun from St. John's church, Cinderford, in 1869. (fn. 86) The mission, which conducted
services in an iron schoolroom in L pper Soudley
from 1875, (fn. 87) was abandoned temporarily in
1905. (fn. 88) In 1909 and 1910 a stone church was
built west of the room. Dedicated to St. Michael,
it was designed by W. Whitehouse of Cinderford
in an early 13th-century style and has a sanctuary, a nave, and a west porch. (fn. 89) By 1885 services
were held in a room at Upper Bilson within
Woodside parish. (fn. 90) The mission, which was later
served from St. Stephen's church, Cinderford,
occupied an iron building in what became Upper
Bilson Road (fn. 91) and was run by a Mr. Underhill
in the early 20th century. (fn. 92) It continued in 1992 (fn. 93)
and its church had a bell cast probably in 1887. (fn. 94)
At Yorkley the Revd. Henry Poole of Parkend
conducted cottage services in the late 1820s. (fn. 95) In
1867 the perpetual curate of Bream was licensed
to hold services in a schoolroom at Yorkley
Wood. (fn. 96) The mission continued in the 1870s (fn. 97)
and the schoolroom, formerly a workshop, was
remodelled as a church in 1884. (fn. 98) St. Paul's
church, Parkend, ran the mission from 1909 (fn. 99)
and Caroline Gosling (d. 1917) gave £500 stock
for a charity to keep the mission chuch in repair. (fn. 1)
In 1968 the mission church, which was known
as St. Luke's, was closed (fn. 2) and the fittings,
including a bell cast in 1882, were moved to a
house on Captain's green, lower down in Yorkley, the ground floor of which was adapted for
the mission. (fn. 3) The abandoned church was later
converted as a house and the mission was ended
in 1991. (fn. 4)