Cheltenham Minster (st Mary's)

It is otherwise of the early C14, with a late-C15 north porch.

A vestry was added in the late C19 and the stained glass was inserted between 1876 and 1893.

SO9422 : Stained glass window, Cheltenham Minster, St Mary’s

© Philip Halling

Its spandrels are carved with a foliage motif within which are set quatrefoils with floral carvings.

Over the doorway is a hoodmould with stops carved with the crests of the Diocese of Gloucester and of the Borough of Cheltenham.

Inside the porch, over the church door, there is the blocked head of a C14 window.

The chancel range is set between C12, lateral buttresses with offsets and has a mid-C19 ashlar-faced door surround with boarded double doors and a cornice ornamented with four-leaf flower carving.

Flanking the doorway, at the level of the cornice, is a much worn, C12, stringcourse with billet moulding.

The central tower has mid-C13 lancets linked by hoodmoulds to each face of the lowest stage whilst the upper stage has two-light, belfry windows with louvers.

INTERIOR: the C14 nave arcade is of four bays with pointed, double chamfered arches carried on tall, octagonal piers with moulded octagonal capitals and abaci.

The lower stages of the double chamfered arches to the crossing are of the mid-C13, with the western arch having roll-moulded piers and trumpet-scalloped and foliate capitals whilst the northern arch has a reused, stiff-leaf capital.

It has a lierne vaulted ceiling with bosses carved with roses.

The arched-braced roof is of the C19 with ribs carried on stone corbels carved with a foliage motif and intermediate ribs carried on wooden, eaves corbels.

PRINCIPAL FITTINGS: the chancel contains a mid-C14 piscina, along with an elaborate reredos, communion rails and wall panelling, installed in 1915-16 to the designs of Healing and Overbury and carved by RL Boulton and Sons.

In the south transept there is a C13 piscina and aumbry cupboard.

The eagle lectern, pulpit, pews and choir stalls are all of oak and were installed in the late C19.

The octagonal, stone font was installed in 1890.

The church contains an extensive collection of C17, C18 and C19 wall memorials.

very large monument to Sir William Myers , by Oldfield and Turner

a monument to Thomas Gray , one of many in the church by G Lewis

Adam style monuments include those to Elizabeth Hughes and Anne Dewes

a monument to Katherine A'Court , by James Wyatt and R. Westmacott (the tablet records her infamous murder by poison administered by livery servant Joseph Armstrong who was executed at Gloucester and hanged from a gibbet in line with Henrietta Street)

a brass to the architect DJ Humphris and a brass to William Greville (Justice of Common Pleas) , his wife and children.

STAINED GLASS: the upper porch north window of 1858, by Joseph Bell of Bristol, was moved here in 1889.

The other twenty-six windows have stained glass which was installed between 1876 and 1893.