Details
PAINSWICK NEW STREET
SO 8609/8709 (part)
(south east side)
8/183 Church of St Mary
21.10.55
GV I
Anglican parish church. Late C14, nave c.1480, C15 tower, restoration 1883 by
Waller, including rebuilt south aisle arcade, porch 1968. Dressed squared
Painswick stone, stone slate roofs, lead to aisles. Nave with aisles, chancel,
north and south chancel chapels, vestry, south porch, west tower with spire.
Three-stage tower with diagonal buttresses to 6 offsets and plinth, to crenel-
lated parapet and octagonal spire with roll-mould arrises; moulded strings to
stages. West front has small plank door in segmental head, under 3-light
Perpendicular window, a cusped lancet, and a 2-light belfry opening with louv-
res. North front has similar belfry opening above clock face in square surround
set diagonally; plank door up step to belfry stair. South front has a baroque
wall monument, cusped lancet and 2-light belfry opening. South aisle has
2-light with transom to the west, and 4 similar to south, all late C19 'Perpen-
dicular' to string course, blocking and plain parapet. No clerestory to nave.
Canted south porch of 1968. Vestry of 1890 has 5-light south and 2-light east
window, and door to south side with gabled canopy on brackets. Sanctuary has
diagonal buttresses, 2-light windows north and south, 3-light to east, coped
gable; also coped gable to chancel east end. East end of St Peter's chapel has
4-light, and north side two 2-light, coped gable, diagonal buttress. North
aisle in 5 bays with 2-light Perpendicular windows separated by shallow buttres-
ses, that to bay 4 set above pair of C19 doors to pointed arch with drip. Wet
end blank. Plinth, parapet string, blocking and moulded capping, gargoyles. No
clerestory to nave. Interior: 5 bay nave arcade with octagonal shafts to
mannerist divided capitals and 4-centred arches; that to south aisle a late C19
rebuilding; no clerestory. Flat 4-centred arched Cl9 timber roof in 6 bays.
Double chamfered chancel arch; to tower an inscription to top of 'dado' rail at
2 m, and fine screen as memorial to Edwin Gyde, 1901 with gilded eagle of 1722;
screen white and black veined marble in Renaissance style. Tower arch fitted
panelling and y-tracery. North aisle continues as St Peter's Chapel at east
end; aisle has door opposite south entry, in bay 2 from west; arch-braced
single slope roof, 3 windows with early C20 glass, by Powell. Four carved
corbel heads and one blocked but unworked, on north wall. St Peter's chapel,
probably of 1377 build has two 2-light C14 style windows and 4-light to east,
arch-braced rafter roof with one moulded tie-beam. Two bays open to chancel, in
detail as nave arcade; C20 screens by Ellis Mars land as 1918 memorial, good
Perpendicular detail. On the north side a C15 Purbeck marble tomb. Tudor
canopy including fan vault carved from solid alabaster effigies of early C7
moved here in C18, when central Corinthian column inserted as vault support.
Squint to nave. South aisle has 4-bay flat C19 ceiling, braced with 'fret-
work'. Windows by Geoffrey Webb, mid C20 and a heraldic window by Francis
Sleat, 1960. Chapel at east end, now used as vestry, extended to the south.
East window is 2 x 2-light C15 form over a splendid stone reredos with fluted
Ionic columns and broken pediment with decalogue: screen by John Bryan is
1743. Bryan was the 'carver' employed on some of the fine churchyard monu-
ments. Chancel is one bay, extended into Sanctuary which formerly was the Lady
Chapel. Faceted C19 panelled ceiling. Cusped piscina to south; 3 part rere-
dos. Tiled floors, generally, raised timber panels to pew areas. Fittings and
monuments: standing near to pulpit, remaining section of C14 spire. Pews of
C20. Rood 193. Snelzler of 1770 brought here in 1818. Royal Arms, William
IV. Various white marble monuments in tower; south aisle includes good baroque
cartouche to John Webb, 1712; in north aisle a model of the Bonaventura of
1885, good carved C17 slab under first window from west, also Ann Berriman,
1738. South chapel includes 6 good wall monuments, including Revd George
D........ of 1686. Church was originally owned by Llanthony Priory, Gloucester;
nothing of the C12 church remains. Major problems have been involved because
the spire was struck by lightning in 1763 and 1883; also the south aisle,
rebuilt in a classical mode in 1741 was replaced again in Gothic in 1883.
(Verey, D Gloucestershire; The Cotswolds; 1970: Hyett, F A, Glimpse of the
History of Painswick, 1928).
Listing NGR: SO8666809642
