Details
DEERHURST DEERHURST VILLAGE
SO 8629-8729
10/46 The Church of St Mary
4.7.60
GV I
Former Monastery, now Parish church. C8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, late
C15, early C17, restored 1861-62 by William Slater. Random rubble
walls, with some herringbone masonry at lower levels; coursed,
squared stone to west end south aisle and lower parts western bays
north aisle; lead roofs, stone slate to part of tower. Nave,
chancel, north and south aisles, embracing western tower; remains
of apse to east. South face: diagonally-set buttress left,
blocked doorway with 3-centred arch left, Saxon doorway, now partly
window, right, semi-circular head and hoodmould, beast head over.
Eleven corbels for cloister roof, projecting string course most of
length forming sill to four 4-light mullioned windows, arched head
each light. Two-light mullion and transom window east end,
Perpendicular tracery. Plain string course, 4 moulded heads (2
being rain-water outlets) plain parapet. Tower above aisle roof
on left: flat-headed window at roof level, circular clock face, 2-
light louvred window to belfry, reticulated tracery; plain parapet
with slightly-raised corners left, short length lower eaves right.
Clerestory slightly set forward to right: three 2-light windows,
left one reticulated tracery, right 2 Perpendicular. Plain eaves
parapet: parapet gables main roof and aisles, stump of apex finial
east end. West face: south aisle plinth, 4-light Decorated
window, king mullion; single-light over. Below, to left, 6
'panel' door up 3 stone steps, arched head. South parapet
returned up slope of roof. Tower: C19 boarded door with
ornamental ironwork in arched, moulded surround, slightly off
centre to semi-circular arch over, animal head above. Single-
light window over: doorway above, altered to window, semi-circular
head, square hoodmould, animal head over. Window and parapet
above as south facade. To left north aisle, low plinth, window
similar to south, angled buttress, parapet as south aisle. North
face: plinth: blocked door, moulded surround, arched head.
Three-light window, reticulated tracery and hoodmould at each end,
western lower; between two 4-light Decorated-tracery windows, king
mullion; parapet, clerestory and tower as south side, but no clock
face. East end: north aisle blocked doorway: centre blocked
wide arch, semi-circular responds and arch, 3-light Perpendicular-
tracery window over, flat head, relieving arch. Wing wall on left
for apse, projecting strip decoration at corners, carrying
triangular pediment with angel carving. Blocked semi-circular
headed opening to south aisle: aisle partly overlapped by end of
Priory Farmhouse (q.v.). Footings of apse to east.
Interior: tower base: low relief Virgin and child, over semi-
circular headed doorway. Animal-head stops to hoodmould on other
side. Nave and chancel one unit: walls rendered. West end:
simple, semi-circular-headed arch to doorway: triangular window
over, with tapered, blocked doorway to right, semi-circular head
from single stone. Above 2 triangular-headed windows, separated
by fluted pilaster; plaque over. Three-bay C13 arcade each side,
clustered responds to short lengths of wall between each, leaf and
trumpet-scalloped capitals, alternating light and darker stones in
arches on south side. Two Saxon doorways each side chancel,
blocked arch to apse visible on east, Decalogue painted on infill.
Triangular-headed plaques each side of high-level eastern window.
Communion rails early C17, moulded head and sill, turned balusters,
ball finials. North, east and south sides bench seats with
panelled backs, top fluted; panelled fronts to pews with
bookrests, ball finials flank openings in centre each side: rare
survival of pre-Laudian chancel arrangement. Roof king-post
trusses, infilled carved tracery, wall posts and braces from
corbels, one pair moulded purlins, moulded ridge and cornice.
Timberwork late C15 at west end, 1861 copy at east. North aisle
eC17 dado panelling with bench seat west end, fluted frieze. East
end aisle plaster removed, exposing various blocked pre-Norman
openings and recesses. Sloping principal rafter as trusses, with
curved brace to wallpost. South aisle rendered, responds for C12
arches across aisle on north side, piscina recess south, remains of
rood loft-stairs and doors; semi-circular headed arch to eastern
bay, infilled C19 timber screen.
Fittings: C9 tub font on circular base, reduced at foot to
octagon, carved spiral decoration. C15 pews at west end south
aisle, blind tracery ends, moulded upper rail to back. Some ends
reused on mid C19 pews, rest copied from earlier ones. Semi-
octagonal carved wooden pulpit on stone base, by W. Slater, 1861,
carved by Forsyth. C1400 Cassey brass in north aisle, two later
brasses; stone coffin lid with foliate cross: mid-late C18 wall
monuments at west end north aisle, one with pedimented top and
scrolled sides. Various early-mid C19 wall monuments. Medieval
glass in west window south aisle; 1853 memorial window by Wailes
at west end north aisle. Two wooden chests, one with iron
strapwork. Apse demolished by 1547. Bigland noted that the
spire was blown down in 1666. The eastern clerestory windows
considerably altered at the 1861 restoration, when the chancel roof
pitch was lowered, and the cross-roof to the south 'transept'
removed. Forms group with Priory Farmhouse (to which it is
attached), Odda's Chapel and Abbot's Court (all q.v.). Ruined
parts of east end A.M. Gloucestershire 367.
(S. Lysons, A Collection of Gloucestershire Antiquities, 1804; R.
Bigland, Collections relative to the County of Gloucestershire,
1794; Addleshaw and Etchells, Architectural Setting of Anglican
Worship, 1948; H.M. & J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1965,
Deerhurst Studies I, 1977; D. Verey, Gloucestershire, the Vale and
the Forest of Dean, 1970; P. Rahtz, Excavations at St. Mary's
Church, Deerhurst, 1976).
Listing NGR: SO8703729966
