Details
SO 61 SE LITTLEDEAN CHURCH STREET
(east side)
10/77 Church of St. Ethelbert
23.9.55
GV 1
Parish Church. C12, C14 and C15; Tower and porch thin coursed
red sandstone with ashlar dressings; nave, larger squared stone,
very roughly coursed, with ashlar dressings; chancel squared,
coursed stone. Welsh slate roofs, stone slate to porch. 4-bay
nave, west tower, north aisle of same height as nave, chancel, 2-
bay north chapel, south porch. South face: tower, undivided
externally, diagonally-set corner buttresses to west; plain
plinth, ogee-headed single-light windows to 2 upper stages, upper
with stone louvres. Plain oversailing parapet with plain gargoyle:
stump of octagonal spire above. Nave, diagonally-set west buttress,
square-set east: two 3-light windows with rectilinear tracery, no
hoodmoulds: high up at east end a blocked doorway. Gable copings,
with apex cross. Porch set slightly off centre, plain, moulded
door surround, built up; projecting kneelers and cross-gablet apex
and cross to gable. 2 mass-dials on south face. Projection for
rood-stair with stone cap in angle between nave and chancel.
Chancel two 2-light 'Y'-tracery windows with hoodmoulds: blocked
priest's door between. Diagonally-set buttresses to east end,
window intersecting tracery. North aisle square-set buttresses,
square-headed 2-light windows with ogee-heads to lights.
Interior: chancel floor same level as nave: walls plastered.
Chancel arch semi-circular Norman responds, with slightly different
capitals: later pointed arch above. Small, square-headed door
above to right at head of rood loft stair. Octagonal pillars to 4-
bay arcade with plain, chamfered bases and moulded capitals. In
short return wall by tower a low square-headed opening to north
aisle, set a little way up wall: possibly access to a former west
gallery. Ceiling panelled, plastered barrel-vault with carved
wooden bosses. Chancel ceiling panelled plastered waggon roof,
carved bosses, crenellated wall-plate. North aisle: Medieval
glass in head of 2 lights (also in north chapel): north half of
ceiling panelled plastered waggon roof, with crenellated wall
plate; other half plain plaster. North chapel has heavily-moulded
cambered tie beams, with wall posts and curved braces, between
cambered, plastered ceiling. Large Pyrke monument in chancel 1752,
by T. Ricketts of Gloucester; 3 late C18 or early C19 wall
monuments. Octagonal stone font, probably medieval, on later
stem; trefoil headed blind arches to sides of bowl. Benefactions
board in porch. Spire blew off 1894; south porch made into vestry
mid C20. Rich collection of headstones in churchyard, not
separately listed. (D. Verey, Gloucestershire, The Vale and
Forest of Dean, 1970.)
Listing NGR: SO6721513580