St Saviour's Church, Tetbury

St Saviour's Church, Tetbury
St Saviour's Church, Tetbury, from the north
St Saviour's Church, Tetbury Location in Gloucestershire
Coordinates: 51°38′17″N 2°09′49″W / 51.6380°N 2.1635°W / 51.6380; -2.1635
OS grid reference	ST 887 932
Location	Tetbury, Gloucestershire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
History
Consecrated	1848
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	21 March 1985
Architect(s)	Samuel Daukes A. W. N. Pugin John Hardman
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1848
Specifications
Materials	Stone, Cotswold stone roofs

St Saviour's Church is a redundant 19th-century Anglican church in the town of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England. Designed by the local architect Samuel Daukes, assisted by A. W. N. Pugin and John Hardman,^[1] St Saviour's is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building,^[2] and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.^[1]

History

The church was built in 1848 as a chapel of ease in the parish of St Mary the Virgin's Church, Tetbury.^[3] At that time the richer people paid a fee for the use of a pew in St Mary's (a pew rent). St Saviour's was built for the poorer people who could not afford this charge,^[1][4] and it came to be described as "a little church for the poor".^[5] The church was designed by the local architect Samuel Daukes, who was assisted by A. W. N. Pugin and John Hardman.^[1] The church was declared redundant in 1974.^[3]

Architecture

Exterior

St Saviour's is a Gothic Revival church in the Decorated Gothic style, built in local stone with Cotswold stone roofs.^[1] The plan has a nave with side aisles and a chancel from which projects a north vestry. The main entrance is through a south porch into the nave. The church has steeply gabled ends, which project beyond the roofline, terminating in small crosses and, at the western end, a bellcote. There is no clerestory, the roof of the nave extending into catslides of a less steep pitch over the aisles. The corners of the building have splayed stepped buttresses, with two more buttresses occurring on the west front, at the ends of the aisles.^[2]

The main windows of the church have tracery in the Flowing Decorated Gothic style of the early 1300s, that at the east of the chancel being the largest with three lights. There are two light windows in the south wall of the chancel, the ends of the aisles and a larger two light window into the nave. High in the nave gables are two small rose windows. The sides of the aisles are lit by small lancets.^[2]

Interior

Inside the church the nave is separated from the aisles by arcades of four bays supported on alternate round and octagonal piers. All the fittings date from the time of the building of the church. These include the pews with poppyhead ends, the stone font, the stone pulpit, and the wooden chancel screen.^[2] The original gas fittings are still in the church, although they are no longer functioning. These include the pipes, the wall brackets, and on the top of the chancel screen, a burner bar consisting of a row of gas jets.^[4][5] The organ formerly in the church has been removed.^[6]

External features

The lychgate is designated as a Grade II listed building. It is thought to be contemporary with the church, and is built in stone with a Cotswold slate roof.^[7] The churchyard contains the war graves of six Commonwealth service personnel of World War I, and ten of World War II.^[8]

See also

• List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the English Midlands

References