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ALL SAINTS' CHURCH
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Little is known about the
early years of All Saints' Church as many records have been lost or have become
illegible over the years. The original church is believed to have been built by Norman
settlers soon after the invasion of 1066 as the lower parts of the tower and the nave have
been dated to these times [6]. The Domesday book doesn't mention that Longhope had a church
but it is mentioned in 1144 which leads us to conclude that it was probably built in the
late 11th or early 12th century.
Several of the windows, including the small one in the north transept, and the porch date back to the 14th century. After the Norman invasion the advowson was given to the Abbey of Lyra in Normandy by Robert de Chandos [1].
The church is situated not far from Hope Brook which was a common requirement for mediaeval churches as they needed water for the font [4]. In its day, All Saints' would have been roughly in the centre of the parish of Longhope.
At the time of the Domesday Book, many people overlook the fact that Longhope was in the diocese of Hereford, not Gloucester. It only became part of Gloucester in 1542.
Notes on the stages of development as well as the architecture of All Saints' can be found here.
In 1144 Longhope Church, along with other churches in the area, is mentioned in the Acta of the Bishop of Hereford as having been granted to the priory of St. Mary and St. Florence, Monmouth by Baderon [5] the third lord of Monmouth and grandson of William fitz Baderon. This was usually to increase the wealth of the priory as it could claim a proportion of the tithes from Longhope. Many parishioners at the time took this to mean that they were providing goods to a higher spiritual authority [4]. The priory was established in 1075 by the brother of William, Withenock [8], but the reader should consult other sources for a more comprehensive history of the priory. The name Baderon is probably the anglicised form of the Norman name Baladon.
It is thought that the church underwent some development in the 13th century, as indeed most churches did during this period. The size of the chancel was increased and the north and south transepts were added [6].
Pope Nicholas' taxiation of 1291, commonly refered to as Taxatio, reveals that the church of Longhope had a value of £3 6s 8d and decima (Latin for "a tenth part tithe") of 6s 8d. The Taxatio also mentions that Longhope was still owned by "Prioris Monemute [Monmouth Priory]" [9].
An effigy of a priest,
dated circa 1300, rests in the north transept and was originally found in the base of the tower. He
is wearing clerical robes from the era and his feet rest upon a small dog. Sadly, the face has
been
1538 saw the introduction of the parish registers as recommended to Henry VIII by Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's right-hand man [7]. They are of tremendous importance to people wanting to trace their family trees as they recorded baptisms, marriages and burials performed at All Saints'. The parish records before 1702 have not survived but the earliest Bishop's Transcript dates back to 1583. In 1542 the Parish of Longhope became part of the diocese of Gloucester when Henry VIII created the five new dioceses of Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, Peterborogh and Oxford [4].
When the Long Parliament came to power they demanded that all fonts be destroyed. The original
mediaeval font was, therefore, destroyed in 1645. At the Restoration a replacement font had to
be found and a domestic mortar was donated in 1660 to the church [3].
By 1675 the impropriation belonged to Thomas Nourse esq. [1].
The royal arms of William III hang in the nave above the entrace and were first painted in 1695 during the middle of William III's reign. Royal arms were first ordered to be placed in churches by Henry VIII's son, Edward, when he became king as a symbol that the monarch was head of the church in England.
By 1742, when the vicar was Yate Bromwich senior, the Impropriation was re-granted by the Priory of St. Mary and St. Florence in Monmouth [1, 2]. The church was partially rebuilt towards the end of the 1700s but it is not clear how much of it was rebuilt at present. We know, however, that there was a fire in the vestries around 1750 in which some of the church records were destroyed and hence this is the reason why some of the parish records are missing.
The domestic mortar that had been the font since 1660 was removed from the church in 1860 to make way for the present font. The old one was stored at Court Farm (behind the church) until the death of the churchwarden, when it was sold to a farmer at Southside, May Hill [3]. He used the mortar for many years as a pig trough, which was broken on one side to allow a piglet to be able to feed. The farmer eventually returned the mortar to the church where it rested on top of an old saxon cross socket and some pilasters [3].
Throughout the 19th century it is clear that both the church and tower were in a bad state of repair and required "much needed expenditure", as recorded by the vestry minutes. In 1808 the spire was in a dangerous state that it required repairing. This work was carried out by Richard Goodman. Later, in 1869, the records show that the tower was in danger of falling down as the tower and parts of the nave were beginning to buckle, as they couldn't support the weight of the spire. The architect A. W. Maberly produced plans to remove the spire completely and the top part of the tower down to the top of the first window and then rebuild the tower to how it looks today. Maberly estimated the cost to be around £400, even more if the spire was to be rebuilt and so just the tower was rebuilt as not enough money could be found to fund a new spire. It is not known when the spire was first built, although Bigland recorded "...and a Steeple at the West End" [1]. This shows that the church had a spire in about 1778. A picture of the church with spire can be found in the Then and Now section. The work was carried out by Edwin Organ who also added external buttresses to help support the tower and the north vestries. It can be seen that the vestries were constructed at a different time to the rest of the church as the stones used are different. It is recorded that these stones came from George Dawe's quarry, but it is not known where abouts the quarry was actually located.
Later, in 1888, a total of £11 17s. 7d. was spent hiring F. Field, presumably a local mason, to construct a substantial buttress to support the north wall and pointing other parts of the church. Barely a year later, in September 1889, a grand sum of £32 13s. 6d. was spent on the "Varnishing of the whole Church Ceiling, Roof [and] Pews" and a slightly lesser sum of £25 14s. is recorded as having been spent for work done on the chancel by G. Corke of Newnham. Perhaps the parish's biggest expense of the time was in 1891 when the tower had to be repaired. The total cost of the tower amounted to £44 8s. 2d. of which £6 15s. was paid to Messrs. Waller, the architect. The churchwardens at the time, William Constance and R. S. Kearsey, gained £4 towards the cost of the tower from the sale of old materials from the original tower. A breakdown of expenditure and income can be found here.
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| Used with permission from the Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society [3]. |
The churchyard had to be extended on a number of oocasions to accomodate the growing population of the village. The first extension was in 1892 followed by a second in 1909 and a final extension 30 years later in 1939 to its present state.
Near the entrance to the church is a domestic mortar which was used as the font from 1660 to 1860, as the original was destroyed by the order of the Long Parliament. The photograph on the left shows the mortar as it was in 1927. The mortar lived here for a number of years until it was stolen in the late 1980s. All that remains today from this picture is the base of the saxon cross, which currently rests on top of a flattened headstone.
The current carpet was dedicated on Whit Sunday, 1970.
In 1983 a survey of all the gravestones in the churchyard was conducted by the Women's Institute and contained inscriptions and state of each stone that was present. We discuss the survey and amend it in the Family History section.
Gravestone Inscriptions for all readable gravestones in the churchyard.
Annual Births, Marriages and Burials for the years 1600-1835.
Patrons and Incumbents for the years 1318-2005.
Architecture of All Saints'.
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http://www.longhopevillage.co.uk/history/church/index.asp |
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