The following article is taken from
Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, Volume 5, 1891-1893, Edited by W. P. W. Phillimore,
M.A., B.C.L. The original was printed in London in 1894.
My apologies for the quality of the photograph - the original is no better!
The present church at Uley was built in the year 1858, on the site
of an older and less pretentious building, which was then entirely swept away, and no
relics of it left, save a few monuments now placed away in the tower out of sight.
Fortunately the late Mrs. Browne, of Stoutshill, had a photograph taken of old St Giles,
and now by the kindness of her daughter, Miss Browne, of Uley, we are enabled to present
the reader of an engraving of it. It will be seen that it was a building of some interest,
and we may be permitted to regret that it was not found possible to preserve it, or at
least to rebuild it on the same lines, a course which would have been better than the
erection of a building which seems more suited for a town than for a retired country
village.
The old church of St. Giles appears to have consisted of a nave with north aisle, a porch on the south side of the church with a parvise over, and a chancel with a chapel on the north. The tower, it will be seen, was placed against the north aisle near the east end, and this unusual arrangement has been perpetuated in the modern church. The low battlemented tower reminds one, in its general proportions, of the towers of Nimpsfield and Kingscote churches, and no doubt was of much the same date.
From a very rough sketch in the Editor,s possession, there were but two windows on the south side of the knave, which was much disfigured by two outside staircases leading to the galleries or private pews. The only decorative feature of the nave, if such it can be termed, was a plain buttress. Two plain pointed windows and doorway of the churchwarden order of gothic are shown on the south side of the chancel, which, like the nave, was also disfigured by a private staircase. Two of these were of the present century, and respecting them, records are to be found in the churchwardens' accounts.
At a parish meeting held on the 3rd of June, 1820, the necessity of providing accommodation for Mr. Edward Shepherd, Mr. William Hinton, and Mr. Richard Blagden was considered, and it agreed that they should be allowed to obtain a faculty for erecting three pews adjoining the organ gallery. A sketch plan of the pews was given. At apparently a latter date, a faculty was granted when Mr. Timbrell was archdeacon, to the Rev. William Lloyd Baker, to enlarge the chancel on the south, and to erect a gallery in the south-west corner of the enlargement, with staircase on the outside, to serve as a pew for Mr. Baker, his family, and servants, and all future occupiers of Stoutshill.
This alteration, it may be noted, necessitated the removal of an east window, presumably the east window of the chancel was one of good proportion. But the most interesting feature of the church was the north chapel. This, no doubt, was Bassett's chapel, the burying place of that ancient family. Here, according to Sir Robert Atkyns, existed in his time, i.e., about 1709, the monument of Robert Bassett, Esq. who died in 1572. The inscription does not appear to have been preserved, nor does there appear to be any record of other monuments to the Bassett family, and it is certainly remarkable that the church does not possess a single memorial of this once important Gloucestershire family. Even their burial-place was wholely swept away at the rebuilding of the church. It is worthy of remark that Bassett's chapel possessed a somewhat rare dedication, for we learn from the will of Robert Bassett, Esq., who died in 1492, that he directed that he should be be buried in the Chapel of St. Godbold the Abbott. We are unable, however, to give any further particulars of this little-known saint, and should welcome information on the point.
The old church, with the high pitched roof of the knave, the well-proportioned tower, and its pointed roof, and the chancel with the adjacent chapel of St. Godbold, as seen from the village green, must have formed a very picturesque composition.
In the peculiar position of the church, situated on the side of the hill, the low height of the tower must certainly have been seen on approaching the church from the west by the road from Dursley, thus avoiding the not altogether pleasing effect of the present tower as it appears rising just behind the ridge of the nave roof.
The only relic of the old church besides the monuments appears to be a large and very fine-toned tenor bell, which bears the following inscription:-
THE LIVING I TO CHURCH DO CALL, & TO THE GRAVE DO SVMON ALL;
ABR: RVDHALL, OF GLOUCESTER BELLFOVNDER CAST ME 1715.
There is ample room in the bell-chamber, and it certainly seems a pity that Uley church, which in every way is so admirably situated for the purpose, should be without a good ring of bells.