Rood display, viewed from beneath
The church of St Edward was built in the Arts and Crafts type of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally crafted as a ‘chapel of ease’, it was committed in 1903 but not consecrated till 1934 nor registered for weddings till 1943. It finally grew to become the parish church for Kempley in 1975 with the formal closure of the nearby 12th century church of St Mary’s. The church was thoroughly renovated in 2014.
The design of the church is strange since it has no east window at the rear of the altar. The 7th Earl Beauchamp gave his architect, Randall Wells, a no cost hand with the layout but preferred an external stone relief on the east conclude of the church as a roadside shrine for passers-by. It is crafted in area crimson sandstone, and the church and lychgate were being originally roofed with nearby stone tiles, but the church was subsequently re-roofed with pantiles. Timbers for the assistance beams, rafters and other woodwork came from local oaks on the Earl’s estates.
Nearby men manufactured the church underneath the supervision of a local carpenter, Walter James. The local blacksmith, George Smallman, produced all the nails, hinges and other ironwork. The church is a continual solitary nave and chancel with a substantial-pitched roof held on major scissor-beam roof-trusses, with grapevine trails painted on the rood beam. On the north facet of the nave is the Girl Chapel, a vestry and a bell tower with a saddleback roof and a porch under. The significant west window has a diagonal stone grid, normally referred to as a ‘jam tart’ window. The leaded lights for the window were being made by W Smith of London working with Outdated Dutch glass held in a wrought iron casement within the stone grid.
The lychgate has a gabled roof with a very low deep arch the wedge shaped stones earlier mentioned the arch are set as ‘voussoirs’, with a central keystone that distributes the fat to the supports on possibly facet of the arch.
There are a few sculpted stone reduction designs drawn by Randall Wells, two of which ended up carved by Walter James. Substantial on the east wall struggling with the road and serving as the Earl’s ‘roadside shrine’, is the ‘Crucifixion of Christ’. Above the entrance porch of the church is ‘Christ the Peacemaker’. Within just the porch over the main doorway into the church is ‘Virgin and Child’ by Laurence Turner.
Within the church the carved rood beam carries the figure of ‘Christ Triumphant’ on the cross. The carving of Christ was completed by David Gibb, the previous remaining carver of ship’s figureheads in London. To the sides of the crucifixion are the Virgin Mary and St John.
The altar, candle holders and lectern arrived from the Daneway workshop in Gloucestershire they were being made by Ernest Gimson and Ernest Barnsley and designed in oak by Peter van der Waals. The candelabra were manufactured by Charles Robert Ashbee and the pews by the Gloucester Woodworking Co. The stone font was intended by Gimson but its maker is mysterious.
Posted by WendyHarris1955 on 2022-03-13 20:44:22
Tagged: , church , Church of England , Christianity , Anglican , religion , spot of worship , Arts and Crafts , 20th century building , holy , hallowed ground , eglise , kirche , iglesias , Gloucestershire , British isles , England , parish church
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