Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury / with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire

by H. J. L. J. Massé

Near the tower end is a portion of the Perpendicular timbered roof, and the rest of the roofing of the nave and chancel is modern work designed upon the basis of the older example.

The South Aisle was added in the twelfth century. The south wall of the south transept was continued to the west, the greater part of the west wall of this transept being removed, a segmental arch being inserted exactly where the oak-screen is now. The wall from the original south-east corner of the tower was carried southwards to meet the new wall mentioned above. Next, the solid walls of the nave were pierced with three unequal openings, and, from the piers thus left, arches were carried across the new south aisle to the new south wall of the church, and the walls of the inner porch seem to have been pierced with arches about the same time, one being also made to span the space from the extreme end of the original wall of the nave to the new south-east corner of the tower. A turret and staircase seem next to have been made outside the church in the angle thus made by the new works, but the plan seems to have been soon altered by the carrying out of the west wall of the aisle till it was flush with the west front. The then external doorway into the turret became an internal one, but has been blocked up, access to the tower staircase being obtained by the narrow door in the west front. The remains of Transitional Norman work in the south aisle are scanty, but of extreme interest.

In the thirteenth century the North Aisle was constructed, and made to correspond with the south aisle, though it is slightly narrower. Its beautiful capitals inspired the workers to do their best and harmonise those in the south aisle arcade with those in the other aisle.

The walls of the nave were carried up to receive the clerestory windows about the year 1400, but as to their original height it is only possible to conjecture.

The Decorated windows of the north aisle all differ in style and date, that in the north transept being the earliest. The westernmost window in the south aisle is approximately of the same date, and contains the only glass in the church that is of any interest. The other windows in this south aisle are Perpendicular, and are high in the wall owing to the existence of the cloister, a blocked-up door into which can be seen under the westernmost window. Some fifteenth century oak seats in this aisle are worth notice.

In the north aisle the north-west window of four lights (by Wailes) is a memorial to Hugh Edwin Strickland (1853). The head of the window contains the fanciful device relating to the Persons of the Trinity, and below are Noah, Aaron, David, and St. John the Baptist.

In the lowest tier are Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, the Annunciation, the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan.

The next window (by Clayton and Bell) is a memorial window erected by the Rev. G. Butterworth, till lately Vicar of Deerhurst.

In the north wall near the font is a blocked-up doorway, containing another memorial to a member of the Strickland family.