England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Standish St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Standish lies in the western portion of central Gloucestershire roughly 4 miles northwest of the town of Stroud. Standish stands on the B4008 road which links Stroud with the southern suburbs of Gloucester. Standish is a distributed parish with no real centre, a small cluster gather around the church but not what one would call a village, most of the population is spread across the parish in farms and cottages. Standish sits on the eastern edges of the flood-plain of the River Severn, at the time of this transcript much of that land west of the parish church would have been largely cattle pastures whilst sheep would have grazed the rising slopes eastward, the fringe of the Cotswold range, today much of the parish has gone over to arable thanks to modern machinery and fertilisers. The eastern edges of the parish were, and still are, heavily wooded and that was much utilised as a source of charcoal as well as typical coppiced woodland products. Modern developments have come aplenty to the area, the railway line between Gloucester & Bristol passes just to the east whilst to the west runs the modern M5 motorway both making full use of the level ground. Standish is drained westwards by small streams which become channeled by man-made drainage as they approach the Severn, that river is tidal at this juncture and leads to the Bristol Channel. Standish is sited at around 35 metres at the parish church but the east of the parish rises onto the edges of the Cotswolds with a few spots in Standish Wood touching the 220 metre contour, the top followed by the local Cotswold Way Trail. Standish parish was fairly large for its area covering just over 3,200 acres which would have supported a population of close to 550 parishioners. Standish's Domesday entry shows a much larger settlement, indeed one big enough to be in the top 20% of settlements by population, it was held in a complex arrangement  by 3 landholders and offered an impressive 36 ploughs, the same league of woodland and a half share in a fishery making for a wealthy manor indeed.

The Church

St Nicholas' church stands at the junction of the B4008 with the lane which heads for Moreton Valence. This is one of those rather rare churches which seems to have been built as part of a single campaign, judging by the architecture Pevsner places the build as beginning c 1340 as most of the church is in the Decorated style, the aisleless nave, the chancel, the rather narrow western tower, topped with an impressive ribbed broach spire, and the large northern porch all appear to be from this initial build/rebuild, it is likely to be a rebuild as history documents the body of King Edward II resting in the church in 1327.  The chancel's east window is the standout feature, consisting of 5 lights with reticulated tracery and a diamond-shaped rose motif. As is usual there were Victorian and more modern restorations, the first from the mid 1850s added the southern vestry, the roofs were restored in 1867 and in 1969 a new stone vestry was added. The entrance to the churchyard is at the junction beside the church hall which has a small car park to its west. A footpath passes through trees to reach the churchyard which has another clump sitting to the southeast which removes much of the favoured aspect, all other angles are available for the photographer.