History of St Laurence
Please see below for different topics on our history.
This research has been put together by Andy Evans with assistance from Franklyn Bovey. Additional contributions on the church bells are from Laurence Hitchins, former St Laurence Tower Captain. Further contributions have been provided by Richard Stanton and the Stanton family, Deirdre Baker and Janet Hickey.
For anyone seeking help with family history connections to the church, or with any other questions about our history, then we will endeavour to assist. You should contact the office in the first instance.
office@stroudparishchurches.org.uk
Further Resources
The church has a detailed listing of all the monuments, memorials and inscriptions to be found inside the building and within the church grounds, indexed by an alphabetical listing of family names. The original information was compiled from a physical survey conducted by parishioners in the 1970s, updated by Franklyn Bovey in 2010. In 2017, Franklyn completely revised and updated this unique database. A copy of Monuments and Memorials in and Around the Parish Church of St Laurence, Stroud is available for inspection in the church. Otherwise, any enquiries should be made via the Church Office. The church grounds are no longer open for burials, though there is a Garden of Remembrance for the interment of ashes.
The St Laurence Parish Church archives are held by Gloucestershire Archives, and are available to the public by prior arrangement with them. They have an online catalogue which can be used for finding out the details of their collections. Note that the church has variously been recorded as ‘St Laurence’ and ‘St Lawrence’ over the course of time, so it is recommended that you should use both spellings in any search. Similarly, some of the collections are simply recorded under 'Stroud Parish Church'.
The Ancestry family history site has worked in conjunction with Gloucestershire Archives to make some of its archive collections, including the St Laurence parish records, available online. Those records are baptisms from 1578 to 1913; marriages from 1578 to 1938; and burials from 1578 to 1903. Note that Ancestry is a subscription website.
Church Plate
The existing St Laurence church plate is on permanent display in the Gloucester Cathedral Treasury.
Paul Hawkins Fisher's Notes and Recollections of Stroud is a key source for much of the early history of Stroud and St Laurence Church, particularly the original church. Fisher was a respected local figure and keen historian of Stroud. Notes and Recollections of Stroud was first published in 1871, and has been reprinted and republished many times since.
Mary A Rudd's Historical Record of Bisley with Lypiatt, first published in 1937, and most recently by Amberley Publishing in 2008, is a key source for Bisley and the manors of Lypiatt.
Ralph Bigland was an 18th century antiquarian, much of whose work was focused on Gloucestershire. He embarked on a task to record all the historical, monumental and genealogical collections in the county. Unpublished at the time of his death, his work was completed by others in succeeding years and eventually published, and included a record of the monumental inscriptions he found when he visited the original St Laurence Church. It is therefore a key source for these. The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society have published his work, and the records for St Laurence can be found in Ralph Bigland - Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections Relative to the County of Gloucester - Part Three: Naunton-Twining (Alan Sutton Publishing, 1992).
The history of Stroud Choral Society, including many references to St Laurence, is recorded in Stroud Sings: The History of Stroud Choral Society 1834-2000 by Susan Freck (Stroud Choral Society 2001).The story of Netlam Bigg and the founding of the Stroud Festival, again with many references to St Laurence, is told in The World of Netlam Bigg by John Gardiner (1999).
British History Online is a digital library of primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, and contains extensive information about the town of Stroud, including its churches.
The local history society for Stroud.