Catalogue description Cheltenham, St John: Anglican Parish

Registers 1865-1965; register of services 1895-1965; communicants' roll 1954-1964; vestry and PCC minutes 1897-1966; incumbent's papers, (1829)-1967; pew rent accounts, 1919-1949; annual financial statments, 1938-1966; churchwarden's property papers, 1827-1968 including deeds of church site, 1827-1865, architect's ground and gallery plan, 1828; architect's plans of proposed improvementsand related letter, 1868-1869, inventories, 1914 and 1959; papers and architect's plans relating to St John's parish room, 1905-1968; records of St John's primary school, 1866-1967 including plan of proposed alterations, [late 19th cent]; parish magazines, 1871-1955; Guide to St John's church, 1959

[See also P78/7, Cheltenham St Luke. Searchers are also referred to Cheltenham Churches and Chapels by Steven Blake, Cheltenham, 1979 (available in the Record Office pamphlet series, reference PA78/50)

Church of England, St John Parish, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Deposited by Vicar and PCC

• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

The church of St John was built in Berkeley Street in 1828 and consecrated as a chapel of ease to St Mary's parish church in 1829. The ecclesiatical parish of St John was formed in 1866. The church, which had been designed in a classic style by architect J B Papworth, was originally a plain rectangular building. However after it became a parish church in its own right in 1865 the building was heavily altered and 'gothicised' An interesting set of architectural drawings of the alterations by architect C Muller are preserved in this archive (see P78/6 CW3/5). The building fell into a poor state of repair during the Second World War and the future of St John and the nearby church of St Luke hung in the balance for a number of years, being the subject of several commissions of enquiry. In 1964, prompted by vacancies at both St John's and St James' churches and the publication of Cheltenham Borough Council's draft proposals for the town centre, a further commission was appointed by the Bishop to look into the future of the two parishes. It was decided to combine the parishes of St Luke and St John and to close and later demolish St John's church. The incumbent of St Luke's made efforts to find buyers for the pews, stained glass and other parts of the fabric of St John's church. Memorials and certain church furniture from St John's church were removed to St Luke's church and preserved there. The church was demolished in 1967, having been used as a set for Lindsay Anderson's film If immediately beforehand (see P78/7 IN4/16). Records relating to the closure and demolition of St John's church, including a document headed 'St Luke's Church Cheltenham: The Bishop's Commission' dated 1964, on which most of this account is based (P78/7 IN 4/16) are to be found amongst the parish records of St Luke (see P78/7, especially IN4/16 and CW3/18). Diocese of Gloucester; ecclesiastical parish formed 1866; the church was consecrated in 1829 as a chapel of ease to Cheltenham, St Mary; the parishes of St John and St Luke were combined in 1965 and the church of St John was closed and demolished in 1967

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