|
|
|
|
|
|
 The
corner stone in the porch was laid by Sir George Jenkinson on 23rd April
1859 and the church was dedicated to St George and was consecrated by Rt.
Rev. Charles Burney, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, on 31st
July 1860. The day of the consecration was apparently bright and sunny,
and, flitting from rafter to rafter was a small bird, which curiously appropriate
to one of the verses of Psalm 84, read in the service of consecration. "The
sparrow has found her a house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay
her young."
|
|
With a view to its becoming a separate parish, a Vicarage was provided by the conversion of a blacksmith’s house and forge close by. Some of the materials of the old chapel were incorporated in it, including oak beams and mullioned windows. The Rev. T. E. Forest was appointed to take charge of the new church, and on 12th September 1863, Falfield became a separate and independent parish, the Rev. John Pilditch becoming the first incumbent. The Vestry at the west end of the church was added in 1953, and was consecrated by Dr. C. S. Woodward, Bishop of Gloucester, on 14th September of that year. In 1960, the centenary of the church was celebrated addresses being given by the Bishop of Gloucester and many other clergy of the diocese.
|
|
| In
the interior of the church, an octagonal font of Bath stone standing at
the west end of the building, was the gift of Anthony L.Lyster, Esq., of
Stillorgan Park, Dublin, the father of Lady Jenkinson. On the walls are
memorial tablets erected to the memory of members of the Jenkinson family
of Eastwood Park. The open-work wooden chancel screen was added in 1912.
A
War Memorial commemorates those of the parish who gave their lives in
the First and Second World Wars.
|
|
When
it was part of the parish of Thornbury, which is about three and half
miles away, Falfield was served by a Chapel-of-Ease, of which no records
remain. It was used for Funeral Services but parishioners had to go to
the mother church of St. Mary at Thornbury for Baptisms and Holy Communion.
This Chapel-of-Ease according to Sir Stephen Glynne, a well-known antiquary
and ecclesiologist, who visited it in 1849, was a small building, with
perpendicular features, consisting of nave and chancel. He stated that
it had one unusual feature, namely, that it had no altar.
When
Sir George Jenkinson came to live at Eastwood Park, around the middle
of the 19th century, the chapel was in a dilapidated condition, and, mainly
at his expense, and on land given by him opposite to the entrance to his
park, a new church seating 180, was built in 1860.