Church Micro 741 - St Nicholas', Standish Traditional Cache

In the heart of Standish is the Church - and what a church it is! With high nave and choir, beautiful windows and a pencil-thin spire which soars above the old lime trees shading the churchyard. For miles around this spire breaks in upon the view across the green fields, as it has done for more than 600 years. Proudly surmounted by a golden cockerel, in the winter it is beautifully floodlit.

It is difficult to suggest an exact date when Standish Church was built. There was originally a wooden Saxon church at Standish, and the present church is probably built on the same site to replace it in the early 14th Century. A History of the County of Gloucester (1972) notes that "Standish church is likely to have been built many years before the first known reference to it in c1188. The present building was erected by the Abbey of Gloucester in the 14th Century."

It was built in the Early English style of architecture by the monks of the Benedictine Order, living in what is now Standish Court. The rather large chancel, lower than the nave, and the finely proportioned tower and spire are notable for a country church. The visitor cannot help but be impressed by the majestic stone walls, Cotswold roof (containing 12,000 tiles it is said) and inviting porch.

In December 1327 the body of Edward II rested in Standish Church on its way to be buried in Gloucester Cathedral, after his foul murder at Berkeley Castle.