All Saints Church

As I mentioned yesterday, today it is more of All Saints Church. The Catholic church on All Saints Road has some wonderful carved details and lots of interesting pitched roofs. Instead of trying to choose one photo today I thought I'd treat you to four! The first photo is of the stone detail above what was once the main door to the church, it is now sectioned of with railings, I guess to preserve it.

All Saints was established in 1868 by a group of local people keen to create a style of worship not generally found in Cheltenham, that followed the 19th century Oxford Movement.

The church itself was designed by John Middleton. Middleton's original design included a tower with a large spire, but although building and decoration of the interior continued for many years, the gable roof to the bell-tower was not completed until 1992, but without the spire the architect designed over 100 years earlier.

And finally the Crucifix in full that I showed you part of yesterday. Impressive.

Jesus Christ

This imposing carved statue of Jesus Christ stands on the corner of All Saints Church. This is just a taster of the amazing stone work on and around the building. More tomorrow. But for now...

A follow up to yesterdays post...

Its amazing what you can find out if you ask a question. Yesterdays mystery musical instruments are an Indonesian Gamelan, as many of you said. Knowing this, I found out the following from the Cheltenham Festivals website.

"A gamelan (translated as ‘hit with a hammer’) is an ensemble of percussion instruments on which the traditional music of Java and Bali is played. It usually consists of metallophones (xylophones) and gongs, the best ones made of bronze, and mounted on beautifully carved and painted wooden frames. It has a distinctive and melodic sound and accompanies dances and all-night shadow-puppet plays in Indonesia.

The Cheltenham Gamelan was made in the foundries outside the Royal City of Surakarta (Solo) in central Java, Indonesia. The lovely white roses carved on the wooden frames were designed specifically to complement the Pittville Pump Room, although one of the wood carvers was apparently somewhat baffled as to why anyone would want what he took to be cabbages on their gamelan!

Many aspects of playing the gamelan match targets within the music curriculum, the most obvious being playing by ear and from memory, learning about pitch, dynamics and tempo, and taking part in group performances. As a result the Cheltenham Gamelan is becoming an increasingly popular resource for all key stages in schools.

As well as a thriving schedule of schools’ workshops, the community gamelan players meet regularly to develop their interest in this beautiful music. It enhances other skills such as listening to others and working as a team, and is therefore ideal for corporate functions, team-building exercises and parties. With no previous experience participants can, within a short time, play a real Javanese composition and have a lot of fun along the way."

So now we all know!

Church Carving

This is one picture that you must click on to enlarge, the detailed carving is amazing. It adorns the doorway of St Gregory's Catholic Church, in St James' Square. Up until 1810 the Roman Catholics in Cheltenham used hired rooms for their services, until a small purpose built chapel was erected on the Churches present site. St Gregory's was then built in stages between 1854 and 1876, following the design of architect Charles Hansom. The Grade 2 listed building now has a weekend congregation of around 1000, with about 70 people attending the daily Mass. Its good to see that this church is used regularly, unlike some of the towns others. It really is a lovely looking building, so I'll show some more of it another time.