One of five churches in Cheltenham designed by the well known architect John Middleton, who lived in the town for many years, St Mark’s church was built between 1860 and 1866. The style is Gothic Revival and it is built from heavy, rusticated stone to simulate a medieval look. Not all Middleton’s churches have survived, and St Mark’s was the only one to have been fully completed to his original plans in the first place. It’s thought that Middleton designed all five churches as a labour of love and charged no fee for his work.
The church was built on land belonging to the Libertus Estate, which was an early experiment in social democracy. In the mid 19th century only landowners were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections, so the Cheltenham and Gloucester Freehold Land Society was formed in 1850 to secure enough freehold land to enable its Liberal shareholders to vote!
The churchyard gates have some wonderful curly decorative ironwork, and if you look carefully you will see more examples in a similar style around the church and some of the houses nearby. That’s because this street was formerly the home of William Letheren, owner of the Vulcan Iron Works at Lansdown, who specialised in art metalwork (opened 1860s, closed 1906). Letheren lived at Doric House a few doors down from the church, its gate and fence surviving as a good example of his craftsmanship.
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