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Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church, Gloucestershire, is a medieval votive light fixture associated with intercessory prayer practices in the late medieval period. The monument represents the material culture of parish devotion, particularly the practice of lighting candles for the souls of the deceased, which formed an integral part of pre-Reformation English Christianity. Such lights were typically maintained by bequests in wills or by contributions from parishioners, and their presence within the church demonstrates the communal concern for spiritual welfare that characterised late medieval religious life. The fixture survives as physical evidence of the religious customs that were disrupted by the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1018447. View the official record →
Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church, Gloucestershire, is a medieval votive light fixture associated with intercessory prayer practices in the late medieval period. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1018447.
Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1018447.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Norn`s Tump long barrow, 400m south-east of Hill Farm (7.7 km), Romano-British farmstead 200m south west of Longman's Barn Farm (8.1 km), Long barrow 100m north of Oldfield Wood (8.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Poor souls' light at All Saints' Church stands on Great Oolite Group, bedrock that formed in the Bathonian. The rock here is sandstone, limestone and argillaceous rocks.