The prosperity the woollen trade generated in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds during the medieval period resulted in the construction of some splendid parish churches, the appearance of which was enhanced by the local availability of excellent freestone. The small town of Minchinhampton by the mid-fourteenth century possessed a large parish church consisting of a nave with twin aisles, two transepts, a central crossing tower and chancel. It is now certain that the south transept was built by John of Ansley as a chantry chapel; it was completed in c 1330 and is very impressive because of its prominent rose window and unusual masonry scissor-like vaulting. The north transept was built in 1338 by William Prestbury as a lady chapel.

In 1842 the medieval nave and chancel of Minchinhampton church were completely demolished and replacements constructed, so only the medieval transepts and tower remain. In 2016–22 the internal reordering of the Victorian nave (mostly because of damp problems) was accompanied by an extensive archaeological investigation, which has prompted a reassessment of the present building and allowed the demolished Decorated phase of the nave and its Norman predecessor to be reconstructed. The report on this detailed investigation could have been published as a monograph or several lengthy journal articles, but instead the author (who directed the fieldwork) chose to publish the results as a concise chronological history of the structural development of the church that would be of interest to the parishioners. Therefore, some specialist topics like the excavated skeletal remains are covered as part of a thematic chapter on ‘death, burial and memorial’. The book draws on a wealth of documentary and pictorial evidence, including a fascinating account written in 1845 by the master builder (who three years earlier had demolished most of the church) of his interpretation of the structural history of the church (published verbatim as Appendix i). The churchwardens’ accounts from 1554 to 1575 make it very clear that the parish was very quick to embrace the Marian Catholic revival, but remarkably slow to return to the Anglican doctrine in Elizabeth i’s reign (Bruce Reference Bruce1854, 422–30). The format of the book accommodates this first-hand information concerning the views of the parishioners on the successive changes of doctrine imposed on them between 1548 and 1558. This sort of historical detail could have easily been ‘lost’ in the text of a conventional archaeological monograph. This imaginative approach to publishing ecclesiastical archaeology is to be commended and hopefully will be imitated by others.