St Paul and St Stephen's Church, Gloucester being the architect. The church was consecrated for use on 11 October 1883 by the Bishop of Gloucester. It was built to serve the expanding population but also as a memorial to Robert Raikes on the 100th anniversary of the 1780 Sunday school movement. It was funded by a grant from the Incorporated Church Building Society and donations including a large gift from D.H.D Burr. In total around £6,500 was raised, although this was enough to complete the church two parts of the original design were not fully built including the nave which was stopped two bays short and the
Robert Raikes business into Robert Raikes' House in 1758. The movement started with a school for boys in the slums. Raikes had been involved with those incarcerated at the county Poor Law (part of the jail at that time) and saw that vice would be better prevented than cured. He saw schooling as the best intervention. The best available time was Sunday as the boys were often working in the factories the other six days. The best available teachers were lay people. The textbook was the Bible, and the originally intended curriculum started with learning to read and then progressed to the