St Edward's Church, Kempley

The Church of St Edward the Confessor in Kempley is a parish church in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England, close to the border with Herefordshire. It was built to the design of Randall Wells (1903-4) and is Grade II* listed. The small village has two notable Anglican churches, the other, older, is dedicated to St Mary. St Edward's was described by John Betjeman as "a mini-cathedral of the Arts and Crafts movement".

The Church, dedicated to Edward the Confessor, was built as a chapel of ease by the Lord of the Manor and major landowner, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, because St Mary's was too far away from the main centres of population in the parish and liable to flooding. St Edward’s became the Parish Church in 1975 following the redundancy of St Mary’s.

Wells had acted as William Lethaby's resident architect at All Saints, Brockhampton-by-Ross, (1901–02) where Lethaby's experimentation with the employment of direct labour under a site architect instead of a contractor under a formal building contract, and deliberately produced few drawings, gave Wells freedom to evolve the design as the building rose and to engage in the physical activity of building.

Some of the foundations had already been put in before Wells was asked to design a church to fit upon them as nearly as possible, fulfilling requirements of Lord Beauchamp that there should be no east window, that most of the lighting should be from the west end and that the eaves should be kept low.

It was built from local materials by local labour. The red sandstone used was from the Forest of Dean quarries, about seven miles distant. The roof timbers were of unseasoned oak, cut on the Beauchamp estate. The church was roofed with local stone slates which remain on the lych gate; the church now has pantiles.

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