Gloucestershire University is celebrating 100 years of its imposing Edwardian chapel. David Clensy visits Cheltenham to discover its history

T he world was a very different place back in 1909, as the proud institution which would eventually become the University of Gloucestershire, unveiled its grand college chapel.

World wars were still the stuff of science fiction. Motor cars were a fad that looked like they would never take off. Buying an advanced ticket for the Titanic's maiden sailing still seemed like a good idea.

But at St Paul's College in salubrious Cheltenham, young gentlemen were training to be schoolmasters, much as they had for the previous 60 years.

As Edwardian Britain flourished at the centre of a global empire, the town was evolving rapidly into a centre of educational excellence – with grand new college buildings springing up around the spa town.

But none were thinking on quite the same scale and with quite as much ambition as St Paul's College, which had just undergone a period expansion, with the construction of a new "criticism room" and an impressive new laboratory for the teaching of science.

It's hard to imagine, in today's largely secular world, how great an influence Anglicanism had on the daily life of students. It would be years before schools and colleges found themselves required to broaden their religious instruction towards multi-denominational, and later multi-faith models.

This was a time when the "high church" dominated students' mornings, with daily services of worship.

The great colleges of Oxford and Cambridge had led the way for centuries, placing their grandiose chapels at the centre of their world, following on in their choir-stall designs from a pre-Reformation world where monasticism was at the centre of the nation's education.

When the proud trustees of St Paul's College decided to build a chapel on the site, they were bound to come up with something ambitious.

Previously, students had visited nearby St Paul's Church for their daily services, but a chapel would place the pious start to their day at the very heart of the institution.

The new chapel would almost certainly have been to the liking of the college's founder, the Rev Francis Close (later Dean Close), who virtually created the Cheltenham we know today.

As a fervent Victorian parish vicar in the town, Close personally founded no fewer than half a dozen churches and a dozen schools and colleges. Tennyson described him as "the pope of Cheltenham".

Three decades after his death, the blossoming of St Paul's Chapel was a clear indiction that the seeds he had sewn were continuing to flourish into the new century.

The former college is now the Francis Close Campus of the University of Gloucestershire. Stepping inside the towering collegiate chapel on a bright spring morning, it looks exactly as it did in the sepia pictures taken when the place was first unveiled.

Even the same shaft of sunlight beams across the chapel, with flecks of dust hanging in the glistening light.

But beyond its appearance, as the university prepares to celebrate the centenary of the chapel, its role in the day-to-day life of students is very different.

It's hard to imagine what the Rev Francis Close would have made of the college's current chaplain, Rev Tamsin Merchant, who bounds into the chapel merrily; her long hair stretching almost down to her waist, and dressed in a vibrant purple-striped shirt – it's only the flash of white of her dog-collar that gives away her role.

"The chapel has a very different place in the students' lives today," she explains, as we walk across the classically Edwardian black and white chequered tiles. "It used to be that students would have to go to a service every morning, and the girls from the sister college, St Mary's, would join them.

"In fact, the morning service was the only time in the day when the boys were allowed to catch a glimpse of the girls.

"They were clearly separated – the boys on one side of the chapel and the girls facing them on the other side.

"However, from what I've heard from former pupils, many of them used to spend the entire service eyeing each other up across the aisle. Many a romance started in the chapel.

"The Anglican church was an important factor in the college 100 years ago. Back in those days, students even had to sign a confirmation of their faith in order to graduate.

"Today we only use the chapel for occasional formal services and special occasions – concerts and open days. Students and staff can also get married here.

"But actually, as a chaplaincy, we use the 10-year-old annex much more for informal discussions and meetings of clubs and societies. I see my role as being much more pastoral than that of my predecessors, who would have been rather more focused on the services. I'm here to offer help and guidance to students.

"In fact, I conducted a formal service for a group of former students last year, and it seemed very old fashioned for me to be reading out of the Book of Common Prayer."

Despite its imposing size, the Edwardian chapel is more likely to be a place of solitary prayer and quiet contemplation for today's students.

"I have to admit, I never set foot in the place when I was a student," says trainee curate Cathy Day.

Cathy is busily challenging preconceived expectations of the clergy, with her dyed-pink hair and black leather knee-high boots.

"I graduated last year," the 21-year-old aspiring fashion photographer explains.

"It is actually quite difficult going through university as a Christian. It's a different way of life to most students.

"I was based on the Pittville campus, and there is a culture at the university of students not really leaving their own campus. I would have loved to use the chapel as a place of worship, or as a place to simply come and spend some quiet time to pray, but I wasn't even aware that it was here.

"I got to know the place after I graduated, when I took the job as trainee chaplain with the university. That's why I feel passionate about letting the students know about the chapel and encouraging them to use it for their own personal time.

"Some people are intimidated by the sheer scale of the chapel.

"But then we have the new annex part of the building, which is much more of an intimate space, if that's what they would prefer."

The Chancellor of the University, and former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend Lord Carey of Clifton, visited the chapel earlier this month to lead a special service of celebration to mark the building's centenary.

"We also arranged special centenary exhibitions, charting the history of the building from the laying of the foundation stone in 1909, all the way through up to its modern day role," Tamsin says.

"It's a beautiful building, and a real focus for worship and pastoral care in the university. We're very proud of the chapel, and it's wonderful to know it's still performing the role it was designed to do so grandly all those years ago."

To celebrate the centenary year of the chapel, a special concert is going to be held on June 5. The concert is part of a year of celebratory events and any funds raised will go to the Chapel Centenary Fund.

Among the performers will be cellist Eduardo Vassello, the Prince of Wales Ensemble Band and composer and alumnus Douglas Coombes, former musical director of the BBC's Songs of Praise, who will premier a new composition written for the occasion, Three Gloucestershire Dances.

Tickets for the concert are £12.50, and are available from the university's online store. Please visit www.glos.ac.uk/alumni and click on the link for Chapel Concert tickets.

Alternatively, email chapelcentenary@glos.ac.uk or call 01242 741515 for more information.