On 21 September 1327, the deposed King Edward II was murdered at Berkeley Castle, just twelve miles south of Standish. His body was embalmed and lay in the castle's Chapel of St John for a month before being moved to Gloucester Abbey — now the cathedral — for a lavish royal funeral on 20 December.
Tradition at Standish holds that the funeral cortege stopped overnight at St Nicholas Church, resting the king's body beneath its early fourteenth-century arches. The route makes geographical sense: Standish Lane connects to the old Gloucester road, and the church would have offered a dignified resting place roughly halfway along the journey. Several ancient oaks along Standish Lane are still known as 'The Royal Oaks', said to have been planted to mark the occasion. At least one survivor stands in the field behind Devonia Cottage.
“At least one survivor stands in the field behind Devonia Cottage.”
Whether the tradition is literally true remains debated. Some historians note that the body may have travelled by barge along the Severn. But the church itself is beyond dispute: St Nicholas was already old when Edward died, first recorded around 1188, and its pencil-thin spire — visible for miles across the Severn Vale — would have been a landmark for any cortege. The nave and chancel you see today are substantially the same building that stood here in 1327. If the story is true, a murdered king lay beneath these same stone roofs, attended by candlelight, nearly seven hundred years ago.
