Stilton

St Mary Magdalene is infamous for being kept locked with no keyholders all the time. This may be no bad thing as Pevsner makes it sound very dull inside. Outside, however, is fantastic a great exterior set in a fascinating graveyard.

ST MARY. Tall Perp W tower. The arch to the nave is nicely interpreted as a short tunnel-vault between two pairs of responds whose capitals are castellated. The chancel is of 1808, but in all its details of 1857. It was then also that most of the other external features received their present appearance. Inside it is different. Both the three-bay arcades are of the early C13, N a little before S; for N has single-step arches, S double-chamfered ones. But both are still round. The piers are round on the S, octagonal on the N side. The W arches however are later, in order to connect with the tower, but it should be noted that the SW respond has nailhead, i.e. cannot be later than c.1300. - PLATE. Cup 1626-7; Paten on foot 1630-1; Cup 1810-11; Paten on foot 1822-3.

STILTON. It is known all over the world for something it has never made. Its fame is stolen or strayed. An important place when the coaches came this way along the Great North Road, it has a 17th century inn with grey stone walls, a stone roof, and a copper sign. Here it was that the farmers of Leicestershire brought their cheese to be sent by coach to London, known as Stilton Cheese, and so it is that Stilton, which makes no cheese, runs away with the fame due to two other counties.

It has had its church 700 years, its arcades having been here all the time. The 15th century tower looks out to the edge of the Fens, and in its belfry rings a bell stamped with a picture of the Madonna and Child 500 years ago. There is a brass portrait of Richard Curthoyse in a mantle and his wife in a tall hat, delightful Elizabethans, and with them are their sons, one in a mantle and one in a cloak. The nave, with aisles only about six feet wide, has a fragment of a coffin lid with a 12th century cross, a 15th century font, a porch built when the font was new, and a finely panelled oak chest with floral ornament. One of its rectors preached here for nearly 50 years.

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Folksworth

On the face of it St Helen, LK, is entirely Victorian, or at least it looked all new to me and Pevsner, but on closer inspection you start to see Norman elements like the north door and splendid grotesque by the south door. When I arrived there was an ongoing service - very strange timing, quite what Mass was being held at 2.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon I have no idea - so I didn't get inside and am now undecided as to whether to revisit or not!

ST HELEN. Nave, chancel, and S transept. A steep bellcote on the W gable. At first it all seems Victorian, but then one realizes that the masonry and the buttressing are medieval, and one is not surprised to find a Norman N doorway. One order of shafts with scallop capitals. Arch with a roll, tympanum with a pattern of gridiron and pellets. The chancel arch is indeed also Norman. It is quite high and has thick zigzag in the arch. The capitals are decorated, two with small heads, the others with volutes. The arch to the S transept has two continuous chamfers and may well be contemporary with the buttressing. The Victorian work is of 1850, especially the blatantly neo-Norman chancel. - PLATE. Cup and Cover Paten, 1569-70; Paten on foot of Britannia silver, 1697-8.

FOLKSWORTH. It is very old, with the remnant of a 14th century cross behind an inn, a 17th century dovecot falling down when we called, a little group of ancient houses, and a church which has been here 800 years. It has a Norman doorway into the nave with an arch of two orders and a tympanum decorated with tiny squares; and a Norman chancel arch, also of two orders, with simple ornament and two quaint faces on the capitals. There is a 14th century transept, a 16th century porch, a font where the children of the village have been baptised since the first Tudor king was on the throne, two coffin lids with crosses of the 13th century, a piscina over 600 years old, gravestones of Stuart days in the churchyard, and an altar cup engraved twenty years before the Great Armada.

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Morborne

All Saints, LNK, appeared to me to have been abandoned so much so that when I got home I checked it on achurchnearyou and was very surprised to see that they were holding a carol service the weekend before Christmas. So it's not abandoned yet but I can't help feel that it is teetering on the edge of redundancy and it doesn't look like a church the CCT would take, quite sad really.

ALL SAINTS. The most prominent part is the early C17 brick tower. The W window has a pediment. Of the same time also probably the low mullioned windows with uncusped lights and the porch entrance with four-centred head. The oldest feature dates from c. 1140, namely the chancel arch with big scalloped capitals, fat rolls, and abaci and bases with a flat zigzag decoration as at Castor. That the arch is pointed must be a late improvement. After that several parts of c.1190, i.e. the priest’s doorway and the N and S doorways, with waterleaf capitals and arches of one step and one chamfer. Of c.1240 is the N arcade. Three bays, round piers with base-spurs, double-chamfered arches. Of c.1260 the S arcade, similar but with a little nailhead. The bases of both arcades are of the waterholding variety. Then the SE chancel window of c.1275: two lights with plate tracery and inside an attached mid-shaft. The DOUBLE PISCINA belongs to this, with the three curious recesses in the tympanum. Can they have been for relics? The S transept S window of three lancet lights, very slightly stepped, looks late C13 too. Nothing medieval is later. - PLATE. Cup of 1728-9. - MONUMENT. Almost totally defaced effigy of a Priest, first half C 13, his feet placed against two human heads.

MORBORNE. It is set in green pastures, with an old farm and an older church. Most of the church has been here 700 years, but the chancel arch, ornamented with crosses and squares, is about a century older.

There are coffin-stones of the 13th century, some used as seats in the porch; and two old fonts, one with a 13th century bowl on a new stem, one a Norman bowl without a stem. In an arched recess is a double piscina of a kind we do not remember having seen elsewhere, 600 years old. It has two small arches with delicate carving under three odd little pigeon-holes, a startled face keeping watch over it. A curious part of the church is its crooked transept. Here is a stone priest, shown with his feet on two heads, a rather queer figure found buried under the tower. It is thought he may have been the rebuilder of the church, and we like to think that after some great adventure he has come back to a place of honour in his old church.

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Haddon

The over restored interior of St Mary, open, holds little interest excepting the magnificent chancel arch but it's an interesting exterior and a stunning location.

ST MARY. The church has a mighty Norman chancel arch of the early C12. Capitals with interlaced bands (cf. Castor), thick rolls in the arch. Along the hood-mould and down the jambs saltire crosses, like flattened-out dogtooth. Then, still Norman, the N aisle W window, and after that, early C13, the S aisle W window and both arcades. They are of three bays and have round, double-chamfered arches. Octagonal piers. N comes before S. Some nailhead on the S side. The arches from the aisles into the transepts are contemporary. The transepts are clearly contemporary too (see the N transept N lancet), as is also the W tower with its lancets below. The curious twin rising arches to the W ending on a long mid-shaft must indicate that in the C13 a bellcote and not a tower was planned. The top stage is indeed Perp. The N porch is a puzzle. Can it also be early C13? The twin side openings still have round arches. The doorway is pointed, with slight chamfers. The entrance has nailhead. The N doorway is like the S doorway. In the S transept S wall is a three-light window with cusped intersecting tracery, i.e. of c.1300, and the N and S aisle windows of three stepped lancet lights under one segmental arch are most probably of such a date too. The chancel is c.1300 at the latest, but more probably c.127 5. It has twin lancets under one blank arch to N and S. That on the N side has in the blank tympanum a charming foliated cross, just like those on coffin lids or indeed like the ironwork on C13 doors. Re-fixed against the nave roof are men and angels probably from the roof’s predecessor. - PAINTINGS. Over the chancel arch C15 figures, hardly recognizable. - STAINED GLASS. E window by Kempe, 1901. - PLATE. Paten on foot of 1648-9; Cup, Cover Paten, and Plate of 1798-9.

HADDON. It is peace at the end of a lovely lane. We do not wonder that it has treasured fragments of its first church for 900 years. They are in a corner of the nave, a few stones in the wall that were here before the Battle of Hastings.

The Normans added a beautiful chancel arch to the Saxon church, with a row of little crosses round. The aisles with their curious transepts, and the chancel which seems to have been pushed a little to one side, are 13th century. One of the original chancel windows is unusual, its stone mullion outside having been carved with a shaft running up to a foliated cross above the two lights. The shaft has gone but the cross remains. The clerestory is 16th century. The roof of the nave has bosses carved with faces and leaves and quaint corbels of men and angels 400 years old. It is one of the churches with stone benches running round the walls; we see them in the transepts and aisles, a relic of the days when churches had no seats and the tired and weary folk went to the wall.

Two of Haddon’s old possessions have been here 500 years, one a stone lion crouching wearily at the door, the other a fragment of wall painting over the chancel arch. It was fading when we called, but Christ on a rainbow was still to be seen.

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Castor

Just amazing, a parish church that easily contends with Peterborough Cathedral for the title of Peterborough's best church; St Kyneburga, open, is definitely in my top ten all time churches.

ST KYNEBURGA. The dedication is unique in England. St Kyneburga was the daughter of Peada, King of Mercia and founder of Peterborough Abbey. The church of Castor is the most important Norman parish church in the county. It extends with original parts from the spectacular crossing tower to W, N, S, and E. To the W it includes the W end, where there is a shafted Norman window, and the fine S doorway (re-set?) which has two orders of shafts with capitals decorated by beaded interlace, an arch with roll mouldings, and an outer billet frieze (the nailhead border is a C13 addition). It also includes the N transept, whose masonry with Roman brick is Norman, and where part of a N window remains (with billet decoration), the S transept, which has a fragment of a Norman W window (with roll and a billet frieze), and of the chancel at least the famous inscription which records the consecration of the church in 1124. The stone is tympanum-shaped, but its bottom line rises in the middle in a smaller semicircle. Another Norman tympanum, not in situ, is in the S porch gable. This has a demi-figure of Christ blessing. But the glory of the church is its tower. It rests on four sturdy Norman arches with demi-shafts and roll mouldings. The steep bases have a very flat zigzag decoration and the capitals beaded interlace decoration in addition to stalks, leaves, birds, beasts, monsters, and small figures including a combat and a vintage scene. The arches have a moulding including two rolls and a small hollow.

To the outside the tower rises in four stages. First a plain storey up to the ridge of the roofs and finished by a corbel table. Then a stage with large two-light windows, the lights having zigzag arches (the only zigzag proper at Castor) and the windows billet surrounds. The windows are framed by two-light blank arcading. The next stage has the bell-openings, three tall, slim two-light openings, framed by one blank arch l. and one r. Finally the Norman top corbel table, and above it a C14 parapet and a short spire with two tiers of lucarnes. At the same time the tower was strengthened inside by a plain rib-vault with ridge ribs.

Next in order of time comes the C13. It did much. The chancel was rebuilt early on, with its S doorway still with a round arch (segmental rere-arch), with its SEDILIA still round-arched, the PISCINA with much dogtooth decoration, and with lancet windows. The S aisle must be of about the same time. It has three bays, with round piers and round abaci, a little nailhead decoration, and pointed double-chamfered arches. The W window is a lancet, and the E arch is round. The S transept was rebuilt with an E aisle about 1280. The windows have bar tracery with circles, except for those to the E, which have Y-tracery. A small tomb recess outside the S wall. The arches are double-chamfered. Dec N arcade (octagonal piers, double-chamfered arches), Dec window in the S aisle (reticulated tracery). Dec probably also the tomb recess outside the s aisle. The only Perp contribution of interest is the big E window, which replaces a group of three lancets.

FURNISHINGS. REREDOS. N aisle. Five blank arches. - DOOR. The S door is of the C14 and has a foliate border with an inscription to 'Ricardus Beby Rector Ecclesie de Castre’. No such rector is recorded at Castor, though one at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire. - WALL PAINTINGS (N aisle). C14. Three scenes of the Life of St Catherine, one above the other. St Catherine and the Wheel, the Execution of the Philosophers, Maxim’s Entry into Alexandria(?). - SCULPTURE. Small Saxon stone with a man standing under an arch and fragment of a second. Only 19 in. tall. The style is connected with that of the Hedda Stone at Peterborough, but somewhat harder and more linear. The suggested date is the mid C9 (chancel). - Base of a Saxon Cross with interlace and also two dragons, originally probably a Roman altar (N aisle E). - PLATE. Silver-gilt Cup and Cover Paten, 1632; two silver-gilt Breadholders, 1673; silver-gilt Flagon, 1774. - MONUMENT. Coped coffin lid with, at the head end, bust of a Priest, his head surrounded by a rounded-trefoiled canopy; early C13.

CASTOR. One of the most important of all our Roman settlements, it stands on the line of their Ermine Street; where the River Nene divides Northamptonshire from Cromwell’s county. The discovery of a camp and city of the Romans (Durobrivae) was made about a century ago when a road was being cut. Many tessellated pavements, and the foundations of villas, temples, forums, and baths were laid bare, sketched and measured, and covered up again. One of the finest of the pavements was relaid in the dairy at Milton Hall, where it still is, being occasionally washed with milk to revive the glowing colours. But it remained for our Flying Age to reveal the whole plan of this Roman Colony. When that famous antiquarian Mr O. G. S. Crawford, Director of the Ordnance Survey, flew over the cornfields of this rich agricultural area in 1930, he saw to his delight the ground plan outlined in the corn. Just north of the rivulet, well across the plainly visible ramparts of the city, could be seen the plan of the fine Roman camp, complete with rounded corners, and on the north side four parallel ditches. In the rectory garden are stones that were part of this Roman world discovered from the clouds; they probably come from the wall of the temple. There is much Roman material used in the church itself, red tiles and white round columns sawn up into blocks and fitted in with the square stones of the church walls.

The ruins take us back to Roman days and the beginning of Christianity; the church takes us back to Saxon days and the last fight of Christianity to maintain its stronghold in this country, for the shrine was founded in the seventh century for St Kyneburga, a daughter of Penda, the pagan King of Mercia who, seeking to stamp out Christianity, was an old man of 80 but in overwhelming strength when he threatened King Oswy. Oswy hated war and decided to try appeasement. He had married his daughter to Penda’s son, and now offered the pagan king all his treasures as proof of his goodwill. Penda scorned them, and at last Oswy, stirred to battle or to perish, fearfully accepted the challenge, and by a miracle smote Penda, murderer of five Christian kings, dead on the field. It was out of this crisis that the church came to Castor, the only church in England dedicated to Penda’s daughter. Her name lingers in a field-path here, the natives having taken a friendly licence by calling the path Lady Cunnyburrow’s Way.

The church is Norman and medieval, but much of the stone of St Kyneburga’s Saxon church and possibly some of the stones from her convent are built into it. It is one of the most beautiful village churches built by the Normans, and of special interest because the exact date of its consecration (April 17, 1124) appears in relief outside, set in Latin under a round dripstone above an old trefoiled window over the priest’s doorway, the doorway being set in a plain arch and the narrow door having elaborate hinges.

The grand central tower, one of the richest in the county, its face cut into diamond and scaled ornament, is crowded with two tiers of double Norman arches, a great double window being set in the midst of the lower tier on each side. The arches are richly ornamented, and the double windows are recessed, giving the tower an impressive aspect. The columns of the arches are sometimes plain and sometimes have fluted spirals. Three rows of corbels support the carved string-course dividing the stages of the tower, some plain, some with faces and other shapes; there are well over a hundred of them, and more than a hundred Norman columns. The battlemented parapet of open tracery, and the stone spire inset with windows, were added in the 14th century.

Outside the church the other notable features are the Saxon sculpture on the south porch, the great east window of the 15th century, the 13th century windows of the south transept, a stone coffin against the wall of the south aisle, a Norman window high up in the west wall, two huge gargoyles on each wall of the aisles, the two windows of the priest’s room in the north chapel, and a 13th century double lancet under which we see the long-and-short work of the Saxons, stones apparently used again by the Normans.

We come in by the south porch with a remarkable Saxon sculpture over the doorway, thus passing from Saxon England into Norman, for the porch shelters a magnificent Norman doorway into the nave. The porch itself is 14th century and has grotesque faces peering down from its original wooden roof; they have been here 600 years. The Saxon tympanum, older than King Alfred, has a border round it and a figure of Christ in Majesty. On each side of the head is the sun and the moon. The Norman doorway has four columns with capitals carved by the same master hand as the sculptured capitals inside, but more formal. In this Norman doorway still hangs the massive door set here by a 14th century rector; it swings on its original hinges and is still opened by a 15th century key set in a very thick lock. Round the door is an inscription which tells us that it was placed here by Richard Beby.

The most impressive scene inside the church is the series of magnificent Norman arches with their stone vaulting meeting in a round opening above the centre of the crossing; these and the west wall of the nave remain from Norman days, the chancel and the south aisle are 13th century, and the north aisle is 14th. The capitals of the great pillars supporting the tower are fine examples of the skill of the Norman craftsmen. Some are richly carved with strapwork and cable, swords and shields, and others with Bible scenes and scenes from English life. We see Samson killing a lion, huntsmen chasing a boar, men gathering grapes, woodmen chopping down trees, warriors  fighting, and other quaint fancies, all looking as fresh as on the day the Norman craftsmen left them.

There is Saxon carving inside as well as outside this old place, for in the chancel (as big in itself as many village churches) is a fascinating fragment of Saxon arcading found under the floor in our own century, and now fixed in the south wall by the altar.‘ It may have been worked by the man who carved the fine head of Christ over the south porch. The arches carved on this stone are mostly broken, but one is complete, and within it stands a narrow-bearded saint with a halo, quaintly dressed and barefooted, holding what looks like a book or a box. This strange figure is about 15 inches high.

Older still may be a great stone standing in front of the medieval screen which forms the east wall of the north aisle. Across the base of the screen is openwork tracery in quatrefoils, and above are elaborate arches ornamented with foliage, a niche in the centre having possibly contained a figure of St Kyneburga. What is probably the oldest stone in the church stands on the floor in front of this screen. It is said to have been the base of a Saxon preaching cross, and is carved with the characteristic interlaced work of the Saxons, and with birds and beasts, but the top of the stone is hollowed out and the general appearance is that of a Roman altar.

Behind this screen is the north transept, into which we may squeeze past the organ which has been built into the great Norman arch; passing through we find the walls of a turret up which we may ascend to what was once a watching chamber, with a 14th century window.

We enter the lovely south transept, once the village school, through either of the two modern screens that have been set in Norman arches leading from the crossing or from the south aisle. The chief beauty of this transept is in the central pillar of a graceful 13th century arcade which forms an east aisle.

In the chancel is an exquisite double piscina 700 years old, with tiny pillars of Purbeck marble, and near it is the Norman sedilia, with two seats under plain round arches. On the chancel floor lies a stone monument with the head and collar of a 13th century priest.

Two other fine possessions in this great place should be noted, the 14th century wall-paintings and the medieval roof. The roof is well lighted by the 15th century clerestory windows, the light clearly revealing the 12 angels looking down with outspread wings. The main beams of the roofs of the two aisles have human figures looking down, and more figures on the wall-supports. The wall-paintings have three scenes from the life of St Catherine, the clearest showing a group of knights and ladies weeping as she is borne to her death on the shoulders of the executioner. The faint colouring is as delicate as the hues of a butterfly’s wings, but the scenes are realistic and vigorous.

The weather-worn font is 14th century and has been brought in from the churchyard, and there is an old oak chest which was long hidden in the belfry.

Castor has two fine old houses. One is the manor built for the Bishops of Peterborough. For over 200 years the bishops were also rectors of Castor, and lived here, and it is due to their love of gardens that the grounds of the manor house have so many fine trees - great cedars, a silver elm, a Judas tree, and in the kitchen garden a cordon apple tree 15 yards long and still producing a huge crop of apples. We found living in this old home of the bishops the stout-hearted nonconformist Sir Richard Winfrey. Milton Hall, the second great house, is a noble Elizabethan structure in a park of about a thousand acres, home of the Fitzwilliams for centuries. Here lived a great lord to whom Cardinal Wolsey came after his fall, on his way to plead for a little earth to lie in. He sent his faithful attendant Cavendish to ask Sir William Fitzwilliam if he might stay at his house, and the good old man said that no man alive except the king could be more welcome. There is a tree in the park under which Wolsey is said to have sat, and a basin outside the house in which he washed his hands. Still preserved in the family is a portrait of King James given to a Fitzwilliam by Mary Queen of Scots because he was the only man kind to her at Fotheringhay, where he had charge of her. An even more treasured possession is a scarf worn by William the Conqueror. The house, with its striking north front from Tudor days, has an 18th century garden front, and in the days of the great Reform -Bill it became a centre of Whig politics.

There was born at Castor in 1653 a rector’s son named Nathaniel Spinckes, a man of courage and high character who lies in St Paul's Cathedral.. He was reduced to poverty as a priest by his refusal to take the oath of loyalty to George the First, being still faithful to the
House of Stuart.

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Sutton

I found St Michael & All Angels hosting an upholstery course and it was full of bustling ladies and loads of chairs in various states of undress (the chairs not the ladies). This meant it was the only warm church of the day and, it seems to me, a rather good use of the building during the week. It did however lead to a circumspect visit as I couldn't poke around to my usual degree but truth told this a rather dull interior with the exception of chancel arch and the splendid recumbent lion.

The notice board says that it is often open in the summer and lists a keyholder for when it isn't.

ST MICHAEL. Little of interest externally, except for the bellcote, which, with the tall lancet window below, is, it seems, of the C13. Inside fine Norman chancel arch with strong shafts, capitals with beaded interlace, arches with fat rolls. The date probably c.1130. S arcade of c.1200. Two bays, circular pier, simple moulded capital, square abacus, double-chamfered round arches. A little later the S chapel. One bay, semi-octagonal responds, pointed double-chamfered arch. - SCULPTURE. Recumbent Lion, Norman. The back shows that this carried a shaft originally. It was thus probably connected with a portal of the type of the Prior’s Door at Ely. Columns on recumbent lions are a North Italian Romanesque motif. - PLATE. Beaker, c.1650 (imitation of the foreign beaker at Upton).

SUTTON. It is a small village between the road to Peterborough and the River Nene, and has a little Norman church with tall lime trees lining a narrow lane on one side, and the low walls and dark stone roofs of a farm bordering the churchyard on the other. Two terrifying gargoyles on the church wall have been looking northwards for centuries, and many heads keep them company on the ancient mouldings of the windows.

The solid Norman masonry remains in both nave and chancel, and two round arches on massive columns separate the nave from a very narrow south aisle with two tiny 15th century windows. There is Norman carving of great beauty on the capitals of the chancel arch, interlacing bands winding about with freedom and grace, two of them emerging from the mouth of a staring face. Another Norman arch leads from the chancel into the south chapel, which has been rebuilt. Eight medieval stone heads support the wallposts of the refashioned roof of the nave, which is still lit by six 14th century windows of the clerestory, all with deep splays indicating that they replaced Norman  windows 600 years ago. From the same age comes the font.

Near the south doorway we found a lion carved on a pedestal lying with its wavy tail raised along its back; three feet high, the stone appears to have been the sidepost of a flight of steps. On the wall above it hangs a banner of which the village must be proud, for it is a banner used by the Cameron Highlanders for 60 years, and given by the regiment to Sutton in memory of Colonel Graeme who fell at Loos in 1916. The banner is blue, with the Union Jack in the corner  a silver wreath round a crown and thistle in the centre. With it on the wall hangs a wooden cross from the colonel’s grave in France.

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Ufford

I knew in advance that St Andrew was likely to be my church of the day, it is after all a CCT church,  but wasn't expecting to be quite so blown away by it. The location, exterior and most of all, interior furnishings all exceeded my expectations and this was reinforced in December when I returned to do some retakes. This is a gem of a church.

ST ANDREW. The chancel comes first. Two E windows (their tracery C19), N and S windows with a variety of Y-tracery, SEDILIA and PISCINA, and chancel arch all point to the late C13 or c.r1300. Two S windows renewed. Dec with segmental arches. Dec also the aisle windows. Rood turret on the N side. The arcades (three bays) are Early Perp. The slender piers are typical, still with a square core and four demi-shafts, but Perp-looking capitals. Arches with sunk mouldings. Perp W tower. On the clasping buttresses concave-sided gables in relief. Tall two-light bell-openings with transom. Battlements. - FONT. Tall, octagonal, Perp, with shields, etc. - COMMANDMENT TABLES and ROYAL ARMS. Signed by John Everard of Stamford, 1790. Ionic pilasters with Gothic arches as frames. - STAINED GLASS. Much of c.1910. One pane is signed T.F. Curtis, Ward & Hughes 1910.* - BELLS. Two are medieval. They are assigned to Richard Hill (VCH). - PLATE. Cup and Cover Paten, 1619. - MONUMENTS. Bridget Lady Carre d. 1621. Semi-reclining on her side. Back arch with well-carved gristly cartouche. Columns l. and r. - Three good tablets (S aisle), dates 1689, 1705, 1790. That of 1705 is, according to Le Neve, by Edward Stanton. Excellent ornament and three cherubs’ heads at the top.

* But according to local tradition these windows were designed by Miss Erskine of Stamford.

UFFORD. On the way up its pleasant slope we pass an old barn with the record of a good deed on its gable end, the kindly bequest of a woman 200 years ago that the rent of this farm was to be given to six decayed gentlewomen for ever. At the top of the hill the church and the rectory make a delightful group.

Most of the church is 600 years old, and in the rectory is a fine medieval timber roof believed to have come from a manor house which vanished long ago. The church has work from the three medieval centuries, its battlemented tower being 15th century; it has eight gargoyles. The porch through which we enter is also 15th. The scratch dial on the south wall is probably older, having told the people the time of mass in the days before clocks. The tower arch inside has fierce heads of lions looking into the nave; the nave itself has 14th century arcades with grotesque heads and the original timber roof. which extends also over both aisles. The lofty chancel arch has still on each side arches which led to the roodloft, and in the north aisle are two stone seats for priests. Both aisles have a piscina, and in the chancel is a much-worn sedilia of the 13th century. Six chancel windows have richly coloured figures in vivid New Testament scenes, all 20th century, and there is a little medieval glass in the windows of the north aisle.

Set along the north aisle wall are ancient wooden benches with quaint medieval ends, huge poppyheads with a variety of human faces ringed in crude foliage; some of the faces have their tongues out. All the modern benches are modelled on these old seats. The 15th century font is remarkable for its height (four feet six), and part of its base is fashioned as a stone step for the priest. Below the octagonal bowl is a band of Tudor flowers and grotesque heads. The font cover, also 15th century, rises cone-like with carved ribs to a finial of two small figures standing back to back. On the bowl is the hook and staple by which the font was locked against witches.

On a board between two 14th century windows in the north aisle is an elaborate setting for the Commandments, which are in Gothic arches resting on pilasters, angels holding up curtains on each side. The artist was evidently proud of his work, for he put his name on the bases of the pilasters, Everard Stamford, painter, 1799. In the wide chancel is a handsome monument on which lies a great lady of fashion who was gentlewoman to Queen Elizabeth for 25 years and to James the First’s queen for 14 years more. She is a charming figure in marble, decked out with crimped double ruffs at neck and wrists, with a wide farthingale and elaborately dressed hair.

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