Church Of The Holy Rood

The Church of the Holy Rood is a parish church located on Shilton Church Lane. It features a three-bay 12th-century nave and a catslide south aisle, with a chancel dating from the 13th century. The church has a 15th-century crenellated two-stage tower, which was restored by the architect George Edmund Street. The building is constructed from rubble and has Cotswold stone roofs.

A wide projecting north porch, likely from the late medieval period, leads to the tower, which includes diagonal buttresses and a Tudor-arch west door adorned with ornamental spandrels. The south door is 15th-century externally but 12th-century internally, while the north door is blocked and has a 12th-century exterior. The north wall features a 16th-century three-light square-headed window with cusps.

The chancel contains the finest windows, all from the late 13th century or around 1300. The east window has three cusped lights with roundels above the outer lights, while the south side's east window features a quatrefoil in the tracery, and the west window has a dropped cill.

Inside, the church has cylindrical piers and plan arcades, with a significant amount of decorative painting remaining, including labels with head and dragon stops. The stepped tower arch is from the 15th century, with an inner order lacking springers, and the chancel arch is heavily moulded and unaligned.

Notable windows include a small 12th-century deep-splay round-headed window in the east wall of the south aisle, chancel windows with rere-arches, and a west window featuring a 15th-century sun and moon in the tracery lights. The west window of the south chancel wall has diamond panes with painted foliage.

The church also boasts a magnificent 15th-century font, square in shape with relief panels depicting the Crucifixion, and a parish chest dated 1634. There are three memorials in the chancel, the most notable being to William Chadwell Clarke, who died in 1710. The rood screen was created by H. Hems and may incorporate medieval timber. The pews and pulpit date from the mid-19th century, and the roofs are of the collar rafter barrel type, with plaster removed, dating from the 17th century or earlier in the nave and porch.