Church Of The Holy Cross

SU 1879 29/155 26.1.55

CHISELDON CHURCH STREET (north side) Church of the Holy Cross

GV I

Fairly large parish church with tower-porch sited on south wall of south aisle. Mostly Perpendicular style with an arcade. Chancel arch and east window of circa 1200 and some Anglo-Saxon fragments. Built of rubble with lead and tile roofs. Three stage tower with porch below, belfry stage set back, first 2 stages with angle buttresses. Coved cornices with corner gargoyles and carved faces. C19 ashlar crenellation. Two light square headed window with moulded head and drip on middle stage. Two light foiled window with foiled upper light to belfry. Four bay aisled and clerestoried nave. Three light foiled and moulded head windows. Three bay chancel has arched 2 light and diamond head window (cusped) and a square headed window to south-east of 2 cusped lights with 4 quatrefoils above. Central priest's door. Three light stepped east window with below a carved rood in trefoiled niche within a blind oculus. Interior: arcade capitals vary between trumpet to stiff-leaf. Ceiling has 4 centred arch headed and moulded ties braced from corbels, cusping in the gaps, moulded purlins and rafters. large late medieval tomb chest in sanctuary. Numerous wall memorials to the Calley family. Stone memorial (1707) to Edward Hellish with bas relief of him and his family on corbel of winged death's head. Large brass in sanctuary. Three fragments of carved medieval stone in east wall of south aisle and, below, a small fragment of a shaft with foliate cap. C18 tables of law painted on wood in south aisle- and C15 traceried bench end below that. Painted screen with 6 saints and a rood panel now at back of north aisle, late C19. Well stocked graveyard with single and double headstones and some footstones, especially to south and north, mostly C18. A number of chest tombs, the best perhaps being that to Elizabeth, wife of William Fridge (sic) died 1774, 13 yds south of south-east aisle window.

Listing NGR: SU1871479970