Church Of The Holy Rood

Church of the Holy Rood

This is an Anglican parish church of the 11th and 15th centuries, heavily restored between 1845 and 1850. The building comprises a nave with south porch, north aisle, west tower, chancel and vestry.

The exterior is built in limestone rubble with dressed stone quoins on the nave and south porch, whilst the chancel, north aisle and vestry are of coursed squared and dressed limestone. The tower is ashlar. The roof is stone slate with a coursed squared and dressed limestone stack.

The nave retains characteristic 11th-century long and short work rebated to resemble pilasters at each corner except the north-west. The south wall features a small narrow round-headed window, probably of the 12th century but now blocked; a 19th-century pointed two-light window with quatrefoil and moulded hood; a narrow 11th-century round-headed doorway within the porch with imposts decorated with cable work; and an 11th-century mass dial with raised circular margin above the door. The porch door is 15th-century, studded with fillets, early strap hinges and blind tracery with foliate decoration at the top. To the right of the porch is possibly a 15th-century pointed two-light window with hollow-chamfered mullion.

The 19th-century chancel incorporates reused 11th-century long and short work (rebated to resemble pilasters) at the east end. A blocked pointed-arched priest's door is visible on the south wall, with a pointed two-light stone-mullioned window to its right featuring a quatrefoil and scroll-moulded hood with foliate stops. The east window is pointed with three lights, tracery and a scroll-moulded hood with stops in the form of angels.

The 19th-century vestry contains a rectangular Roman votive stone reused in the 11th or 12th century as a window, with two small round-headed lights with rebated surrounds (formerly at the east end of the chancel).

The 19th-century north aisle has clasping and side buttresses, with three pointed windows featuring deeply rebated surrounds and a similar single window at the west end.

The 15th-century two-stage tower has diagonal buttresses and a moulded plinth. The west face has a two-light pointed window with hollow-chamfered mullion, quatrefoil and moulded hood with square stops. On the south is a narrow flat-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway accessed by two stone steps. The belfry windows are two-light, pointed, with quatrefoils, stone slate louvres and moulded hoods with large head stops. A moulded string separates the stages, with a battlemented parapet above.

The 15th-century gabled porch has an early plank door with strap hinges within a round-headed surround with large dressed stone jambs and imposts. A sundial with two faces is set towards the apex of the gable. The porch interior has a 19th-century roof dated and initialled 'I. G / 1844', 19th-century stone bench seats, and a flagstone floor with four brass plaques: to Elizabeth Hinton (died 1826); Giles Hancock (died 1684, with rhyming verse); Jane Roberts (died 1826); and recording a benefaction to the poor by 'Giles Handcox' (dated 1638, decorated with stylized rose branches).

The plastered interior features a three-bay nave arcade. The chancel arch is heavily restored, round-headed with imposts bearing pellet decoration. A pointed 15th-century casement-moulded tower arch is present. The north aisle is divided by a 19th-century round-headed arch.

The western end of the nave retains a single early roof truss with a braced collar beam, flanked by roughly hewn common rafters and double purlins. The remainder of the nave has a 19th-century roof with braced collar beams to each rafter, a single purlin and a collar purlin. The north aisle and chancel both have 19th-century roofs, the latter a wagon roof. Flagged flooring runs throughout.

A small 12th-century altar with a pair of 12th-century shafts with cushion capitals and bases (found during removal of a priest's upper chamber formerly at the west end of the nave during the 1845 restoration) has been reset in the north wall of the chancel. A 19th-century semi-circular headed piscina is set in the south wall of the chancel.

Four 11th-century carved stone slabs, formerly built into the chancel arch and decorated with figures in relief in the Syrian tradition, have been reset in the nave and north aisle walls. Two depict Christ crucified (on the east wall of the nave above the pulpit and to the right of the south door), whilst the other two, reset in the north wall of the north aisle, represent St Peter and Our Lord enthroned respectively.

A 15th-century octagonal font with quatrefoil, four-leafed flower and Tudor rose decoration stands inside the south door. The 19th-century furnishings include pews, reading desk and pulpit. An 18th-century communion rail with simple turned balusters is present, along with a 19th-century wooden communion table.

The south wall of the nave bears several monuments: one erected by Mary Webb in 1731 to members of the King and Webb families, with an ornate oval surround decorated with cherubs, fruit, flowers and drapery, four skulls at the bottom, and four cherubs' heads and a flaming grail at the top (formerly highlighted in gold and black paint); a monument to Giles Haynes (died 1743) and Sarah his wife (died 1751) with grey painted marbled decoration and broken pediment containing a painted heraldic shield; a small white and grey marble monument to Thomas Hancock (died 1761) and Elizabeth his wife (died 1774) with relief urn; a white on grey marble monument to Giles Haines (died 1805) and family members, with reeded marginal panels, decorated entablature and foliate decoration with three engaged urn finials; a white on grey marble monument to Edmund Hinton (died 1773) and Ann his wife (died 1758) with single engaged urn and scrollwork decoration, by Franklin of Cirencester; and a white on grey marble monument to John Haines (died 1771) and family members with fluted marginal panels and three engaged urn finials, by Mills of Cirencester.

The north wall of the nave has a simple 18th-century monument at the west end to members of the Ashmead family with scrollwork and hanging bellflower decoration; and a monument towards the west end to Jeremiah Hancock of London (died 1730) with inscription in gold and double scroll with foliate decoration at the top.

A 15th-century stained glass fragment depicting the Prince of Wales's feathers appears in the tracery of the west window. 19th-century stained glass figures in the east window are reset in clear glass.