All Saints parish church Norton has a C13 tower, the rest of the church is mostly in the Decorative style of C14.

The font near the entrance is C13 with recut protruding faces.

The stained glass in the north and south aisle windows contain shields and single figures of the St. Edmund, St. Stephen, St. David, St. Patrick, and St. Andrew of unknown the date and maker. However, the east window in the chancel is dated 1847 and signed by Thomas Willement known as “the Father of Victorian Stained Glass”.

The north aisle contains a rustic monument to Elizabeth Verney (d1633) of a kneeling figure. The south aisle has a large alabaster memorial to Elizabeth Knightley (d1602).

The chancel contains two C17 monuments to memebers of the Breton family. A large pink and white marble monument to Nicholas Breton (d1658) and his wife, and a wall tablet to Nicholas Breton (d1624). On the north wall of the chancel is a monument by William Behnes dedicated to Charlotte Botfield. The life size sculpture is that of her son mourning his mother.

Outside on the south wall of the church is a painted sundial and an early medieval mass dial, a crude form of sundial used to determine when to ring the bells for mass, scratch into the stonework.

Tags: alabaster, font, mass dial, monument, scratch dial, sculpture, stained glass, sundial, tomb, tower, willement, william behnes

The parish church of St. Giles, Chesterton, is mostly of an early C14 Decorative design, with some remnants of an earlier C13 church. The church itself is in an isolated field some distance from the village, but near to the old Peytos mansion that was pulled down in 1802. Its isolation makes the inscription on the sundial strange, as there were hardly ever anyone around to loiter.

The porch is c1400, leading to an early C13 south doorway carved with ballflowers. To the east is an early C14 priest doorway.

Inside is the door is a C13 font with a tapering round bowl. The church itself is long and narrow consisting of nave and chancel, without any division between the two. The blocked north door is probably the oldest part of the church being a remnant of the earlier C12 building. It used to be the entrance used by the Peyto family and now incorporates a memorial to the 1914-1918 war.

The North and South chancel window are c1330 inset with Victorian stained glass, the north window incorporates some fragments of C15 glass, the south window is from the Hardman Studios Birmingham (1890). The large window in the south wall of the nave is C15 with modern stained glass.

The chancel also contains a modern piscina inserted into C14 image niche with a ribbed vaulted soffit and crocket enrichment. At the west end of the church are Baroque memorial monuments to the Peyto family. The first memorial is to William Peyto, 1619, and his wife Eleanor, was commissioned from by the Sculptor and Architect Nicholas Stone at a cost of £150. The second memorial is to Edward Peyto 1643 and Elizabeth his wife. The busts are set on a pedestal flanked by shafts of dark marble with white Corinthian capitals. This monument was made by John Stone the son of Nicholas Stone, and designer of the old mansion.

On the south wall is a late C16 alabaster tomb of Humfrey Peyto (d 30 March 1585), and Anne his wife. The date of Anne’s death (1604) is not recorded on the tomb. The tomb was made by craftsmen in Burton-on-Trent, which by the end of C16 had become the centre for work of this type having supplanted those of Nottingham.

Tags: alabaster, font, giles, hardman, nicholas stone, romanesque, stained glass, sundial, tomb, tower

The parish church of All Saints West Haddon is C12 with C14 and C17 additions. Inside the church has three bay arcades with double-chamfered arches with octagonal piers.

The double-chamfered chancel arch was restored in the 19th century. The perpendicular nave roof retains some original timbers and has angel corbels.

A piscina can be seen in south wall of the chancel, the east window contains C19 stained glass.

The C12 Romanesque square font has scenes on its sides depicting the baptism of Christ, the nativity, Christ in glory between the eagle of St. John and the angel of St. Matthew, and the entry into Jerusalem.

The south aisle east window is by Pugin, the adjacent south aisle window is C19.

as are the other stained glass windows in the church.

Tags: font, piscina, pugin, romanesque, stained glass, tower

The parish church of St Margaret of Antioch was rebuilt and extended in the 14th and 15th centuries incorporating elements from an earlier 12th century church.

The Romanesque sandstone font has a base of three crouching figures supporting a circular bowl with a bead decoration.

During the 14th century Sir Thomas de Astley had the chancel, nave arcades, and north aisle rebuilt on a grand scale. The height of the nave was also increased with the addition of a clerestory in the mid C14.

Fragments of C16 Flemish stained glass are incorporated into the north aisle window.

The chancel east window was installed in 1863 the inscription reads: “This window is inserted by C. L. Swainson and Harriet his wife.” It is not known who the manufacturer or designer were.

The chancel windows have double label stops carved with figures, exotic beasts and foliage.

Also in the chancel is a badly eroded medieval stone effigy of a lady c1300.

Tags: font, margaret, stained glass, tower