The parish church of St. Leonard is mostly a C14 building with a broached spire on the west tower.

The early C14 south aisle window has Victorian stained glass and is dated 1878. The stained glass in the east window is Victorian.

The octagonal font is also C19 as are the pews, however some of the bench ends are reused C16.

The chancel contains two alabaster chest tombs. Against the south wall is the C16 effigy of Sir Michael Poulteney (d1567) in armour with helmet, crowned with a saracen’s head, and lion at his feet.

The tomb against the north chancel wall is a monument to to John Poulteney (d1637) has a plain black top and shields in strap work cartouches around the sides.

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Tags: elizabethan, font alabaster, jacobean, leonard, spire, stained glass, tomb

The west tower is around 150ft high. The south doorway is original of c1300, and most of the windows are of the Geometrical Gothic style of the same period, but they were renewed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1865.

The painted roof has Perpendicular style head corbels.

The Perpendicular style is also relected in the font and pulpit. However, the body of the church is in the Decorative Gothic style dating from 1325-1335.

However, what makes Middleton Cheney is the stained glass work by Morris & co. The west window has a piece entitled “Three young men in the fiery furnace” by Burne-Jones.

The East window memorial to William Croome (d1865). Designed by William Morris Co 1864.The figures below the tracery lights represents the twelve tribes of the Apolcalypse. Below are representations off Adam, Noah, David, Isiah, St Peter, St. Paul, St Augustine, St Catherine, Abraham, Moses, Eve, the Virgin, Magdalene, and St. Agnes.

The Censing Angels, Seraph, St. Peter, St. Augustine, St. Catherine, Eve, the Virgin, Magdalene, and St. Agnes are by William Morris. The four beasts, and the banners are by Philip Webb. The Adoration of the Lamb and St Alban are by Burne-Jones. St. John and St. Paul by Ford Madox Brown. The twelve tribes, David, Isiah, Abraham, and Moses by Simeon Solomon.

The south window of the chancel contains panels by Ford Madox Brown depicting scenes from the old testament. The tracery light is by Philip Webb.

The two north chancel windows were designed by Burne-Jones as a memorial to his friend W.C. Buckley who was the vicar.

In addition to the stained glass the church also contains mosaics by the company of James Powell & sons.

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Tags: burne-jones, corbel, decorative, font, ford maddox brown, g.g. scott, perpendicular, philip webb, pulpit, roof, stained glass, tomb, tower, william morris

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.

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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.

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