St Giles, Hartington, Derbyshire

4th June 2011 - I was the only one of my friends staying in the hotel, and the following morning opened with a cloudless sky. I breakfasted looking out across the Market Place to the church. Posters told me that the church was having a flower festival, but it was an essential visit anyhow. At least admission was still free. The church is set on a hillside and there are lovely views across the village and towards the Dales. The C14 church is quite odd in plan, a very wide and short nave with transepts opening off it, the south with a western aisle, and normal aisles to the west. The south porch is a continuation of the transept wall. The west tower is later, Perp. The chancel is long and aisleless as so often around here. The south transept has a tomb recess with a stone slab with just the feet, head shoulders and arms of a lady carved into it - she holds her heart. Not mentioned in Pevsner are the twelve painted boards mounted in the south transept depicting the twelve tribes of Israel. Some sources list these as medieval, but they have English texts and I suspect they are later C17 or C18 but certainly odd! [open]