St Bartholomew, Notgrove, Gloucestershire

I definitely had not been here before. The church is tucked away at the end of the village next to the manor house. It is basically Norman, but really heavily restored by J E K Cutts 1871-3. The original arcade survives with round stepped arches. The chancel arch is a little later and now pointed. Norman too the tub font, decorated with two bands of cable moulding around the top. Several bits of old woodwork built into the screen and some of the benches. In the small north transept are two very worn effigies, and the chancel has two more monuments much later and in better condition. On the north side of the sanctuary a recumbent lady on a tomb chest dated with large figures 1630. Opposite a two tiered affair with two gentlemen like the lady from the Whittington family. A robed civilian lies below a soldier in armour. There is no east window to the chancel and the wall is now hidden by a tapestry completed in 1954 which supposedly repeats the decoration to be found behind (without the coloured scenes that is). There was a pulley to raise it presumably so that the original stonework of the reredos could be enjoyed, so I grabbed the cable only to discover it was so rusty that if I was concerned that even if I succeeded in raising it I may not get it back down. In the vestry window a delightful piece of medieval glass showing the Virgin and Child. On leaving I completed my walk around the church and discovered in a Dec niche on the chancel east wall was a Saxon carving of the Crucifixion, rather crude but still identifiable.