Lowick, Northanmptonshire: A Northants perpendicular masterpiece with an octagonal steeple decked with golden pennants. Off the beaten track in the lovely little village of Lowick but well worth visiting - visiting old churches often takes you to beautiful parts of the country you would never have seen otherwise. Inside the church the north aisle contains a superlative collection of glass from the time of Edward II (1307-1327), featuring crusaders, nuns and knights in some pre-Chaucerian description of medieval life. The tombs in the chancel chapels are also well worth visiting, with alabaster ladies wearing the outlandish head-dresses from the time of Henry V, and tiny bedesmen praying for the souls of knights who have been recumbent here for centuries.
Fairford, Gloucestershire: A true classic, and unique in England as it contains the only surviving complete set of medieval stained glass windows. These date from the early 1500s and are stunning: They represent the usual biblical themes executed with colour and style by a Flemish master (you should see his devils!) There are many hidden portraits of the newly arrived Tudor dynasty hidden in the portraits, and the church has an admirable guide to enable you to seek them all out.
March, Cambridgeshire: A frankly average church raised into the heights of the extraordinary by the resident host of angels: Here there is what is considered England's finest angel roofs, all of them perched expectantly on a fifteenth century double hammerbeam. Angel roofs are common in the East Anglian/Fenland regions but this is the most interesting and most prolific.
Gloucester cathedral: The cathedral is admittedly not a parish church, but I must include the great East Window, made in the 1350s to commemorate the battle of Crécy by Edward III. The first of the great Perpendicular walls of glass, and to my mind the finest. Maybe Edward III was trying to assuage his guilt over the death of his father, the lamentable Edward II, buried not far away in the same cathedral.
Also a cathedral this time...This is the Lady Chapel of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. Parish church-like in feel, it offers a humble and serene contrast to the grandeur of the last of England's Gothic cathedrals. On a personal note, I visited the cathedral as a schoolboy when it opened in November 1978.
Pershore, Worcestershire: This has what I would consider to be the finest Decorated tower in England, and for once the Victorians enhanced medieval art by adding the side pinnacles. Inside the chuch has outstanding Early English vault-work in the ploughshare pattern, and generally still retains an air of the early middle ages. Thank goodness the townspeople clubbed together to buy this remnant of Pershore abbey during the Reformation.
Fotheringay, Northamptonshire: An odd church in some ways as there is no East window, and nearly all the medieval glass was removed last century (boo!), but the village Fotheringay was the birthplace of Richard III and the place of execution for Mary Queen of Scots, and the church contains a book stall on these two intriguing figures. The church contains monuments to the 2nd Duke of York who died at Agincourt and the 3rd Duke, Richard of York, who gave battle in vain. The octagonal 1470 steeple is stately, and the setting is lush, pastoral and quintessentially English
Grantham, Lincolnshire contains the lovely church of St Wulfram's. Even if you can't get in and are locked outside on a cold and rainy November day (as I once was) you can gaze in admiration at what is considered England's finest Early English steeple (as I most assuredly did). Its symmetry is sheer perfection, and the effect is awe-inspiring (as was perhaps intended). This steeple dates from c1280, the time of Edward I, and is considered the prototype for England's gigantic needle steeples.
More churches and links to come...don't faint with excitement please hehe
And on that note I bid my farewells....feel free to email me if you've liked my humble little homage to England's forgotten glory: its churches.
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