Some further interesting discoveries, made during the progress of the work, may here be recorded. Two fragments of the shaft of an early cross (Plate 3, B.C.), with interlaced band ornamentation, resembling that on the fragments at Rolleston, are built into the 18th century walls, one inside the tower, the other in the east angle of the south aisle. These may have formed part of the cross mentioned by John Hull in the register entry already alluded to. A remarkable instance of a 13th century headstone was found carefully buried in the churchyard, in an upright position. It retains an earlier type of circular head, on each face of which is incised in outline a cross with trefoiled ends. It is 2 ft. 6 in. in height, and its lower end is somewhat tapered to stand in the ground. (Plate 3, D.)

About fifteen blocks of worked Ancaster stone, found in all sorts of positions,—the slab of a piscina packing a beam, some filling up the old windows, some worked on the back with ogee moulding for the 17th century window arches,—have enabled us to reconstruct the ancient sedilia and piscina to which I have referred, fitting the stones into their original positions against the old plaster back. (Plate 6.)


Fragments of the ancient tile paving of the chancel floor have been dug up, showing eighteen varieties of patterns, similar to the Midland series found at Dale Abbey and Nottingham kilns, together with some plain black glazed tiles. (Plate 7.) Some are 5¼ in. and others 4½ in. across, the latter probably the earliest. One of the smaller tiles has the Latin alphabet in Lombardic capitals upon it in reverse order, as at Thurgarton, Willoughby, Wirksworth, Tickenhall, Dale Abbey, Nottingham, and Repton. Seven of the tiles are heraldic, but their common occurrence, and general absence of local connection, point to their being stock patterns of migratory tile makers, who retained the wooden stamps or dies made to the order of their great patrons. Among them is the Lozengy shield of St. Andrew, and the Fretty shield of Crevequeur. One shield however, a fesse danse between ten billets, occurred also in the windows and on a tomb here, with different tinctures, gules for Brett and azure for Deyncourt. The Deyncourts were certainly patrons and large benefactors from the middle of the 14th century, and their coat of arms might therefore be expected to occur in the paving tiles.

One charming lancet window, blocked up in 1671, has been opened on the north side, and reglazed, a few fragments of Decorated glass being inserted, as a record of the original character of the chancel.

Finally, a large stone about 3 ft. 6 in. square, and 8 in. thick, buried beneath the chancel floor, proved to be one end of the ancient altar slab, with two of its crosses upon it. (Plate 3, E.)

Two monuments may be here mentioned, in addition to those to which reference has been made. A flat stone in the chancel floor bears an incised floriated cross with the following inscription round the border:

Thoroton mentions that, Alice, widow of Sir Thos. do Hethe, delivered seizin of her manors to John de Staumford, rector, in 1357. On the face of the slab has been also cut H.S. 1628, the initials of a later rector, Henry Spur, buried November 23, 1628.

A monument on the north wall, no doubt removed here from the transept, represents John Hacker (ob. 1620) and his wife Margaret (ob. 1627), kneeling at a priedieu, with small effigies of their four sons and two daughters, of whom the eldest, Francis, was the father of Col. F. Hacker, the regicide, whose life and estates were forfeited in 1660.

There is much that is inspiring in this continuity of history in a simple village church. Through all its changes, the Saxon planning,—square east end, chancel arch, and western tower,—is still retained; expanding into grace and glory as the building-craft is fostered in turn by princes, ecclesiastics, and nobles; influenced later by the trading prosperity of the country; and then passing into the utilitarian methods of more recent times. Tho spirit of English art and English character still lives in the time-worn stones, an enduring record of the ideals and realizations, the efforts and limitations, the failures and the faith, of past generations.