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The Lonely Knight
Langford Old Hall ('the Tudor manor house') in 2003.
LANGFORD. Its stone dwellings are on the highway, from which the big house is set back in lovely gardens and trees. Down a shaded lane leading to Holme the small church stands in company with the vicarage, with the Tudor manor house, now a farm, near by.
In this great seclusion a lonely knight, carved in stone, lies within the altar rails of the church. The arms of the Pierreponts are on his armour, his helmet is on his head, his hands are at prayer, and though his legs are broken there is something of the little dog on which his feet rested. He comes from the closing years of the 14th century, and would know the 13th century tower which still stands looking out over the pleasant meadows.
Langford church from the north in 2003.
The chancel arch and the south arcade of the nave are about 1400; traces of an arcade which led to a vanished north aisle are in the nave wall outside. A beautiful archway which once opened to a chapel is enriched with flower medallions, embattled capitals, and a hood ending in heads. Medieval windows fill the place with light, and the fine old roof of the nave has curious bosses and faces pleasing and ferocious. The piscina is old; the splendid font of Sicilian marble is modern.
Close by the church the little stream known as the Fleet meanders among the willows in what was once the bed of the Trent, It is over three centuries since a great flood left the River Trent in its present channel on the other side of Holme, leaving the tiny Fleet to mark its old course.