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"font" |
"sedilia" |
"musket balls" |
"Christ in Glory window" |
The building was once the chancel of the ancient medieval church built in 1280. It may have had an earlier church on the site.
There is a medieval newly restored door dating from about 1385 in the tower area. It is amazing that the door would have been 100 years old at the time of the Battle of Bosworth. When we were restoring the door we found musket balls embedded in the door from the time of the Civil War (1641-1649). The door must have been used as target practice for the soldiers! There are some conserved interesting ruins around the tower area. Inside the church is a sedilia (stone medieval seat in the wall) and a picina (ancient sink).
It has a medieval font which was discovered in a garden in nearby Barwell, and a historical expert says it was not originally a font but a mortar (a mortar was used with a pestle to grind corn etc.), from the 13th century, of a type from a monastery.
There is a new modern stained glass window in the church, the largest in the Diocese, designed by Michael Stokes of Harlequin Glass. (The firm's name has changed since to M.D.S. Stained Glass). The glass depicts "Christ in Glory" and shows Christ in abstract form by swirling light with His wound marks in His hands and Mary His mother praying to Him in more traditional form but with the unusual feature of bare feet to associate with the poor of the world.
The church is well worth a visit. It is famous because prior to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, on the eve of the Battle, Richard 3rd may have stayed the night in the church. Certainly it has been proved that his chief officers slept in the church the night before the battle even if it is not certain that the King did.
In the grounds of the churchyard is a bench that comes from the old railway station of Elmesthorpe. The station is no longer in use. The bench is there because a former churchwarden, George Wilkinson, now deceased, was the Station Master.
© CJG 2002
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