HER 3668 DESCRIPTION:-

Listed Building Description:

DAGLINGWORTH CHURCH LANE SO 9904 18/158 Church of the Holy Rood GV I 26/11/58

Anglican parish church. C11 and C15, heavily restored 1845-50. Nave and south porch: limestone rubble with dressed stone quoins. Chancel, north aisle and vestry: coursed squared and dressed limestone. Tower: ashlar. Stone slate roof with a coursed squared and dressed limestone stack. Nave with south porch, north aisle and west tower, chancel, C11 nave with long and short work rebated to give the appearance of a pilaster, at each corner (except the north west). Nave south wall (from left to right: small narrow round-head window (probably C12) now blocked; C19 pointed 2-light window with quatrefoil and moulded hood. Narrow C11 round-headed doorway within porch with imposts with cable decoration; C11 mass dial with raised circular margin above the door. C15 studded door with fillets; early strap hinges and blind tracery with foliate decoration at the top. Possibly C15 pointed 2-light window with hollow-chamfered mullion to the right of the porch. C19 chancel with reused C11 long and short work (rebated to resemble pilasters) at the east end. Blocked pointed-arched priest's door to the south wall; pointed 2-light stone-mullioned window with a quatrefoil and scroll-moulded hood with foliate stops to the right. Pointed 3-light east window with tracery and scroll-moulded hood with stops in the form of angels. C19 vestry: rectangular Roman votive stone reused C11-C12 as window, with two small round-headed lights with rebated surrounds (formerly at the east end of the chancel). C19 north aisle with clasping and side buttresses; 3 pointed windows with deeply rebated surrounds; single similar window at the west end. C15 two stage tower with diagonal buttresses and a moulded plinth: 2-light pointed window with a hollow-chamfered mullion quatrefoil and moulded hood with square stops on the west; narrow flat-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway up 2 stone steps on the south; 2-light pointed belfry windows with quatrefoils, stone slate louvres and moulded hoods with large head stops; moulded string between stages and below the battlemented parapet. C15 gabled porch with early plank door with strap hinges within a round-headed surround with large dressed stone jambs and imposts; sundial with two faces towards the apex of the gable; Porch interior: C19 roof dated and initialled 'I. G / 1844'; C19 stone bench seats; flagstone floor with four brass plaques (from left to right to Elizabeth Hinton died 1826; Giles Hancock, died 1684 with rhyming verse; plaque to Jane Roberts died 1826 below; plaque recording a benefaction to the poor by 'Giles Handcox' dated 1638, decorated with stylized rose branches.

Plastered interior: 3-bay nave arcade. Heavily restored round-headed chancel arch with imposts with pellet decoration. Pointed C15 casement-moulded tower arch. North aisle divided by a C19 round-headed arch. The western end of the nave retains a single early roof truss with a braced collar beam; roughly hewn common rafters either side of this truss, double purlins. The remainder of the nave has a C19 roof with braced collar beams to each rafter; a single purlin and a collar purlin. C19 roof to north aisle; C19 wagon roof to the chancel. Flagged floor throughout. Small C12 altar with a pair of C12 shafts with cushion capitals and bases (found during the removal of a priest's upper chamber formerly at the west end of the nave, during the restoration of 1845) now reset in the north wall of the chancel. C19 semi-circular headed piscina in the south wall of the chancel. Four C11 carved stone slabs (formerly built into the chancel arch) decorated with figures carved in relief in the Syrian tradition, reset in the walls of the nave and north aisle, those on the east wall of the nave above the pulpit and that to the right of the south door depict Christ crucified. The other two stones are reset in the north wall of the north aisle and represent St Peter and Our Lord enthroned respectively. Furniture and fittings: C15 octagonal font with quatrefoil, four-leafed flower and Tudor rose decoration, inside the south door; C19 pews, reading desk and pulpit; C18 communion rail with simple turned balusters. C19 wooden communion table. Monuments on south wall of nave from left to right: monument erected by Mary Webb in 1731 to members of the King and Webb families with highly ornate oval surround decorated with cherubs, fruit and flowers and drapery with four skulls at the bottom and four cherubs' heads and a flaming grail at the top. This monument was formerly highlighted in gold and black paint; monument to the right to Giles Haynes, died 1743 and Sarah his wife, died 1751 with grey painted marbled decoration and a broken pediment containing a painted heraldic shield; small white and grey marble monument over the south door to Thomas Hancock, died 1761 and Elizabeth his wife, died 1774 with urn in relief; white on grey marble monument to the right of the latter to Giles Haines, died 1805 and other members of that family, with reeded marginal panels and decorated entablature. The upper part of the monument is decorated with foliate decoration and three engaged urn finials; white on grey marble (by Mills of Cirencester) monument to the right of the latter to Edmund Hinton died 1773 and Ann his wife died 1758 with a single engaged urn and scrollwork decoration by Franklin of Cirencester; white on grey marble monument to the right of the latter to John Haines, died 1771 and other members of that family with fluted marginal panels and three engaged urn finials by Mills of Cirencester. Nave north wall: simple C18 monument at the west end to members of the Ashmead family with scrollwork decoration at the top and hanging bellflower decoration down the sides; monument towards the west end of the nave to Jeremiah Hancock of London, died 1730 with inscription in gold and a double scroll and foliate decoration at the top. Stained glass: C15 fragment depicting the Prince of Wales's feathers in the tracery of the west window. C19 stained glass figures in the east window are reset in clear glass. (David Verey, The Buildings of England: The Cotswolds, 1979; and Taylor and Taylor: Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1980) Listing NGR: SO 99338 04989. {Source Work 2392.}

Holy Rood Church is of Anglo-Saxon origin, dating from the period 950 to 1100 AD. Saxon features include long-and-short quoins and the south doorway, above which is a very fine Saxon sundial. The 15th century south porch is built with re-used Saxon stones from the west door of the name, and the 19th century restored chancel also contains much of the old material. A Saxon crucifix in the exterior east end of the chancel is said to be in its pre-1845 position.

Three carved stones, now built into the interior walls of the nave and north aisle are dated by the Taylors to possibly early 11th century. {Source Work 228.}

Verey places the carved stones as not earlier than circa 1050 AD. {Source Work 29.}

The slabs are described and illustated by ME Bagnell Oakley in an article for the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. Similar examples from around the British Isles are also illustrated. {Source Work 1617.}

A blocked window in the south wall of the nave is more probably early Norman than Saxon. A Roman dedication slab in the vestry wall is inscribed to the Mother-goddess and was formerly in the east wall of the Saxon chancel. It has two lancet like window lights cut through it. {Source Work 862.}

The Saxon remains are as described by HM and J Taylor {Source Work 228} except that the crucifix in the exterior E end of the chancel could not be found. Within the church are four carved stones, three of which appear in a framed drawing in the south porch where the stones are described as having been found "among the ruins of Daglingworth Priory" (HER 3669). The blocked window in the south wall of the nave is of Norman date. A Roman dedication slab is inserted upside down in the exterior north wall of the vestry. It originally bore the inscription DEA MATRIBUS ET GENIO LOCI: most of the lettering was lost when two lights were cut into the slab in 1850. {Source work 862.}

Reconstruction of the Church took place 1845 to 1850. {Source Work 902.}

Many photos of sculptures and church in Ordnance Survey collection.{Source Work 862.}

1896 - The church was described by the Rector Rev. CJ Martyn for visiting members of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. The exterior, interior and sculptures of the church are described. {Source Work 8713.}

1965 - The Roman inscribed stone is RIB 130. This is 24 inches by 21 inches of oolite recut to form a double window-frame; built upside down in the outer face of the north wall of the vestry. {Source Work 69.}

1966-1970 - The Early Medieval sculpture at the church, including the sundial, is briefly described in a review of such sculpture from across The Cotswolds. These panels shown Saint Peter and Christ enthroned - they are of an eastern style of decoration and ex situ. The sundial is also ex situ and now located within the porch. It is, typically of its period, in carved relief and marked with the division of the day into four portions. {Source Work 10157.}

1966-1970 - A Roman inscribed stone is noted as having been reused in the church at Daglingworth. {Source Work 10166.}

2009 - The debate about the date of the sculptured stones is summarised by Hunt for the earlier writers Kendrick and Taylors. Kendrick saw these figures as 12th century, whilst the Taylors saw that the sculptures could be associated with the Early Medieval fabric of the church as early 11th century. All the sculptured panels are by a single craftsman, showing a Crucifixion, a Christ in Majesty and Saint Peter. {Source Work 10850.}

The crucifixion panel fragments are late 10th-early 11th century, while the impost fragments are 11th century Saxon. The sundial above the south doorway but now inside the porch, is 11th century. It shows the four 3-hour tides dividing the day, each marked with a terminal cross. A shorter, 5th line is incorporated within the first tide, and probably represents the beginning of the morning tide at 7.30am, the 'daeg mael' or day's marker {Source Work 4249.}