It is the Grade I listed Anglican parish church in our village of Sherston. It has Norman origins and contains many interesting religious items, including remains of Norman wall decoration, and a crucifix donated to the church by Italian soldiers during World War II.
History, Architecture and Fittings
The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a church at Sherston and the present church is probably on the same site, in the centre of the village beyond the North end of the High Street. It has a chancel, a nave with aisles, a crossing tower, north transept and south porch. Nikolaus Pevsner writes: “An impressive church with a crossing tower, almost too high for the rest.”
The oldest part of the building is the 12th-century north arcade.The crossing and north transept are early 13th-century. There is a standing figure of a saint, from the mid to late 12th century, above the East side of the South porch.
Sherston locals regard the standing figure to be that of Rattlebones, the Captain of the Local Militia, John of Sherston, given the name Rattlebones probably because of the blows he dealt with his broadsword in battles against the King Canute in 1016. John had received a mortal to his side in the battle but to enable him to carry on fighting he clenched a stone tile to the wound. Again for locals it is clear that the standing figure does indeed clench a stone tile to himself !
The tower was rebuilt in 1733 in the Gothic Survival style to designs of Thomas Sumsion of Colerne. Restoration was carried out in 1876–7 by T.H. Wyatt, and there was further work by Ewan Christian later in that century, particularly in the chancel which Pevsner called “drastically restored”.
The restored 13th-century font is a plain octagon on five shafts; the hexagonal pulpit is 17th-century.In the north wall of the north transept is a tomb recess from the mid 13th century, containing an lying effigy of a civilian; another recess in the north aisle is 14th-century.[ 6] Monuments include in the south aisle a fine 1715 portrayal of Joyce Hitchings as a praying woman, and in the chancel for Anne Hodges (1676) and Thomas Estcourt Cresswell (1788), said by Pevsner to be “an elegant work”.
