St Mary & St Barlok, Norbury
St Mary & St Barlok's at Norbury is a bit of a gem, renowned for its splendid chancel still mostly filled with its original grisaille glass and the tombs of the Fitzherbert family who built the present structure. The church itself stands set back from the road in pleasingly rural surroundings, with the nearby Norbury Hall separated by the churchyard wall to the west.
At first sight it is quite an odd structure, a building of two halves that don't quite meld, being of different periods and certainly different ambitions! The older part is the more impressive, the chancel built by the Fitzherberts in 1295 with its four bays of large fine windows on either side, an early manifestation of the later medieval trend to build churches as much from glass as from stone. The chancel rather overshadows the rest of the building to the west, the nave, aisles and unusual porch-tower being of 15th century date and on a more homely scale. They'd be fine enough for most village churches, just that here they are somewhat eclipsed by the earlier work to the east.
Inside the eye is drawn eastwards by the brightness of the chancel which shines like a lantern after the relatively dark nave. This is the glory of the church, replete with most of its original early 14th century glazing of near colourless grisaille glass, punctuated only by a trio of shields in each windows. Most retain their original glazing almost intact, while a few are less complete. The huge five-light east window however has none of its original glass remaining, thus we are deprived of what was nearly a complete scheme; instead it is filled with a patchwork of fragments and figures of 15th century date, presumably from the nave of the church where some windows also retain substantial portions of their original medieval glass.
In the centre of the chancel are the church's other great features, the Fitzherbert tombs, foremost being the two fine alabaster tombs with effigies and a fine set of figures under canopies adorning the tomb chests below. They are happily also in good condition without any of the mutilation one becomes accustomed to seeing elsewhere, and would be worth coming here to see in their own right.
Norbury church seems to be kept open and welcoming to visitors, or certainly was when I came this way with my local friend Sam many years ago back in 2007. My photography was much more limited in those days with my old camera far less flexible, and thus this set won't be as complete as I'd like it to be. I'd hoped to return here on my more recent Derbyshire excursion by bike, but time ran away from me before I could make the final few miles to reach here, so frustratingly I had to give up and hope to pass this way again some day.
St Mary & St Barlok, Norbury
St Mary & St Barlok's at Norbury is a bit of a gem, renowned for its splendid chancel still mostly filled with its original grisaille glass and the tombs of the Fitzherbert family who built the present structure. The church itself stands set back from the road in pleasingly rural surroundings, with the nearby Norbury Hall separated by the churchyard wall to the west.
At first sight it is quite an odd structure, a building of two halves that don't quite meld, being of different periods and certainly different ambitions! The older part is the more impressive, the chancel built by the Fitzherberts in 1295 with its four bays of large fine windows on either side, an early manifestation of the later medieval trend to build churches as much from glass as from stone. The chancel rather overshadows the rest of the building to the west, the nave, aisles and unusual porch-tower being of 15th century date and on a more homely scale. They'd be fine enough for most village churches, just that here they are somewhat eclipsed by the earlier work to the east.
Inside the eye is drawn eastwards by the brightness of the chancel which shines like a lantern after the relatively dark nave. This is the glory of the church, replete with most of its original early 14th century glazing of near colourless grisaille glass, punctuated only by a trio of shields in each windows. Most retain their original glazing almost intact, while a few are less complete. The huge five-light east window however has none of its original glass remaining, thus we are deprived of what was nearly a complete scheme; instead it is filled with a patchwork of fragments and figures of 15th century date, presumably from the nave of the church where some windows also retain substantial portions of their original medieval glass.
In the centre of the chancel are the church's other great features, the Fitzherbert tombs, foremost being the two fine alabaster tombs with effigies and a fine set of figures under canopies adorning the tomb chests below. They are happily also in good condition without any of the mutilation one becomes accustomed to seeing elsewhere, and would be worth coming here to see in their own right.
Norbury church seems to be kept open and welcoming to visitors, or certainly was when I came this way with my local friend Sam many years ago back in 2007. My photography was much more limited in those days with my old camera far less flexible, and thus this set won't be as complete as I'd like it to be. I'd hoped to return here on my more recent Derbyshire excursion by bike, but time ran away from me before I could make the final few miles to reach here, so frustratingly I had to give up and hope to pass this way again some day.