Day 13 postscript.      St. Mary’s Church.

Arriving in Wirksworth, I discovered another church, St Mary’s, where I spent some time absorbing its history. I have lost the information booklets I purchased, so once again I’m relying on my photographs and Simon Jenkins.

The church is very welcoming and provides a wealth of information for visitors interested in the site’s history. I met the friendly team vicar, there are 10 churches grouped together, who was busy with a treasure hunt for a local school in the grounds. She explained the local custom of ‘clipping the church’ in September when the congregation, probably augmented, holds hands encircling the outside of the building. She wished me good fortune on my journey and emphasised I must visit Repton.

The earliest parts of St. Mary’s date back to the 13th century, including the lower part of the tower. Much was added in subsequent centuries. Sir George Gilbert Scott was responsible for major restoration in the 19th century. This is probably when  all fragments of carving were incorporated into the walls, a gallery of early sculpture. These carvings suggest a church would have been established on this site as early as the 8th or 9th century.

Going around the church clockwise.

Starting in the north transept is a large collection of early carvings set randomly  into the wall.

In the north aisle, there are two 16th-century chest tombs, exquisitely carved in alabaster, of the Gell family. Sir Anthony Gell (d. 1583) has his statue on his tomb. He established a Free Grammar School in the town in 1576. Alongside is the simpler tomb of his father, Sir Ralph Gell.

The chancel contains the tomb of Sir Anthony Lowe, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, who served Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I and died in 1555.

The church is noted for containing an Anglo-Saxon carving of a lead miner, “T’owd Man”, the oldest representation of a miner anywhere in the world. It was moved here in 1863 from Bonsall Church for safekeeping and has never been returned. The church makes a good deal of this relic and has installed a video featuring him in a ghostly form, in which he recounts his perilous life as a miner. History brought to life.

There are more random, rather strange fragments of carved stones on the walls. 

However, the most significant piece is a large coffin lid dating back to approximately AD 700. It is believed that this artefact belonged to one of the early mission priests who established the church here during the conversion of the ancient kingdom of Mercia to Christianity. The lid depicts scenes from the life of Jesus and other biblical stories in a complex composition. It was discovered under the chancel during those 19th-century restorations.

There are two fonts in the church. One is a Norman cauldron-type stone font, and the other dated 1662.

There were many Victorian stained glass windows. Perhaps the most notable is that in the north transept, which was designed by Edward Burne-Jones, a noted Pre-Raphaelite artist, and created by the William Morris workshop in 1907. It depicts Christ and various saints.   (You may remember his window in Youlgreave Church).

The biblical significance of some of the other windows is lost on me. 

I probably missed as much as I have highlighted here; the church was full of historical curiosities. The sad fact, the vicar told me, is that they only have a congregation of about fifty these days. It was built for five hundred.