The Anglican Church of the Holy Rood at

Ampney Crucis Ampney Crucis is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, part of the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. The village is in the Ampney-Coln electoral ward. This ward stretches from Ampney Crucis to Coln St. Dennis in the north. ...

in the

Cotswold District Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region. Its main town is Cirencester. Other notable towns include Tetbury, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden. Nota ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England has

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

foundations with some of the stonework being

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

. It is a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The listing summary describes it as an "Anglican parish church. Saxon foundation, with some Norman work and elements from all periods including C15 tower and re-roofing of nave, up to restoration of 1870".

History

In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

(1086) the building is called the Church of Omenie Holy Rood since the name of the village at that time was Omenie, located in the Garsdon Hundred. The term "rood" is translated into English as "cross". Documents from 1287 refer to the church by its Latin name, ''Ameneye Sancte Crucis''. The foundations of the building date from the

period and some aspects parts of the fabric of the building are

. Parts are more recent including the tower and the roof of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

which are from the 15th century. The church was restored twice in the 19th century, including a

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proce ...

in 1870. The church is attached to the estate of Ampney Park. The parish is within the South Cotswold Team Ministry

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

which is part of the

Diocese of Gloucester The Diocese of Gloucester is a Church of England diocese based in Gloucester, covering the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire. The cathedral is Gloucester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Gloucester. It is part of the Province ...

Architecture

The

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

building with slate roofs. It has a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

plan of

with porch and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

with a north

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. The west three-stage tower has

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s and is supported diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. The tower contains six bells. Inside the church are some wall paintings from the 14th century, which are being restored by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. The tub-shape

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

is Norman but mounted on a modern octagonal base. There is also a 12th-century pillar

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...

with a square multi-scallop bowl. There are tombs and memorials to local nobles from the 16th to 18th centuries. The tomb of George Lloyde from Ampney Park, who died in 1584, is in the North Transept. The organ was installed in the mid-19th century. The cross in the churchyard was erected in 1415. Parts of it were stored in the church for many years and reinstalled on its base around 1860. The Grade I listed cross, and also a Scheduled Monument, is described as: "Late C14/early C15" ... The head was discovered in 1860 hidden in the old stair to the rood tower and replaced in its original position." The cross was restored in the late 20th century. The book ''Ancient Crosses'' by Marion Freeman states that during the

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

era (1650s), many villages removed their crosses, or at least the heads, in order to comply with the government's ruling.Ancient Crosses
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References

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