The Saxon carvings and Renaissance tombs at Breedon on the Hill

Back to the church at Breedon on the Hill. This is the Breedon Angel, an Anglo Saxon carving believed to represent the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary.

Great English Churches says it is "secreted away in the bell tower where only the privileged are allowed to see it". Ah, but I turned on the Calder charm and was taken up to see it by the excellent woman who was looking after the church that afternoon.

Other carvings of the period line the walls of the church. As that website says:

There are Greek and Byzantine influences to be seen and all of this should help to give the lie to the suggestion that between the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Normans poor old England went through artistic “Dark Ages”.

And in the north aisle you can find tombs belonging to the Shirley family, who bought the priory at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.