Earlier today the Churches Conservation Trust tweeted the news that it has taken over responsibility for the remarkable St Peter and St Paul, Tickencote. The trust plans to spend £265,000 on repairs there.
I visited this Rutland church three years ago and wrote:
St Peter and St Paul is a Norman church that had fallen into disrepair by the end of the 18th century. It was then rescued by the local Wingfield family.
The chancel was restored, though possibly in a rather imaginative way. If its vaulting is a faithful copy of the original, it is something quite remarkable.
A new nave was built that feels Georgian but pays tribute to its Norman predecessor. (Some sources suggest that the Norman nave had already been rebuilt once in a later medieval gothic style.) The incursion of stained glass in the 19th and 20th centuries have not improved it, though the sun can produce pleasing effects.
Above all, the restoration left the extraordinary chancel arch untouched. It is a riot of decoration, with geometric motifs, stylised leaves, and half-human and half-animal heads - some friendly, some beaked and sinister.
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