Highlights
Highlights
Hailes church consists of a nave (with a wooden belfry and a modern south porch) and a spectacular chancel. Between 1246 and 1539 the church was owned by the neighbouring Cistercian monastery, Hailes Abbey. As a consequence, its history was uniquely and significantly changed by this association, right up to the present day
For more information about the church’s history, click here
The church is of exceptional interest, and these are some of its most important highlights:
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wall paintings
Internationally renowned late 13th- and early 14th-century wall paintings in both the chancel and the nave.
chancel arch
The mid 13th-century chancel arch sits on early 12th-century capitals and, below them, engaged columns.
medieval stained glass
Medieval stained glass in the east window, of which, all the painted glass came from the abbey.
decorated floor tiles
Decorated floor tiles which originally belonged to the abbey.
a priest’s door
The early 14th-century sedilia (seats for priests) and, to the left of them, a mid 13th-century piscina (for washing the vessels used in the mass (NB there were initially three seats but the middle one was removed so that a priest’s door could be created, probably in the late 16th century).
carved medieval tomb lid
One of the carved medieval stone tomb lids, probably taken from the abbey.
early woodwork
Early modern woodwork including, in the nave, a 16th-century box pew and the 15th-century pews, the 17th-century sounding-board pulpit, the 15th-century rood screen, and, in the chancel, 17th-century stalls and panelling (which are a rare surviving remnant of a post-Reformation layout that was once almost universally present in England’s parish churches).