The chancel of our lovely church here  contains a wonderful carved waggon roof, dating from the early 1500’s. This ceiling bears over 120 carved bosses, all different, depicting people, religious icons, monsters, animals, both wild and domestic and plants. The collection has been described by leading academics as ‘unique and of national importance’.

The Save Our Ceiling appeal was launched with an event in the church on the evening of 19 October 2023, and thanks to generous support from local people and grant funding, the work has been completed.

We are delighted to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated or sponsored a tile. A Book of Thanks has been placed in the chancel of the church detailing all the generous donations from private individuals and Grant Awarding Bodies. Tile sponsors and their commemorations are listed too.

Save Our Ceiling – Phase 2. Conservation of the Carvings. April 26

Once the chancel was water-tight, attention turned to undoing the damage to the carvings and conserving them for the future. Advice was sought form a professional wood conservator, Tristram Bainbridge of Bainbridge Conservation.

This work was supported directly by the William and Jane Morris Church Conservation Grants and the Francis Coales Charitable Foundation, in addition to local donations and fundraising.

In April 2026, the entire chancel was scaffolded (see Fig 1), and three weeks of painstaking and meticulous cleaning and restoration followed by Tristram and his team.

The work has made a profound difference to the appearance of the carvings.  Pat Spillane, former professional photographer and now landlord of the adjacent pub, ‘Munsons’ went up the scaffolding before it was dismantled and took the remarkable photographs shown below. Pat has generously given us free access to them.

Pat’s professionally produced and scholarly website contains pictures of all the carvings and can be accessed here,

(click the image below), where more information about our donors can be found.

Our aim is to install proper lighting so that visitors can enjoy them into the future.