Fairford Church, Gloucestershire
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Fairford Church is famous the World over for having the most complete set of medieval stained glass windows in any parish church in the United Kingdom. It is a grand Perpendicular wool church, one of the best in the Cotswolds, with fascinating grotesques and gargoyles around the parapets. Only the lower stages of the tower are earlier, as shown by its emblems of the Earl of Warwick who owned the manor in the early 13th century. The rest was erected, in 1497, by John Tame, the manor tenant, who is buried under the fine Purbeck marble tomb chest in the Lady Chapel. The integrated oak screen is contemporaneous with it. Brasses and effigies to later members of the family lie alongside. In the chancel, there is a tablet to the memory of John Keble - of Keble College fame - who was born in Fairford. The building's other great treasure is its highly animated and amusing misericords. Carved around 1300, they probably came from Cirencester Abbey at the Dissolution (1540). Unfortunately, one was stolen in recent years and has had to be replaced with a copy.
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