Broadwell Parish Church



St. Paul's Church Photos by
John Wilkes of Cam near Dursley, Gloucestershire
The Gloucestershire Photo Library

Page composition by Allan Taylor of Vancouver, Canada
http://www.allthecotswolds.com

Broadwell near Stow-on-the-Wold is a beautiful and unspoilt village. In the churchyard there are some unusual bale-top tombs.
The ornate monument illustrated above shows alabaster effigies of Herbert Weston (who died in 1634) and his wife and daughter, kneeling at a prayer desk under a Renaissance canopy. Black-and-white marble is used and there is heraldry, as well as stumpy obelisks, above. In the chancel, there is a series of small and good stained glass windows by Ward and Hughes. Also in the chancel is a single window by Hardman. Elsewhere in the church there are windows by Heaton, Butler & Bayne.
In the churchyard, east of the chancel, there is a fine collection of ten 17th Century chest tombs to the Shayler and Chadwell families, eight of them with rolled 'bale' tops. One of these - illustrated here - has an arcade with kneeling mourners, four on each side. The two flat-topped tombs have dates of death 1601 and 1612.