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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
Just inside the door of St. Anne's, on a stone base, is the Norman lead font which is the only surviving piece from the earliest church on the site. It is an exceptional early medieval font, one of a group of six late 12th C fonts in Gloucestershire. The font displays six seated apocolyptic figures and scrolls in an arcade of chevron, cable and sunk pellet mouldings. The top band is of anthemioms (stylised flower motifs). The church tower was built of local sandstone in the early 14th C. The stained glass is by Hardman, Swaine Bourne and Wailes and was all completed between 1867 and 1891. The nave and chancel were completely rebuilt in 1867. John Middleton was the architect. In the nave, corbels of Caen stone from Normandy are carved naturalistically with leaves, flowers, fruit and birds. The chancel arch has ballflower decoration and bands of different coloured stone on polished granite shafts with deeply carved floriated capitals. The shafts are supported on corbels with groups of sculptured angels playing musical instruments.
