St Peter & St Paul

There is so much to offer in Shelford church. Pride of place presently goes to a fragment of a Saxon Cross. Dated at 900 AD, two scholars claim that ‘The Shelford shaft offers by far the finest early figure sculpture in Nottinghamshire; indeed it is amongst the most interesting and best preserved figure sculptures of its date in England’.

Discovered during a restoration of the church in the 1870s, the front and back show clearly delineated images of the Virgin and Child and a bearded angel. Stylistic features of the fragment suggest it may be connected to the southward penetration of Irish missionaries at a much earlier date.

The Saxon Cross sits on a window sill in the Stanhope Chapel. As indicated by its name, the chapel contains many memorials to the Stanhope family, notably to Lady Anne, wife to Sir Michael, whose efforts safeguarded family and estate through a turbulent era after her husband was beheaded in 1551. The family eventually acquired three earldoms and the senior branch, the Earls of Chesterfield, were traditionally buried in Shelford church crypt. The first Earl, a staunch Royalist, lost three sons in the cause of King Charles during the Civil War. One died at Shelford, at the hands of Parliamentarians from Nottingham, who took and desecrated the church in the course of a bloody skirmish in which hundreds died.

It is hard to envisage such scenes in the present church (although the Sealed Knot do their best in colourful reenactments of the conflict). The building, parts of which date to the thirteenth century, contains numerous other memorials from more peaceful times, notably the organ and a set of bells which enable a major peal to be rung. These are in the tower, and the views from its roof, recently renovated at considerable cost, are well worth climbing the ninety steps required.