St Gregory's Church, Fledborough

St Gregory’s Church stands at the end of a lane in meadows beside the River Trent in Fledborough, Nottinghamshire. It is a redundant Anglican church, no longer used for regular worship, and is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. The building is made from stone with some brick in the clerestories and has slate roofs except for the tower and porch which are tiled. A Grade I listed building, it was built in stages from the 12th century onwards, with much of the present structure dating from the first half of the 14th century. The church gained fame in the 18th century when its rector, Rev W. Sweetapple, allowed runaway couples to marry there, earning it the nickname ‘the Gretna Green of the Midlands’. In 1820 the future headmaster of Rugby School, Thomas Arnold, married Mary Penrose, the rector’s daughter, in this same church. The chancel was rebuilt twice, first in 1764 and again in 1890, while the aisles and south porch were renewed in 1912. The church was placed in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1991. Inside, the nave is divided from the aisles by four-bay arcades, and the chancel contains the remains of an Easter Sepulchre with carved panels of sleeping soldiers and angels. The east window holds fragments of 14th-century stained glass showing the Virgin and Child, John the Baptist and Saint Andrew. The octagonal font and pulpit date from the 19th century, while the north aisle contains 14th-century tombs. Outside, a group of five headstones in the churchyard from the 1730s is also listed. The tower holds a broken alabaster effigy of a knight, and the south porch bears a carved 14th-century effigy of a woman holding what may be a heart.