St Chad's Church, Harpswell

St Chad’s Church stands in the village of Harpswell, twelve miles north of Lincoln, beside a limestone scarp where springs once fed pre-Christian water cults. Built around 1042, it preserves one of England’s few complete Anglo-Saxon towers. The nave and chancel carry later additions from the 13th and 14th centuries, while a thorough restoration in 1890–91 refreshed the fabric. The church is listed at Grade I for its historic importance. Its position close to the spring links it to older rites that long preceded the building’s Christian use. Inside, two notable monuments occupy the south aisle. A 1346 effigy of William de Harrington shows him resting on angels, dressed as a priest and framed by the Green Man at his feet. Nearby lies a slab carved with the figure of John Gere, a fully vested Norman priest from about 1300. The north wall of the chancel carries a 15th-century brass portrait of John Whichcote in armour beside his wife Elizabeth Tyrwhit, wearing a butterfly headdress. Their descendant Thomas Whichcote placed a memorial stone on the tower in 1746, recording a clock installed to mark the Duke of Cumberland’s victory at Culloden. The nave retains exceptional medieval oak bench ends, one carved with the five Holy Wounds. Fragments of medieval glass survive in the windows, and the Norman font remains in use. A separate area of the churchyard holds war graves: one Royal Engineers soldier, eighteen British airmen, one Canadian airman and six non-war service graves. The churchyard adjoins the former RAF Hemswell aerodrome, opened in 1918 by the Royal Flying Corps.