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This quiet place of a few homes, an old Hall, partly of the 17th and 18th centuries, and a small church made almost new, was old over 600 years ago when a king and his earls halted here.
The king was Edward II and he was in pursuit of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was at Burton five miles away. They met soon afterwards at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, where the earl was taken and beheaded.
One touch of beauty older even than that touch of war has this little place, for here is something from the church the Normans made: three tiny lights, two in the nave and one in the chancel. From earlier in the present century this little light of a thousand years in the chancel has had as company a reredos of translucent alabaster, with traceried panels and handsome carvings of vine grape, crowned by two angels.
Among other echoes of wars found here are two alabaster stones to the parents of Colonel Thomas Sanders, who fought for Parliament against Charles I in the Civil War. In the west window are two medallions of stained glass, probably of about 1400, from Nuremberg.
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