A beautiful church with a fascinating octagonal tower and an ancient churchyard...

Travellers on the Cotswold Way would find Ozleworth's beautful church near to the Newark Park estate in remote and beautiful country.

Up a deep narrow valley, this lovely little Norman church stands in a circular churchyard, which suggests an early and perhaps pre-Christian site. You are immediately struck by the sight of the irregular hexagonal tower rising almost from the centre of the building.

It is Norman, and probably originally was the nave of a small chapel. Gaze up into the tower's roof and you'll see how uneven all six sides are. But while the exterior still speaks of the church's ancient past, most of the interior reflects its Victorian refit.

The doorway through which you enter the church is superbly carved, with exuberant curves and leaf decoration. The arch in the west tower wall is similarly splendid. Both are remarkable examples of fine workmanship and intricate design from the thirteenth century.

The font, though of the same date, is more rustic in its design. There is a fragment of Medieval stained glass in the east window, showing a saint's head. Four panels of Flemish painted glass in the south-west window of the tower are sixteenth or seventeenth century, and the rest is fine nineteenth-century glass.

Attractive Victorian red needlework panels of lilies hang on the east wall, and the same pattern is painted on the wall behind. The monuments in both church and churchyard reflect the importance of the wealthy neighbouring families in the history of this church and the poignancy of their memorial to fallen heroes of The Great War.

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