St Mary the Virgin
Fairford, Gloucestershire
Fairford's magnificent 'wool' church, rebuilt in the 1490s' and hardly altered since then, deserves a place in any roll call of fine Cotswold churches.
St Mary's has a Saxon core, evident still in the lower parts of the chancel arch and in the Saxon cross shaft set into the chancel wall.
The original church was extended and embellished throughout the Middle Ages: there is a Norman north doorway, a 13th century south aisle with lancet windows, and a large Perpendicular window to the right of the porch.
The churchyard has a fine assortment of tombs and gravestones, a number of them commemorating the local clothiers and weavers who piously and generously financed the development of their village church over several centuries.
