Misericords A

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Astley, Warwickshire, England

This charming church has an unorthdox layout; the nave, of regular coursed red sandstone, was built in 1343 as the chancel of a collegiate church while the chancel, of regular coursed grey sandstone, and tower are as recent as 1608 when it was re-established as a parish church. Meanwhile, the wood-panelled ceiling of the nave is 17th century.

The nave has set of stalls from the 14th century, of 8 bays and one-bay returns. The backs have contemporary paintings of the Apostles and Prophets, considerably over-painted, and painted friezes. The latin tags were over-painted in English after the Reformation.

The seats have misericords carved with foliage, animals and faces. Historic England rather generously identifies the animals as a dog, a pig and a lion. Another view might be that they are a dragon and other animals the carvers had never seen.

Source: Historic England listing entry