St Mary's Church, Ashwell, Hertfordshire

[3] The church dates almost entirely from the 14th century and is renowned for its ornate tower which stands at 176 feet (54 m) and which is crowned by an octagonal lantern with a leaded flèche or spire.

We first saw its gigantic dark grey fourteenth-century church tower, crowned with a tapering lead flèche, rising from huge elms on chalky foothills looking over open corn land to the levels of Hunts and Cambs.

... And the church inside, white and spacious and East Anglian, with arcades like a Cathedral, clear glass everywhere, uneven floors and splendid chancel, was worthy of the best of English villages.

"[2][5] On the North wall of the West tower can be found some remarkable 14th-century graffiti which includes an inscription recording survival of citizens of Ashwell during the Great Plague known as the Black Death and an early inscribed drawing of the Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.

On the wall of the church tower graffiti was inscribed, which reads: "MCT Expente miseranda ferox, violenta Superest plebs pessima testis, MCCCL" A translation of the above is:

"1350 Miserable, wild, distracted 1350 The dregs of the mob alone survive to witness" This refers to the bubonic plague epidemic during the reign of Edward III when it is known Ashwell suffered greatly at this time.

[6] A later graffito dated 1361 reads: "In finque ventus validus oc anne maurus orbe tonat MCCCLXI" Which translates as: "And in the end a tempest full and mighty This year 1361 thunders mightily in the world" This last line probably refers to the famous storm of St Maur's Day on 15 January 1361 which may have cleared the air of any remaining traces of the Black Death.

On the pillar near the south door there is a comment from a frustrated mediaeval architect: "Cornua non sunt arto compugente-sputo" – meaning "The corners are not pointed correctly – I spit".

His greatest work was 'The Passing of Venus' from a design by Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artist Edward Burne-Jones and which includes 18 life-size figures; it is now in Lansing Community College in Michigan.