All Saints, Strelley

A pretty village on the edge of Nottingham, Strelley has ended up on the road to nowhere, courtesy of the M1 motorway, which slices through the countryside immediately to the west – you can hear the rumble of the traffic just over the hill. On the other side, to the east, the city’s suburbs extend to the edge of the village, though its huddle or redbrick cottages was saved from development by the local landowner, who stayed in possession of the Strelley estate until 1978.  The reason to visit is the church, a modest stone and brick affair from the outside, but inside the chancel holds two wonderful alabaster tombs. The earlier dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century with local landowner Sir Sampson and his wife hand–in–hand as they await the Resurrection, The second tomb is from the early sixteenth century, with two tiny mourners with rosaries carved at John de Strelley’s feet. The heads of both lords are supported by the head of a Saracen – a strangled Saracen to be exact, hence the rope around his neck.