Church Of St Donat

St Donat's Church was originally a small 12th-century church with an apsed chancel. By the early 14th century the tower was added which was followed towards the late 14th century by the Lady Chapel, now known as the Stradling Chapel. The chancel was rebuilt in the 15th century and the nave in the following century. They also had strong associations with the Hancorne family. Thomas Hancorne, a Jacobite prominent in High Church circles, was rector of St Donat's from 1674 to 1707. The church was granted Grade I listed building status in 1963, on the grounds that it was "highly graded as an important early medieval church with the particularly fine Stradling Chapel and for its historic…

Originally built in the 12th century, St Donat's retains architectural features from all five of its different stages of growth. The chancel arch is evidence of its 12th-century construction, plain, round-headed with primitive caps. The double-headed, double-chamfered tower arch is believed to be early 14th century, while the north chancel chapel, with its square-headed three light eastern window, was added later that century. The chancel was reconstructed in the 15th century with many features from that period still in evidence: the piscina (altar basin) with cusped ogee hood, the nave with its north porch, the corbelled parapets to the nave with gargoyles and the corbelled tower…