The Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood, Donington.

The Church is mainly late Decorated and Perpendicular (1300-1400) in style, but traces of Norman
(1100) and Early English (1200)

masonry can be found in its walls. The Chancel walls, built of irregular rubble masonry, incorporate some of the oldest parts of the building. The oldest known part of the church is the east wall where two doorways, one each side of the Holy Table and now walled up, seem to indicate that a chapel for relics once existed. The large 15th century window above the altar was enriched with stained glass in 1884 and shows the Ascension of Christ. Below the window and behind the altar is a beautiful Victorian-Gothic reredos which shows the four Evangelists in a marble mosaic. On the north wall, near its eastern end, masonry in the form of steps, suggest that there was once a room above the relic room before the large east window was erected in the 15th century. The south wall has two stained glass windows and a fine memorial tablet to the Rev John Wilson (Vicar of Donington for 54 years, 1796-1850).

The Nave dates from the 14th and early 15th centuries. Its general appearance is lofty, some 30 to 40 feet to its apex, and has plain clerestory windows above &colonnade of seven arches each side. The fine chancel arch now clear and open originally had a rood screen and a gallery, still indicated by the stone bracket on which it rested. Hollow-curved-faced octagonal pillars support the arches on each side of the nave, five pillars on each side have capitals with battlement ornaments, while the two west ones have plain mouldings because of a previous gallery. The beautiful west window shows the ‘Resurrection of the Just’ and was glazed in 1884 in memory of Donington builder Enoch Millson.

The North Aisle has two stained_ glass windows, one of which is in memory of the men who fell in the Great War (1914-1918). The other is the Matthew Flinders Memorial Window, which along with photographs and memorabilia form the Flinders Corner, dedicated to Donington’s most famous son who was responsible for charting much of the Australian coastline.

The South Aisle contains the font, which is a fourteenth century masterpiece, octagonal in form, the sides ornamented with sunken panels divided by buttresses. The font bowl is a modern copy of the mediaeval one, which was damaged many years ago and now stands at the back of the church near to the west door. The south wall has two stained glass windows dedicated to two Donington Families, the Drinkalls and the Gleeds. The east window of this aisle, which contains eight subjects, is of exceptional quality both in the window itself and the tracery above.

The Furniture includes some interesting items. The pews are of stained deal and replaced the huge six feet high box pews that were removed in 1868. By the west door can be seen, what at first glance looks like an old sentry box, it is in fact a hude and was placed at the head of an open grave to shelter the Vicar from bad weather during a burial.

The Porch, which forms the lower part of the 14th century tower and spire (140 feet high), has a wide open arch which forms a handsome entrance leading in to the church. Above the doorway is a figure of Our Lord pointing to a wound in his side, and the floor is covered with plain and patterned tiles with an inscription around the outside in memory of members of the Gleed family. Just visible on the outside wall, to the right of the entrance, are the remains of two scratch dials. Near to the top of the inside of the tower hang the eight bells of Donington. The first mention of a bell was in 1529 and the oldest of the present bells was hung in 1743, and finally in 1953 two new trebles were added making a complete octave.