Lady Chapel Altar

This alter also has its story to tell. When this church was new, altars were made of stone, recalling the stone altar on which sacrifices were offered in the temple at Jerusalem. For theological reasons, the reformers thought this inappropriate. They insisted that the altar should be a simple wooden table. Around 1550, therefore, stone altars were ejected and replaced with tables. The altar stone for this church, perhaps to emphasise the contempt in which it was held, was used as a doorstep.

At the time of the church's restoration in 1938 the stone was rediscovered, recognised for what it was, and brought back into the church. It was set on a simple brick plinth and now has an honoured place again as the Lady Chapel Altar.

The ledge beside the window would, in pre-Reformation times, have held a statue of Mary or one of the Saints. The face below it was defaced, perhaps at the Reformation. 

The face you see now (below) is to be ascribed to the Youth Group circa 1976.

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The Lady Chapel Altar