St Mary and St Barlock's Church, Norbury

St Mary and St Barlock's Church at Norbury in Derbyshire is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England, celebrated for one of the rarest dedications in England, a chancel like a glass-walled lantern, and the finest set of family monuments in the county — the alabaster tombs of the Fitzherberts, lords of Norbury through four centuries.

The present church is the third on the site. The first was Anglo-Saxon; the second, a Late Norman church, was built about 1179 by John Fitzherbert, 3rd Lord of Norbury, and dedicated to St Barlacus. The saint still appears in the centre light of the south window, holding a pastoral staff in his left hand and a book in his right, above the words "Sactus Burlok Abbas"; a charter of 1491 gives the name as Saint Barlok. He has been identified with St Finbarr, the 7th-century Irish abbot and bishop who is patron saint of Cork — born in the second half of the 6th century and baptised Lochan, he was later called Fionn Barr, the Fair-Headed One, and his life was recorded in the manuscript Lives of Finn Barr. The Norbury dedication may stem from John Fitzherbert's three years as Governor of Waterford around 1174; the parish church of Fowey in Cornwall, built about 1170 by William Fitzturold, honours the same saint as St Fimbarrus, there recorded as Barrianus.

The present church grew piecemeal over some two hundred years, and its proportions are remarkable. The chancel is the earliest part and is unusually large for the building: 46 feet long, and both wider and higher than the nave, which at 49 feet is only slightly longer. The tracery of the chancel windows points to a building date of about 1300–1310, as does the contemporary armorial glass — two of the coats of arms belong to Otton de Grandson, who left England in 1307, and to Robert the Bruce, at war with England from 1306. The chancel roof is a later, 15th-century wooden construction; the external buttresses and the internal shafts running up to the roofline suggest the original design intended a fan vault that was never built. The later medieval fabric is the Fitzherberts' work throughout: Nicholas Fitzherbert (died 1473) built the south tower, nave and the chapel east of the tower; he or his son Ralph (died 1483) added the north aisle; and his grandson John Fitzherbert (died 1513) built the south-west chapel, finished in 1517. Much of the stained glass the family gave survives, mostly figures painted in grisaille, and a window in the south-east chapel shows the donor and his family.

The Fitzherbert memorials are the glory of the church. Sir Henry, 6th Lord of Norbury (c. 1275–c. 1315), is depicted as a cross-legged knight — the crossed legs professing his Christian faith rather than marking him as a Crusader, for it is known he never went on Crusade. Nicholas Fitzherbert, High Sheriff of Derbyshire and 11th Lord, who died in 1473, lies carved in alabaster with attendant mourners, in full plate armour with a collar of alternating suns and roses and a pendant of the White Lion of March, the badge of Edward IV; a small angel supports his right foot. Beside him lie Sir Ralph Fitzherbert (died 1483) and his wife, again in alabaster. Ralph's feet rest on a lion, and crouched beneath his shoe is the small bearded figure of a bedesman telling his rosary for the souls of the departed. Ralph wears the Yorkist livery collar of suns and roses with the White Boar of Richard III as its pendant — since fire destroyed the wooden effigy of Ralph Neville (died 1484) at Brancepeth, this is the only surviving representation of the boar pendant anywhere. So precise is the carving that the armour on Ralph's effigy has been reproduced as a fully functional suit of plate. A more poignant monument is the incised alabaster slab of a woman bound in a shroud, identified as Benedicta (died 1531), wife of John Fitzherbert, 13th Lord, surrounded by four coats of arms including that of her family, the Bradbournes. John separated from Benedicta early in their marriage and disinherited her in his will, denying paternity of her children in memorably bitter words: "Bennett my wyffe hath been of lewd and vile disposicion and cowde not be content with me but forsaken my houshoolde and company and lyffed in other places where yt pleased her."

The church's glass has its own tale of loss. The great east window of the chapel originally held 14th-century glass with a large scene of full-sized figures, but by 1770 it was in very poor condition. Rectors were then personally liable for the cost of church repairs, so the rector, the Rev. S. Mills, simply had the window bricked up with the glass left in place. In 1830 his successor, the Rev. Thomas Bingham, was approached by a Roman Catholic family from Yorkshire wanting to buy the glass; whether it was removed and sold, stolen — as happened at Haddon Hall — or had simply disintegrated is unknown, but by 1842, when the window was unblocked, the glass had vanished, and the opening was filled with 15th-century glass gathered from the church's other windows.

The Victorians treated the church twice. A restoration in 1841 replaced the closed pews with new open stalls, and the church reopened on 7 July 1842. A second restoration in 1899–1900, costing £3,800 — the equivalent of about £400,000 today — was carried out by Naylor and Sale, architects of Derby, with work by Edwin Haslam of Derby and W. Gould of Tutbury as main contractor; the Bishop of Southwell re-opened the church in February 1900.

The tower holds three bells: one of about 1500 by Richard Mellours, one of 1589 by Henry Oldfield, and a third of 1739 by John Halton. The pipe organ was built by Charles Lloyd in 1890, and its specification is recorded on the National Pipe Organ Register. Today the church is in a joint parish with St Peter's at Snelston, and its chancel of medieval glass, Yorkist alabaster knights and shrouded Benedicta make Norbury one of the most rewarding small churches in the Midlands.