The Church of St Mary the Virgin,
Bottesford, stands by a ford over the River Devon, on the
eastern side of Rectory Lane, opposite Devon Lane. The building
is one of the largest village churches in England, built mainly
of limestone with some ironstone in the chancel. That chancel
contains a late medieval vestry on the north side, while the rest
of the church consists of north and south transepts, a nave with
north and south aisles, a south porch and a west tower and spire.
The earliest part of the church is the lower part
of the chancel, dating from the Norman period. Construction on the
rest of the building took a further three hundred years. The nave is
a mix of late Decorated and Perpendicular. The north and south aisles
were added around 1350, with a clerestory of eleven three-light windows
being added in the fifteenth century. The dominating tower and spire
were added around 1420, reaching a height of sixty-four metres (210 feet).
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