Once I Was A Clever Boy: The Cotswold wool churches

Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.

Saturday, 10 October 2026

The Cotswold wool churches

Country Life recently had an article by their Architectural Editor, John Goodall, about the later medieval churches of the Cotswolds, funded by the profits of the wool trade. Hence the term”Wool Churches@ for these wonderful buildings.

Northleach Church

One of the most famous wool churches

Image: Wikipedia

The article places the churches within the development of the sheep rearing, and shearing, of the region, and is well illustrated. Goodall makes the point that what we see today in these churches are buildings denuded of their stained glass, with the wondrous exception of Fairford with its twenty eight early sixteenth century windows, and the woodwork of screens, and indeed of most of their medieval colour.

It can be accessed at How sheep farming transformed the architectural face of the Cotswolds