Originally the Parish Church at Ecclesfield, now St Mary's Church

The parish of Ecclesfield is next to the town of Loxley, where Sir Walter Scott "built his charming fabrication upon a foundation of truth." The names alone lend credence to legends and fuel to the imagination.

In the Domesday Book, the spelling as Eclesfelt, records go back to Saxon times. The Duke of Norfolk was lord of the manor, owner of the rectory and patron of the church. Ecclesfield was a wealthy parish, and the first chapel is believed (by Joseph Hunter) to have been built between 1154 and 1189 during the reign of Henry II Curtlmantle. An 1161 agreement mention the Monks of Ecclesfield. The priory and Ecclefield Hall are included in the church lands.

Before the windows were destroyed in the Reformation, Thomas Shiercliffe (died 1516) was depicted in the large stained glass window, south window of the south quire, kneeling with a horn, sword, long bow, girdle of arrows, along side a collared hound (where the greyhounds came from?) and an open book. In the north window, he appears with his two wives, seven sons and four daughters, all kneeling. In another window, he is represented with horn, falchion, arrows, hound, harts, beasts of game and fowl, again with his family. A lengthy poem and the name Schyrcliffe appears as well.

"Here lyeth Thomas Schyrdliffe In Halumshire Master of Game
Who in justice, truth, love and bounty had always the fame."

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