As we will discover the settlement owes its existence to the establishment of a preceptory here by the Knight’s Hospitalers. The Hospitalers were a Roman Catholic order, their full title being The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. They arose in the early 12th century, during the time of the Benedictine Reform movement known as the Cluniac movement. Early in the 11th century, merchants from Amalfi, near Naples, founded a hospital in Jerusalem, dedicated to John the Baptist, to provide care for sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, a group of Crusaders formed this religious order to support the hospital.

Just a few decades later the village and land of Quenington was granted to the hospitallers by Agnes De Lacy, a member of that distinguished Anglo/Norman family we come across so often in this area.

The church in Quenington boasts some remarkable Norman doors. Firstly the fact that there are two, both North and South, is exceptional, but their extraordinary story-telling carvings make them unique, at least in the limited experience of your Cotswold Explorer.

The North door is covered in Chevrons, Roll moulding, limpet shells, green men and flowers, all traditional features of Norman doorways but rarely if ever in such profusion in one place, and the central Tympanum is carved to portray the story from the gospel of Nicodemus which tells of the Harrowing of Hell. It shows Christ piercing the bound figure of Satan with a cross, whilst three souls rise from the head of a serpent, symbolising the jaws of Hell. The image of the sun with a face in it is also unusual, although I am told something similar can be found in Peterborough Cathedral.