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Staunton Harold chapel was begun in 1653 at the expense of the young royalist Sir Robert Shirley as a gesture of defiance during the Commonwealth. Shirley's defiance continued when Oliver Cromwell demanded that he provide an equivalent sum of money "to equip a ship". He refused and was incarcerated in the Tower of London, dying there in 1656 aged 27, the chapel still nine years from completion.

Though the sumptuous interior furnishings are in the style of the earlier 17th century, the building is a convincing representation of a mediaeval parish church built over perhaps a hundred years or more. The aisle and chancel windows have intersecting tracery, an early type of the Decorated period of Gothic; the tower including a west window and clerestory are in the later Perpendicular style, giving Staunton Harold a strong claim to be the first English Gothic revival building.

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