The little Church of Beaudesert, probably built by De Montfort, and originally the Castle Church, lies at the foot of the earthworks. Although the church has been considerably restored it still contains much Norman work; particularly is this noticeable in the eastern window, which is ornamented with zigzag, star and indented mouldings. The chancel arch is also a fine specimen of Norman work, recessed and ornamented with wave and tooth mouldings. The tower dates only from the fifteenth century, but the walls and nave of the chancel are Norman, with some fourteenth–century windows inserted. There is an interesting holy water stoup on the east side of the south door, of about the same period as the doorway itself; and in the north wall are two small splayed Norman windows, the wall itself being of the thickness of five feet. In the whole of Warwickshire there is scarcely more beautiful scenery to be found than in the immediate neighbourhood of Henley–in–Arden. Here are still some few scattered remnants left of the great forest which once covered the district so thickly, but which was gradually cut down to meet the necessities of the iron furnaces of Aston, Birmingham, and other places. Indeed, the destruction of the Forest of Arden may be considered as having been brought about almost entirely by the means we have indicated. Here, too, may be found, often hidden away in by–lanes, picturesque survivals of the thatched and half–timbered cottages, which are, alas! now disappearing one by one to make room for modern erections, the ugliness of whose architecture is too often a blot on their surroundings. Only about a mile and a half from Stratford itself is Clopton House, once the manor–house of the Clopton family, whose name is so closely identified with Stratford, and to whom the manor was granted in the thirteenth century. Most of the present house was built in the latter part of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Henry VII.; but it has been much altered at various periods, chiefly when the south and eastern portions were reconstructed by Sir Edward Walker about 1665, in the reign of Charles II. The house has also been restored in recent times. There is a good Jacobean oak staircase, and in the bay–window of the dining–room are the shields of several of the Cloptons. In the attic story is a room used by the Roman Catholics as a chapel in the times succeeding the Reformation, when such worship was a penal offence. On the walls are still decipherable Scriptural texts in black letter. A licence was granted by Pope Sixtus IV. to John Clopton and his heirs at the end of the fourteenth century, to enable them to have Mass said in this private chapel, opposite which is the Priests’ Chamber.