You’re now in the main body of the church. The nave is named from the Latin word for a ship – navis – because it holds the congregation like passengers on a boat. In some smaller churches, the nave actually looks a little like an unturned boat. But here, the roof of the mediaeval building was lifted up in the mid-15th century to get more light into the nave, with a row of clerestory windows – literally a clear storey above the roofs of the aisles.

Putting a pitched roof on this taller nave would have been nearly impossible. And anyway, flat lead roofs were more fashionable, because they allowed you to show everyone that you were rich enough to afford expensive Derbyshire lead. Those huge beams that hold the roof up were cut from single trees, and when one of them had to be replaced in 1925, the workmen had to use the same type of ropes and pulleys that the medieval builders used. No room for a crane here!

At each end of the nave, can you see the faint line of the old steeply pitched roof high on the end walls? Imagine what this great timber roof would have looked like, and how dark it would have been inside.

Below the clerestory, each side of the nave is held up on a row of arches, called an arcade. These arcades lead into the aisles. Those on your left, the north arcade, are the older set - 13th century pointed arches, apart from the little Victorian arch squeezed in towards the far end that replaced a length of solid wall. See how the tops of the columns, the capitals, are heavy stone pads to take the weight of the arches. The furthest arch is just slightly older than the others. It may have led in to a transept – a side wing – before the north aisle was built.

The south arcade, to your right, is about 200 years later, but this may have replaced an older set of arches. Can you see how the columns are slimmer, with almost no capitals; and how the arches themselves are wider and flatter. In fact, the whole south aisle looks very different to its opposite across the nave. Let’s have a closer look at it.