I only needed to go a few miles
down the road to come across this magnificent piece of Gothic inspiration.
St Peter ad Vincula is a towering piece of English Perpendicular architecture in the tiny village of Hampton Lucy.
Commissioned by the Lucy family,
it was built 1822 - 6 and a wonderful piece of Gothic inspiration.
For church enthusiasts, the nave
was designed by Henry Hutchinson and the tower by Thomas Rickman. The chancel,
porch and apsidal sanctuary were added in 1858 by Sir Gilbert Scott. The east
window is by Thomas Willement and depicts the life of St Peter.
Pevsner describes the church as
‘a very good example of early 19th-century church architecture, the richness of
which is due to the generosity of funding’.
A typically academic
understatement.
I was particularly taken by a
botanical link. The theme of the current book in progress, The Blackfern
Conspiracy, is all about mad plant collecting in the 19th century.
It
transpires that the son of the local blacksmith in Hampton Lucy was a plant
hunter, who worked for the famous Harry Veitch. His travels were mainly to
China and Japan, where he endured mixed fortunes. He was particularly good at
finding new trees, such as Daphne genkwa and Abies mariesii.
Curiously, there is a plethora
of the most wonderful floral imagery in the stained glass windows. Who was
behind this? More research required!
In the meantime, I’ll need to
find an excuse to go back, perhaps on a sunnier day, to capture some more of those
floral motifs in the stained glass.
But there’s another mystery,
too. Apparently, some of the stained glass from Coventry Cathedral was
dismantled before the Blitz and ended up in Iceland, where it became highly
prized. However, it transpires the glass was actually spirited away to Hampton
Lucy, and it’s only just been rediscovered.
This little tale of intrigue has
all my favourite ingredients, but there are still some loose ends ...
By Pamela Kelt
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