On the shelf: Fettiplace family 1500s and 1600s patriarchs, wearing Tudor armour, lie propped stiffly on elbows in a unique tiered chancel monument in St Mary’s Parish Church in the Windrush Valley Cotswolds village of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, England, UK. The house built on the site of their mansion belonged to Lord and Lady Redesdale, who lie in the churchyard with four of their controversial daughters: Pamela, Nancy, Diana and Unity Mitford.
Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, England, UK: three 16th and early 17th century heads of the wealthy Fettiplace family lie in unique style up the north chancel wall of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, their stylised Renaissance effigies reclining stiffly in Tudor armour, propped on their right elbows, in a triple tier of shelves dating from 1613. The unique monument was commissioned by father of 18, Sir Edmund Fettiplace (1554-1613) for himself (top shelf), his father William (1530-1562) (centre) and his grandfather Alexander (c. 1505-1565) (bottom shelf). All three effigies were sculpted by a local mason. The Tudor and Stuart male Fettiplaces were joined in 1686 by later 17th century heads of the family, lying in a more elaborate Baroque tier of shelves against the north sanctuary wall. The Fettiplaces, lords of the manor of Swinbrook, were among the wealthiest and most powerful families in Oxfordshire. They once owned estates in 15 counties, but their mansion at Swinbrook, in the picturesque Windrush Valley, was demolished after the last member of the dynasty died in 1805. The aristocratic Mitford family later owned both the house built in 1926 to replace the Fettiplace mansion and also the Jacobean manor house at nearby Asthall, which was the childhood home of the controversial Mitford sisters. Four of them, Nancy, Unity, Diana and Pamela, are buried in St. Mary’s churchyard. The gravestones of Nancy, Unity and Diana stand to the west of the tower while Pamela and their parents, Lord and Lady Redesdale, lie elsewhere in the churchyard.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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