Sudeley Castle, Church Of St Mary
Winchcombe
Gloucestershire
Circa 1460 for Ralph Boteler, late C15 or early C16 north aisle, restored 1859-'63 by Sir G.G. Scott for J.C. Dent.
Architectural Features
2-light louvred window, string course, corner gargoyles, crenellated parapet with corner finials, iron weathervane.
Above, five 3-light Perpendicular windows, hoodmoulds with carved-head stops, string course, grotesques on buttresses
Above, 5-light Perpendicular window, hoodmould and carved-head stops
Chancel screen 4 bays each side central opening, cusped ogee heads, heavily carved.
Carved marble reredos with part marquetry finish.
Openwork octagonal wooden pulpit, Decorated tracery, 2 brass candle holders, since electrified.
Octagonal marble font, carved sides to bowl, clustered pillar stem.
Choir stalls returned against screen, carved misericords, brass-book rest to front seats.
Stained glass by Preedy.
Stained glass window on St Mary's church in the grounds of Sudeley Castle. The glass is by Frederick Preedy, depicting Edward the Confessor, Earl Harold de Sudeley who held Sudeley manor at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, and Ralph Boteler who built much of Sudeley Castle. Ralph Boteler supported the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses and lost the castle when the Yorkist Edward IV took the throne.
Exterior essentially C15/C16
The church is the last resting place of Queen Katherine Parr (†1548) whose grave was rediscovered in 1782 in the ruins of the chapel. Her body had been wrapped in cloth, and encased in body-fitting lead that when opened, still had her hair, teeth and nails, and the flesh still soft and moist. She was then reburied in a somewhat careless manner, the body then decayed, and after the intervention of the Rector of Sudeley in 1817, was finally laid to rest within the church. A fitting memorial was commissioned in 1859 when the interior was completely restored by George Gilbert Scott c.1859-63.