Kingston on Soar
St Winifred

Monuments and Memorials

Click the numbers in the key plan for details of the items.

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Key to Monuments
Details of the
Babington Monument

1The Babington Monument

On the south side of the chancel is the Babington Monument, erected by Sir Anthony Babington and completed by his son John in the 1530s as a burial vault for his family, although as far as is known no one was ever interred within the monument. The monument is adorned with shields bearing coats of arms of the Babbingtons and their connected families, carried by angels on the north face.

The whole upper stonework carries effigies of babes, each holding a barrel; these represent the Babbingtons, a pun on the Babington family name (a “tun” is a one hundred gallon barrel).

To the east end of the monument is a carved panel, interpreted as the “Last Judgement” showing our Saviour sitting upon a rainbow surrounded by angels above sounding trumpets, with the dead rising from their graves beneath, the blessed on his right hand ascending the staircase to heaven and the sinners on his left falling into the depths of hell.

At the west end of the monument, secured to the upper and lower wall sections are two large stone plaques, which formed an upper tablet. It is believed they were originally one and should be topping the monument arch, but being too heavy it was split down the centre and both parts secured in their present position. Most of the stonework shows much erosion. From the detail of the carved decorations it seems that the carvers must have had a sense of humour during their commission!

Throsby noted in the 1790s that:

this part of the church and chancel indicates old age, and has now become a dwelling for birds. They sit near the altar, and sing, and scatter their dung so plentifully, that I could scarcely find a place on the communion table to lay my book. The floor in some places is intolerable.

The anonymous author of the ‘Beauties of England,’ described it in 1812, as:

A canopy formed on a semi-circular arch supported by grotesque pillars, and adorned with upwards of 200 heads of a babe in a tun, the common monumental pun on the family name, and which the architect has thought sufficient to designate the owner, without any description.

He went on to complain bitterly of the vandal church-wardens, who had daubed it so completely with yellow ochre, as to have filled up most of the ramifications in the highly embossed foliage of vine leaves, which once adorned it in rich alto relief.

The church was visited in 1819 by William Stretton, when the chancel was in a ruinous state. He was appalled by the dilapidations, but impressed by the ‘singularly beautiful and curious monument’, with its picture of the Judgment. He noted that:

in the Chapel of Saint Genevieve in the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, in Paris, is a similar carving in a tablet of stone which was executed at the beginning of the 16th century.

Wall Monuments

2Algernon Henry Strutt

Beside the Babington Monument, and not far from the window which is also a memorial of him, is a plaque dedicated to Algernon Henry Strutt, 3rd Baron Belper. It reads:

ALGERNON HENRY STRUTT
3RD BARON BELPER
BENEFACTOR OF THIS CHURCH
AND
BELOVED SQUIRE OF THIS PARISH
BORN MAY 6TH 1883
BURIED AT SEA MARCH 20TH 1956.

3William Strutt

On the south wall of the chantry area, between the two windows, is a metal plaque inscribed:

THE NAVE AISLE AND TOWER OF
THIS CHVRCH WERE ERECTED
AND THE CHANCEL AND CHAN-
CEL AISLE RESTORED A.D.1900
BY
HENRY LORD BELPER
IN MEMORY OF HIS SON
WILLIAM STRVTT
BORN FEB 8TH 1875. DIED OCT 5TH 1898

The surface of the plaque is now very dark and the inscription somewhat difficult to read in some lights.

4William Tebbutt and Family

On the south wall of the base of the tower (now in effect the bell-ringing room) are two plaques, both of a fairly simple style in white marble on black marble mounts. The uppermost one is inscribed:

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM TEBBUTT
WHO DIED JAN XXX MDCCCXXXVII
AGED LVI YEARS

AND OF SARAH HIS WIDOW
WHO DIED MARCH V MDCCCLXII
AGED LXXXII YEARS

ALSO OF WILLIAM PHILPOT
SON OF
WILLIAM AND SARAH TEBBUTT
WHO DIED JULY XIII MDCCCXLI
IN THE XXXII YEAR OF HIS AGE

5Thomas Barton

Directly below the Tebbutt memorial is a not dissimilar one reading:

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
THE REV THOMAS BARTON
INCUMBENT OF THIS PARISH
TWENTY ONE YEARS.
HE WAS A FAITHFUL AND VALUED
MINISTER
AND DIED IN HUMBLE DEPENDANCE ON HIS
SAVIOUR,
MARCH 14TH 1848.

"BE YE ALSO READY
FOR IN AN HOUR WHEN YE THINK
NOT THE SON OF MAN COMETH."

HE WAS INTERRED AT ST ANNES SUTTON
BONNINGTON OF WHICH PARISH HE WAS RECTOR

The scriptural quotation is taken from Matthew 24.44.

Mr Barton moved from Kingston to Sutton Bonington in 1845, so it seems he did not have long to enjoy his new status as Rector.

6John Stokes and Family

Opposite the Tebbutt and Barton monuments is a rather more elaborate one to several members of the Stokes family. It reads as follows:

IN
AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE
OF
JOHN STOKES
OF
KINGSTONE
WHO DIED
MAY THE 10TH 1809, AGED 60.

OF ANN, HIS WIFE,
WHO DIED JULY 1ST 1811, AGED 64.

AND OF THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS,

MARY,
DIED SEPTEMBER 19TH 1823, AGED 50.

ANN, WIFE OF RICHARD WALKER OF BRADMORE,
DIED JULY 19TH 1829, AGED 52.

HANNAH, DIED JANY 26TH 1837, AGED 55.

JOHN STOKES,
OF LAUGHTON, DIED JUNE 30TH 1860, AGED 86.

CHARLOTTE SOPHIA,
WIDOW OF THOMAS KEMPSON OF RUDDINGTON,
DIED APRIL 9TH 1865, AGED 86.

CHARLES STOKES, OF KINGSTONE,
DIED JUNE 16TH 1866, AGED 80.

ANN, WIFE OF THE ABOVE DIED AUGUST 12TH 1840 AGED 50.

THOMAS STOKES ESQ, OF NEW PARKS LEICESTER,
BORN FEBY 6TH 1784, DIED 12TH OCTR 1867.

MARY JOYCE, WIFE OF THE ABOVE,
DIED FEBY 6TH 1823, AGED 23 YEARS.

MARY ANN, WIDOW OF CHARLES STOKES DIED JUNE 4TH 1878.

7Richard Henry Woodfield

On the north wall of the nave is a plain rectangular plaque in coloured marble inscribed:

IN MEORY OF
RICHARD HENRY
WOODFIELD
1888 - 1971
CHURCH WARDEN
OF THIS PARISH 1915 - 1967.

8Edward Strutt

On the north wall of the chancel, above the door to the vestry, is a rectangular plaque with coat of arms and a decorative border. It reads:

EDWARD STRVTT
FIRST BARON BELPER
BORN OCT 26 1801
DIED JVNE 30 1880
KEEP INNOCENCY AND
TAKE HEED VNTO THE
THING THAT IS RIGHT
FOR THAT SHALL BRING
A MAN PEACE AT THE

LAST.    PSALM 37 VERSE 38

AND EMILY HIS WIFE
BORN OCT 4 1817
DEID DEC 12 1890

9Winifred Alice Lacey

On the north wall of the chancel, bewteen the vestry door and the sedilia, is a highly polished brass plaque reading:

ALTERATIONS WERE MADE TO THE
SANCTUARY IN 1981
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
WINIFRED ALICE LACY
NÉE BEEBY
1882 - 1979
AND OF HER HUSBAND
GEORGE ERIC WARNER LACEY

MBE. MB. BS.

1886-1968