Warwickshire: The Land of ShakespeareHolland, Clive
History
Warwickshire: The Land of Shakespeare
Holland, Clive
Warwickshire (England) -- Description and travel
Beginning with those on the south side, next the tower, the first is
the Dyers’ Chapel, on the walls of which are some interesting monuments
dating from the early years of the seventeenth century onwards. Next
comes the Cappers’ Room, over the south porch, with the chapel devoted
to the same Guild, and known as St. Thomas’, on the east side. The
Mercers’ Chapel, near by, also contains some interesting monuments of
the sixteenth century, worthy of attention as marking, both in their
style and the inscriptions they bear, the florid spirit of the times.
From this chapel a flight of steps leads down into the vestry, an
extension of the ancient sacristy, which tradition asserts was used
sometimes as a prison; carved on the wall of which is a crucifix,
supposed to be the work of some prisoner confined for an ecclesiastical
offence.
The apse of the church, formerly the Lady Chapel, contains nothing of
any great note save the fragments of ancient stained glass collected
from various windows in other portions of the church, now placed in a
few of those of the apse.
The reredos is partly Early English, and partly Decorated in style,
and the eastern compartments contain some good sculpture. The Drapers’
Chapel, which is situated in the north aisle, is of considerable
artistic interest, as it contains thirteen stalls which have finely
carved standards and _misereres_ or folding seats, the under portions
of which are ornamented with humorous designs. On the north wall of the
chapel is an ancient brass, dating about 1506, to the memory of Thomas
Bond, Mayor of Coventry in 1497, and founder of the Bablake Hospital.
Next is St. Lawrence’s Chapel, followed by the Girdlers’ Chapel;
and last of all the Smiths’ or St. Andrew’s Chapel, containing some
interesting tombs removed from their original position in the Drapers’
Chapel.
The pulpit, though a fine one, is modern; but the font at the west end
of the chancel is in all probability the one given by John Cross, then
Mayor of Coventry, to the church in 1394; it bears on a small brass
plate a shield containing four crosses, the ancient merchants’ mark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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