Externally a particularly handsome medieval church with full square tower with fine double bell openings – all dating from circa 1300. The interior therefore comes as a surprise being largely 18th century – white walls relieved by a painted acanthus scroll frieze aping plasterwork, box pews, triple-decker pulpit and a raised family pew replete with fossilised marble fireplace.
All this reflects the building of the new Cottesbrooke Hall (for opening times of the hall visit www.cottesbrooke.co.uk) by Smith of Warwick in the early 18th century. There are two great 17th century memorials here, both up and beyond the family pew. The earliest is to John Rede (d.1604) a splendid Jacobean alabaster work representing the apogee of the workshops of Burton on Trent and Nottingham, a recumbent effigy in an architectural niche highly decorated and originally painted. Beneath is a splendid line up of kneeling figures, John Rede and his wife and their eight daughters.
In the centre of this chapel lies an even larger tomb chest to Sir John Langham (d. 1671) and his wife who had bought the Cottesbrooke estate from the Redes in 1637. This splendid baroque affair in white engraved marble is by Thomas Cartwright who received £290 for his pains in 1676. Cartwright was one of the major London sculptors of the period and “did well” out of the fire of London. He supplied work for Wren’s churches, the statues of Justice and Mercy Truth and Liberty for Newgate and enriched many of the city’s Guildhalls including those of the The Draper’s Company, The Weavers, The Haberdashers, The Tallow Chandlers, and The Mercers. Not surprisingly he was Warden of the Mason’s company in 1671 and Master twice in 1673 and 1694.
What brought him to Northamptonshire? His patron. Sir John was a very important Turkey merchant and highly involved in the East India Company. Whilst in the country he resided here. Most of the time he lived in London in a splendid house in Bishopsgate which incorporated the remains of Crosby Hall which had formerly been home to Richard III, when Duke of Gloucester, Sir Thomas More, and the fledgling East India Company in the 1630s. What remained of the house was moved brick by brick to Chelsea in the 20th century and it stands today in restored form on Cheyne Walk.
The remaining monuments in the church, largely in the nave, to later members of the Langham family are largely by John Bacon junior, they include the unusual urn on a pedestal in Coade stone.
Please refer to the Glossary for any terms in the text that you are unfamiliar with.
