St Peter Church Coughton Court Warwickshire.
The parish church dedicated to St. Peter and situated next to Coughton Court consists of a chancel, north and south chapels, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower, with walls of rubble and ashlar. The building of the present church is attributed to Sir Robert Thockmorton between 1486 and 1518 but parts of the tower are older and the plan of the nave follows the plan of an earlier structure; the church was included in the original endowment of Studley Priory at its foundation by Peter Corbucion in the 12th century. At the Dissolution the church passed to Sir George Throckmorton, the then steward of the priory. The nave contains the table tomb of Sir Robert Throckmorton, topped by a large slab of black marble, but his remains do not lie here and the tomb is occupied by a later Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Baronet who died in 1791. Sir Robert died on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1518 leaving in his will money for the depiction of Doom in stained glass in the East window, the Seven Sacraments in the North chapel and the Seven Acts of Mercy in the South chapel. Fragments of these appear to be scattered amongst the jumbled glass in some of the aisle windows.
The survey of the clergy by the puritans in 1586 described the then vicar, Thomas Penford as; ”dumbe & vnlearned, a verie aged man, he can scarce reade, yet he hath learning enough for 2 benefices; for he reapeth the fruite of Studley & Coughton both, he hath of late gotten him a certaine hireling to serue his turne at both places, one Robt. Cathell a seelie Welshman that can scarce reade English distinctlie. The valew of both is better then xx by the yeare”.
Intro Music:-
Cinematic (Sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
