Holy Cross
Daventry, Northamptonshire
If All Saints Northampton is the county’s response to Wren’s London city churches, Holy Cross Daventry is that to Gibbs St Martin in the Fields.
A large reredos now forms part of a huge west screen at the base of the tower. The church is populated by a fine array of monuments of the owners of Norton Hall including a huge complex tomb to Lady Elizabeth Knightley (d1602) matching that of her sisters in Westminster Abbey.
In the chancel Nicholas Bretton and his wife. She with unusually low cut dress. The monument to Mrs Botfield by the young William Behnes, 1825, is very strange with her over life size marble son mourning his loss. He was responsible for commissioning Thomas Willement to create the splendid set of armorial stained glass in the late 1840’s that adorns most of the windows reflecting the different ownerships of the Manor of Norton.