St Mary Magdalene

The earliest architectural remains is the reset Norman door but inside it is basically late medieval, restored and improved by Lord Alwyne Compton who employed Street but who effectively controlled the work. There are two notable early 17th century features that withstood his taste. The sumptuous pulpit and the screen that was moved to the south chapel.

The Compton monuments commence with that to the 1st Marquis and Marchioness of Northampton. It stands at the east end of the north aisle acting as a type of reredos and allied to the stained glass window above.
Close by is a memorial to the wife of the 2nd Marquis who had died in 1830. Margaret Douglas-Maclean-Clephane is immortalised rising in a shell in the upper section. The sculptured elements of the tomb were made in Rome by Pietro Tenerani (1789-1870) who was the principle Italian sculptor following the death of Canova.

Again nearby is another monument by an Italian. This is to Lady Margaret Compton, wife of the Honorable Edward Leveson Gower by Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805-1867). In this monument Lady Margaret, daughter of the 2nd Marquis, is represented as a young girl with plaited hair and roses, somewhat odd perhaps for a woman who was nearly 40. Above an angel in relief is gently lifting her drapery.

We at last come to the largest monument in the church which you can’t fail to have noticed at the west end. Again by Tenerani this is to Spencer, 2nd Marquis, who outlived his wife by some 20 years. It was sculpted in Rome and shipped to England in 1856. The over life size Angel of the Resurrection, carrying his trump (for the last) and his book of the saved, dominates the inscribed plinth.

You may also notice two earlier memorials, pre Compton. An effigy in Purbeck marble of a Knight thought to be Sir David de Esseby, early 13th century and a very elaborate brass to the Rector, William Ermyn, who died in 1401. It’s particularly important as it shows an elaborate alb with saints under niches, a rare sighting of opus anglicorum.