LOCAL HISTORY GROUP VISIT TO KINGS SUTTON – June 27th 2024
Thanks to Jackie Bird’s godson, the Rev Matthew Robinson, being the incumbent at the church of St Peter & St Paul in Kings Sutton, 10 members of the Local History group were treated to a wonderful tour of that delightful church. Matthew has been at the church for about 4½ years and is very knowledgeable about the history of the church and the village. There has been a church on the site since the 7th Century, when Saint Rumbold was born in the village, but the oldest part of the building we see today dates from the 12th Century, with the side chapels being a couple of centuries newer. Much of the church interior dates from Victorian times – designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott – including the rood screen, but during fairly recent renovations some very old wall paintings in the Lady Chapel (including some verses written in Old English) have been found. The spire is the second tallest in Northamptonshire (after Oundle) at 198 feet.
Matthew also explained that many of the stained glass windows tell bible stories for the benefit of illiterate parishioners who understood images if not words! One of the side chapels is named after St Thomas Becket, who is reputed to have visited Kings Sutton and prayed in the church en route to Northampton and his disastrous meeting with King Henry II. Above the West Porch is a headless statue of the Virgin Mary, understood to have been decapitated by Cromwell’s Parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War. So much history.
Following the church visit, most if not all of us decamped to the White Horse pub for lunch – so conveniently placed directly opposite the church across the green!
