Church of St Denys, Colmworth
Church of St Denys is a Grade I listed church in Colmworth, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964.[1]
The four stage west tower is topped by an octagonal spire with lucarnes and is supported by diagonal buttresses. There is a ring of six bells with the earliest two dated 1635. The steel frame was made in 1984.[2]
To the left of the altar is an alabaster and black marble monument to Sir William Dyer erected in 1641 by his wife, Catherine, Lady Dyer (d. 1654).[3] It has the following verse inscription:
- If a large hart, joined with a noble minde
- Shewing true worth unto all good inclin’d
- If faith in friendship, justice unto all,
- Leave such a memory as we may call
- Happy, thine is; then pious marble keepe
- His just fame waking, though his lov’d dust sleepe.
- And though death can devoure all that hath breath,
- And monuments them selves have had a death,
- Nature shan’t suffer this, to ruinate,
- Nor time demolish’t, nor an envious fate,
- Rais’d by a just hand, not vain glorious pride,
- Who’d be concealed, wer’t modesty to hide
- Such an affection did so long survive
- The object of ’t; yet lov’d it as alive.
- And this greate blessing to his name doth give
- To make it by his tombe, and issue live.
- My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day
- Afford thy drowsy patience leave to stay
- One hour longer, so that we might either
- Have sat up or gone to bed together?
- But since thy finished labour hath possessed
- Thy weary limbs with early rest,
- Enjoy it sweetly, and thy widow bride
- Shall soon repose her by thy slumbering side,
- Whose business now is only to prepare
- My nightly dress and call to prayer.
- Mine eyes wax heavy, and the day grows old,
- The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold,
- Draw, draw the closed curtains and make room,
- My dear, my dearest dust, I come, I come.
See also
References
- Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service: Colmworth Church Alterations and Additions
- Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service: Colmworth Church Architecture
- “My Dearest Dust”: Lady Katherine Dyer and Her Epitaph to Her Beloved Husband, Johann Wiserr
- ^ "Parish Church of St Denys, Colmworth". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
- ^ "Colmworth St Denys". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- ^ Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.
52°12′51″N 0°22′42″W / 52.2143°N 0.3784°W
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