Darnley Chest Tomb About 3 Metres North Of The Vestry Of The Church Of St Lawrence

TQ 56 43 BIDBOROUGH HIGH STREET (east side)

11/8 Darnley chest tomb about 3m north of the vestry of the Church of St Lawrence

GV II

Chest tomb. Circa 1803, by Sir Richard Westmacott (Pevsner, 2nd edn., 1976), restored in 1956 (Skinner). Portland stone.

An elegant sarcophagus raised on stone blocks, the chest with shallow diagonal reeding and a moulded lid. Scrolls decorate each end of the lid with, in the centre of each scroll, a finely carved life-size putto head with wings carved back over the chest and meeting tip to tip. Rectangular inscription panels on the long sides of the sarcophagus, roundels at each end. The main inscription commemorates Mary, Countess of Darnley, died 1803. The Dowager Countess of Darnley lived at Great Bounds (demolished) in Bidborough parish from 1790 until her death. She paid for a west gallery in the church "for the use of the children of the Sunday School", which survived until the addition of the south aisle in 1876.

A very high quality churchyard monument.

Newman, John. West Kent and the Weald. Buildings of England series (1976 edn.).

Skinner, F.A., Bidborough, a Parish History (1986 edn.).

Listing NGR: TQ5652043213