Katharine Pleydell - Bouverie
This listing is a small tribute to a lady who was a member of the aristocracy in that her family owned the 17th century Coleshill House in between Highworth and Faringdon. She became a well-known potter and had a studio at Coleshill known as the 'Cole Pottery.' The business was forced to close at the outbreak of war in 1939 and she moved to Kilmington Manor, near Warminster, Wiltshire. Her glazes became well documented and today fetch high prices.
It includes a scan of a letter written by her in 1971 to the Rev. B. Thackeray, in which she offers her memories as to work that may have been carried out on the church by her ancestors. The letter is from the archive of local historian Graham Wright, late of Great Coxwell.
The letter is addressed to the vicarage in Great Coxwell, but the church referred to is certainly Coleshill church. Presumably by 1971 the two parishes shared a vicar; there are now (2024) four parishes in the ‘benefice’ which share a vicar.
When K P-B writes in her letter that (in the late eighteenth century) Jacob “filled the sanctuary with ancestors”, she is probably referring to stones not bones. The sanctuary of Coleshill church is crowded with effigies and memorials. References to the East window and gallery are also consistent with Coleshill church.
K P-B wrote a good letter and comes across as a very agreeable person, but her handwriting is a challenge, as she acknowledged herself.
A copy of the letter in PDF format can be found
HERE, and a transcription
HERE
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