Radnor Mausoleum

Built under a faculty of January 1765 for a mausoleum 42ft long and 18ft wide 'to abut on the eastside of the present isle [i.e. north transept]'. Payments to William Privett, mason, and Edward Whatmore, carpenter, suggest it was built in 1765-6. There were further payments to these men in 1767-8 but this was probably for work on the other parts of the church. The mausoleum is visible in a pair of watercolours of 1805 by John Buckler and appears to have been as tall as the chancel and lit by small high-set lunette windows illuminating an upper storey in which possibly the monument to the 1st earl (d. 1776) by John Duvall the Younger had pride of place. It was entered from the north transept and there was clear separation between it and the chancel. It seems to have been dismantled in 1872. In 1811 an additional wall with eighteen loculi was inserted. In 1872-3 (plans 1869) a restoration of the church took place under G.E. Street which included total remodelling, separating it from the transept by a vestry/organ chamber and creating a new entrance down a flight of steps on the north side. It is much lower than its predecessor, buttressed and has a low-pitched roof of stone slabs with the joints covered by chamfered stone ribs. On the east face is a reset coat of arms with forty-four quarterings and the family motto Patria cara libertas carior ([one's] country [is] dear, liberty dearer).

Architect

1765-6: The Radnor papers show payments to William Privett, mason, and Edward Whatmore, carpenter. Either could have designed it. Whatmore is described as a surveyor in 1765.

Style

Listing

Year built

1765-6; remodelled 1872-3

History

William Bouverie of Longford Castle (1725-1776) was MP for Salisbury at various dates, and an important figure in Wiltshire and Berkshire affairs. He was created Baron Pleydell-Bouverie of Coleshill and Earl of Radnor in 1765: this elevation may have been the prompt to build the mausoleum, as may have been the death of his second wife, Rebecca, in 1764. He was married three times and widowed twice. The last interment in the mausoleum was of the 5th earl in 1900. Several loculi remain unoccupied.

Condition

Good, although there are some weeds growing in crevices in the east wall (2021).

Sources

J E Doyle, The Official Baronetage of England (1886), 3, 94-5.

Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, D/24/7/3 (1765 faculty); 1946/4/2A/10 (accounts etc relating to the original building of the vault; D1/61/23/10 and 499/10/A (Street's plans for remodelling).

Wiltshire Museum, Devizes, Collections/Art/Britford, B70 and B71 (J. Buckler prints, 1805).

(The account above is largely based on new (2021) research by Julian Orbach into the archive sources quoted).