St. Andrew, Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire
Description
The church of St. Andrew is an edifice of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, consisting of chancel with north and south chapels, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch, and a western tower surmounted by an octagonal broach spire relieved with three tiers of dormers on the cardinal faces and containing a clock and 5 bells, dated respectively 1571, 1634, 1666, 1702 and 1713 and all having inscriptions: the oldest portion of the edifice are the Transition Norman piers of the arcades: the window tracery generally, the oak roofs, the screens which divide the chapels from the aisles and the exterior embattled parapets are Perpendicular: in the south chapel is a plain double piscina, and on that side of the chancel arch is the staircase of the roodloft; on the opposite side of the arch and facing the nave is an interesting canopied shrine: in the south porch and near the north door are mutilated holy water stoups: the corbels of both the exterior and the interior and the bosses on the roof of the south aisle exhibit numerous grotesque carvings: the north aisle bosses are said to have been destroyed by the Roundheads, and the south door bears the marks of Cromwellian bullets: on the walls of the chancel are suspended various pieces of funeral armour, and banners and escutcheons bearing the arms of the Montagu family, dukes and earls of Manchester: in the south chapel is a fine mural monument of black and white marble, beneath which is a tablet tomb with a large cushion or pillow; the tablet is inscribed to Sir Henry Montagu kt. 1st Earl of Manchester (1626), sometime M.P. for Northamptonshire, recorder of London (1602), king's serjeant-at-law (1611), chief justice of England (1616), and lord high treasurer (1620), when he was created Baron Montagu of Kimbolton and Viscount Mandeville; he was the author of a work entitled "Manchester Al Mondo," consisting of meditations on life and death, and died 7th November, 1642: on each side are other marble monuments to Anne, daughter of Robert (Rich), Earl of Warwick and second wife of Edward, 2nd Earl of Manchester, a distinguished commander in the Parliamentary army, dated 1641, and to Essex, daughter of Sir Thomas Cheeke kt. and third wife of the same earl, dated 1658: in the opposite chapel is an ancient mural tablet to George Montagu M.P. for Northampton (1744-47), and near it is a stained window with the arms and motto of the Montagu family, dated 1857; beneath this chapel is the family vault: the stained east window was placed in Sept. 1887, and the tracery restored by subscription: in the chancel, on the south side, is a mural monument of white marble, inscribed:- " In loving memory of Consuelo Duchess of Manchester" (St. Marceaux, 1912): in the south aisle is a memorial window, erected by the parishioners in 1868 to the Rev. Thomas Ainsworth, a former vicar, one to the late Dr. Hemming, and some windows containing fragments of ancient stained glass: in the south chapel is a stained window, erected in 1890, in memory of William Drogo, 7th Duke of Manchester K.P. d. 1800; another in the Montagu chapel, placed in Jan. 1902, by Consuela, Duchess of Manchester, to her twin daughters the Ladies Jaqueline Mary, d. 15 March, 1895, and Alice Eleanor Montagu: the church was restored in 1881-2, at a cost of more than £900, and was reopened 27th October, 1882, by the Bishop of Ely: in 1903 the spire was restored: there are 500 sittings.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1647.