St Peter and St Paul and St Elizabeth Catholic Church is a Catholic church built between 1851 and 1853 by the Throckmorton family in the grounds of their family home, Coughton Court. [1] The church was commissioned by Sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, in the years after the Catholic Emancipation Acts which would re-allow the profession of the Catholic faith officially for the first time since the Tudor period. [1] The church currently holds Grade II listed status. [2]
The Throckmorton family had remained Catholic even after the formation of the Church of England and the break from Rome in the 1530s starting with the Act of Supremacy in 1534. The family had remained recusant Catholics, celebrating Mass in the saloon of Coughton Court, which acted as a chapel. [3] Evidence of this recusancy are still evident in the house today. A double priest hole is present in the tower of the house, elucidating the role the house played in the celebration of the Catholic faith in this period. [4] After the move towards Catholic emancipation, Sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, commissioned the building of a new church on the grounds, after the original church on the estate had been re-dedicated to the Anglican faith. This was done to celebrate the new found freedoms for Catholics in Britain which included the ability to build non-Anglican places of worship in Britain. [1]
The church was commissioned by Sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, in the 1850s. This followed the movement towards Catholic emancipation in Britain after the ending of discriminatory rules and laws against Catholics. The house was built with an accompanying presbytery. [2] The Catholic architect Charles Hansom was chosen to design the church. He was the brother of J A Hansom, designer of the Hansom cabs. [1] Hansom designed the church with a notably thin tower, which is based upon Irish church architecture. [5] The original plans for the church are held with the Throckmorton papers in the Warwickshire Record Office. [6] Stone for the church was quarried from the Throckmorton's estates. The church was only formally opened in 1857 to be used by the family and other Catholics within the area. [6]
The northeast chapel also serves as the family pew, with a separate entrance. The carved stone pulpit and font date from the mid-1850s. The east window stained glass is by John Hardman between 1855 and 1862. The organ in the west gallery was built by Henry Bevington of London in around 1855. [6]
The Coughton Court estate was transferred to the care of the National Trust in 1946. The church is currently cared for in conjunction with the National Trust and the Catholic Historic Churches Trust, but is still recognised as being privately owned. [5] The church hosts Masses, and is served by Our Lady and St Joseph Parish, Alcester. [2] The church is recognised as being at risk by Historic England, with a number of issues which currently need addressing. The owners of the church have however expressed a desire to address these issues. [7]
The church contains the Stations of the Cross, as well as a number of statues including ones which depict the Virgin Mary. A set of images adorns the ceiling above the altar. The sanctuary of the church was remodelled during the 1960s to fit the new liturgy of the Mass introduced following the Second Vatican Council. [6] This included the reordering of the sanctuary and the moving of the altar to allow the priest to face the congregation.
Robert Catesby was the leader of a group of English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Francis Tresham, eldest son of Thomas Tresham and Muriel Throckmorton, was a member of the group of English provincial Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England.
Sir Thomas Tresham was a prominent recusant Catholic landowner in Elizabethan Northamptonshire. He died two years after the accession of James VI and I.
Mount St Mary's College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school situated at Spinkhill, Derbyshire, England. It was founded in 1842 by the Society of Jesus, and has buildings designed by notable architects such as Joseph Hansom, Henry Clutter and Adrian Gilbert Scott. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Catholic Independent Schools Conference.
Coughton Court is an English Tudor country house, situated on the main road between Studley and Alcester in Warwickshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
There have been two baronetcies created for different branches of the Throckmorton family, 6th cousins, both descended from Sir John Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England temp. King Henry VI (1422–1461). Both titles, which were in the Baronetage of England, are now extinct. The Throckmortons, originally of Throckmorton near Pershore, Worcestershire, trace their history back to the 12th century. In 1409 Sir John de Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England, married Eleanor Spinney, daughter and heiress of Guy Spinney of Coughton, Warwickshire, where the senior branch of the family, which bore the junior baronetcy, became established. The Coughton estate included in 1968 a dower house named "Spiney House, Coughton", named after that family. The senior Throckmorton Baronetcy, of Tortworth in the County of Gloucester, was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for William Throckmorton, of Coss Court, Tortworth, Gloucestershire, sixth in descent from John Throckmorton, younger son of Sir John Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England. The third Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire and Wotton Basset. The title became extinct on the death of the fourth Baronet in a duel in 1682.
Elizabeth Clare McLaren-Throckmorton, known professionally as Clare Tritton, QC, was a British barrister and descendant of the Throckmorton baronets. She was the tenant of the Throckmorton family's main residence, Coughton Court near Alcester in Warwickshire, England, now owned by the National Trust. She was also the owner of the Molland Estate in North Devon.
Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, England, was a Member of Parliament during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Harvington Hall is a moated medieval and Elizabethan manor house in the hamlet of Harvington in the civil parish of Chaddesley Corbett, southeast of Kidderminster in the English county of Worcestershire.
Sir Robert Throckmorton, KG, of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, was a Member of Parliament and a distinguished English courtier. His public career was impeded by remaining a Roman Catholic.
Sir Robert George Throckmorton, 8th Baronet was an English Whig and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1831 to 1835.
Sir Robert Throckmorton, 1st Baronet (1599–1650) was created a baronet, of Coughton, co. Warwick, on 1 September 1642.
Sir Francis Throckmorton, 2nd Baronet (1641–1680), of Coughton Court, Warwickshire and Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire, was a member of a prominent English family of Roman Catholic dissenters.
John Giffard (1534–1613) was a Staffordshire landowner and Member of the English Parliament, notable as a leader of Roman Catholic Recusancy in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
Thomas Throckmorton was an English politician, a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Warwickshire in 1558 and Warwick in 1559. He spent much of his life undergoing fines and long periods of imprisonment for recusancy. He resided primarily at Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire.
Anne Throckmorton or name in religion Anne Frances was an English poet who was prioress of the Convent of Our Blessed Lady of Syon in Paris from 1720 to 1728.
Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Baronet, was a member of a prominent English family of Roman Catholic dissenters.
Sir John Courtenay Throckmorton, 5th Baronet, was a member of a prominent English family of Roman Catholic dissenters and "its only published author of any significance."
Sir Charles Throckmorton, 7th Baronet, was a member of a prominent English family of Roman Catholic dissenters.
Sir Robert Throckmorton, 3rd Baronet, was a member of a prominent English family of Roman Catholic dissenters.
