St Andrew’s, Toddington

21 January 2004

 

Although we regularly walk past the local parish church, St Andrew’s, we have only rarely been inside.  We decide to put that right today.  First, from the churchyard, a view of the manor – on a gray day!

 

 

 

Toddington Manor, completed in 1840, was built by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, the 1st Lord Sudeley, to his own design – he was a keen amateur architect and later chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee which chose the present Palace of Westminster

 

 

 

The late 19th Century church was constructed by the third Lord Sudeley, and is out of all proportion to Toddington’s modest requirements and its expense led to the financial downfall of the Sudeleys

 

 

 

 

Its plan is cruciform, giving two side chapels, one of which is dominated by the memorial tomb of the first Lord Sudeley and his wife, Henrietta, which, indeed, it was designed to accommodate

 

 

 

 

The marble effigies of the noble pair

 

 

An unnamed memorial bust salvaged from the original church on the site, St Leonard’s

 

 

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