St. Peter's Church in Edensor

A general view of the south elevation of St. Peter's church in Edensor

Edensor made a great impression upon me when I first saw it more than 30 years ago and, having had another good look around this wonderful village, I would certainly add it to a short list of places that I would show to friends who visit me in Treeton – who like architecture - which includes the City of Lincoln, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and  Wentworth. 

A general view of the north elevation of St. Peter's church in Edensor

Set on rising ground at the centre of the village, I have to agree with the comments by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner when he said that the spire of St. Peter’s church – rebuilt in an Early English Gothic style by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1867 - “spoils the scale of the village”. 

A view of St. Peter's church from Edensor Lane

Walking quickly around its exterior, I found it a bit bland like the new Holy Trinity church in Wentworth, which was built by another Gothic Revival architect – John Loughbrough Pearson – whose work on Westminster Abbey was highly criticised at the time. 

Architectural details at St. Peter's church in Edensor

The Ashover Grit masonry is very uniform throughout and, except for a few ornate dentils along the south elevation, the only examples of elaborate stone carving that I could see were the statues that – very strangely - are placed in canopied niches at the base of the steeple, where their details can’t be seen from ground level without the benefit of a zoom lens.

A former Saxon preaching cross

In the churchyard, there is a base of a Saxon preaching cross, upon which stands a sundial, but I was most interested to see the Cavendish burial ground, which contains the graves of various Dukes and other family members from the 19th century onwards. 

The Cavendish burial ground

These include Kathleen Cavendish, sister of the American president John F. Kennedy and Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire – one of the Mitford sisters – who was largely responsible for transforming Chatsworth House into the popular tourist attraction that it is today. 

Cavendish family headstones made from crinoidal limestone

Quite surprisingly, all of the graves here are marked by relatively simple headstones made out of local Carboniferous limestone, packed full of crinoid debris, which is most commonly seen as a polished decorative stone.

The tomb of Sir Joseph Paxton and his family

By far the largest memorial in the churchyard is that of Sir Joseph Paxton and his family – a chest tomb constructed from Carboniferous sandstone, with crinoidal limestone reserved for the panels on which the inscriptions have been cut. 

Architectural details in the porch

Entering the porch, which is considered to be of C15 date, the walls contain a re-set foliated cross grave cover, a carved shaft and a capital and there is a heavily restored C12 arch to the south door of the church, with chevron decoration and crude head stops.

The Norman arch to the south door