Berkeley Family Burial Chapel
The Burial Chapel is the property of the Berkeley family and is not open to the public. Built c.1450 by James, 11th Lord Berkeley (d.1463).
There is an elaborate ogee crocketed arch over the doorway with the Berkeley arms held by an angle.
Externally the parapet has carved enrichments of strawberry leaves and figures of angels holding shields. The buttresses are surmounted by pyramidal pinnacles, crocketed at the angles and terminated in finials. In 1905 the secretary of the BGAS was able to record: In front of one of these pinnacles is a large figure excellently carved with St. George and the Dragon. On another pinnacle is a figure presenting the Witch of Berkeley borne away on the back of the devil. (Canon J. E. Gethyn-Jones described this as a cowled monk riding the devil.)
Internally the vaulting bosses represent:
One of these ‘grotesques’ is described as: a fox with his paws on the pulpit, preaching to two geese, who are turning their heads away.
Another of the ‘grotesques’ appears to be a green-man.
The following accounts are taken from Jim Mowat’s book ‘From Gate to Gate’; Jim was the Foreman on The Berkeley Estate from the early 1950s until his retirement in February 1990.
Towards the end of the 1970's, I was in the workshop one day when Joyce, our Secretary, came in to tell me that she had received a telephone message from London to say that Lady Berkeley had died in Italy and was being brought home to Berkeley to be interned in the mausoleum and I was asked to organise the opening of the vault. I went to the mausoleum with Bill Mills and Ken Long and showed them which stones were to be lifted. That evening, at home, I suddenly realised that, in all the continental funerals I had seen on television, the coffins were always rectangular and not shaped as in England.
Next morning, I went to the Estate Office to see Joyce, as at the time Mr. Robertson was on holiday in Scotland. I told Joyce that I thought there could be a problem if I was right in my thinking about the different shaped coffins, so she rang London and I then spoke to the executor of Lady Berkeley's estate, who confirmed that the casket was indeed rectangular. I tried to explain that it would not go in the vault and he glibly told me to "plane a bit off the sides". (Now there's an old country saying that "If you want to find a fool in the country you have to bring him from the town first"). Well at this remark, I nearly blew my top, but I managed to keep under control and I just replaced the receiver. Joyce then said "we'll telephone Mr. Berkeley", who at the time was at Spetchley. When I explained everything to him, he said he would get the name and telephone number of the funeral director. This he did and I telephoned a Mr. Kenyon in London. I told him of our predicament and told him that things needed sorting out as it would be tragic if events didn't work out on the day of the funeral. He said he would meet me at the mausoleum that following Saturday to discuss the coffin.
We met on that day and as soon as he entered the mausoleum and saw the opened vault he said "Well, Jim, you are absolutely right and it's just as well you contacted me, the trouble is that city folk think that country people have got a bit of straw in their hair, but I find that they are far more level headed and down to earth on most things". Lady Berkeley was the last person to be interned in the mausoleum.
Jim had told me this story long before his book was published. The version that he told me had some extra; when the coffin was being taken to the mausoleum the party following were detained out of sight of the door while the coffin was manoeuvred through the doorway, and the funeral directors had been responsible for Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral.
See end section Berkeley Family Monuments for details of the monument.
It was in 1984, when Arthur Francis and I met at the Berkeley Mausoleum, to survey and talk through the method of restoration of the roof and tombs. Arthur and I had worked together on other jobs at the Castle and we worked very well together. The Mausoleum was built by James, 11th Lord Berkeley, in the mid-15th Century and is attached to the Parish Church of St. Mary's. The Mausoleum contains a perpendicular stone screen and stone lierne-vaulting with curved bosses to the ceiling and a lead covered timber roof.
Inside the Mausoleum are two fine monuments, one below the high level chancel window under a free stone canopy within the chancel wall with recumbent alabaster effigies of James 11th Lord Berkeley (died 1463) and his second son James, resting on an alabaster tomb chest. At the east end of the chapel is the second monument, also with alabaster effigies, one of Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley (died 1615) and his wife, with a free stone tomb chest under an alabaster canopy of Renaissance design. The lierne-vaulting showed displacement of the stone ribbing so severe that any direct propping may have caused it to collapse.
Ken Long and I made a platform at springing level of the ribbing on an "A" frame scaffold structure. On the platform we made up frames of 4" x 2" timber decked over with 3/4" chipboard and covered with polythene. We also covered the ceiling with polythene so that when the polyurethane foam was pumped in, it would not adhere to the stone vaulting. This was the first time that foam had been used to support a roof whilst it was being repaired. We then removed the lead sheets, board decking and 4" x 3" rafters and, to reduce the load on the stone vaulting, we removed some 5 tons of stone rubble and lime mortar.
Robin Spreage, a local Engineer from Wanswell, made and fixed the steelwork and Darren Turl and I secured some of the stone vaulting to it with stainless steel bolts, anchored with resin in the stone ribs. Then we refixed all the 4" x 3" rafters and made 2" x 1/8" iron straps, fixed these to the rafters over the stone ribs and secured them with stainless steel bolts as we had done with the steelwork. We laid the decking and then Norman Underwood of Leicester covered it with stainless steel sheet. This helped to reduce the load on the vaulting quite a lot. When the roof was finished, we dismantled the shuttering and scaffold and removed the expanded polyurethane, and after consultation with the local Fire Brigade, we took the polyurethane to the Deer Park and burnt it. The next job, was for Richard Rugman, and I to erect a screen in the Church to prevent dust escaping whilst work was being carried out on the tombs.Barry Baldwin, a Stonemason, with his staff of Biddy, Neil, Robert and Chris, who came from Corsham in Wiltshire, came to take down and restore the two tombs and monuments.
I met Arthur Francis and Barry in the Mausoleum to sort out the programme of work. Barry said that he had a small crane to lift the alabaster effigies off the tombs, so it was necessary to check that the floor of the Mausoleum was strong enough to carry the combined weight of the crane and the effigies, as alabaster weighs 160 Ibs per cubic ft. Under this suspended floor, the vault contains at least 27 coffins of the Berkeley family. In the floor were two flagstones, each approximately 12 inches square with iron rings set in them. We proceeded to chisel these out and, when they had been removed, we made all the necessary measurements that we needed. We could see quite a few of the coffins and one in particular, which was directly under the flagstone that we had lifted. This coffin was covered in leather and close nailed in patterns with brass round-head nails.
The floor of the Mausoleum was made of 6" thick concrete beams, overlaid with flagstones. I had previously remembered my father-in-law, Harry Mills, who was a Mason's mate, telling me that in the late 1920's, they had taken up the floor in the Mausoleum as it was giving way. At that time it had oak beams with flagstones on the top and the oak beams had started to decay on the ends. I gathered from him, and others who worked on that particular job, that it was quite a difficult undertaking. Anyhow, Arthur decided that it was safe to continue with the job, so Richard and Terry Stevenson, an apprentice on Berkeley Estate, laid 6" x 4" joists at 16" centres and covered them with 9" x 2" decking. All was then ready for Barry Baldwin to start on the monument within the chancel wall.
The finely carved canopy and chest tomb were in a very bad state of repair, due to the iron cramps that had been used and which had expanded with rust, splitting the stone extensively. Barry first removed the two effigies, followed by the chest tomb, and then the canopy, leaving the arched soffit in place. At this point Richard and I came to the Mausoleum to take a pattern for a centre to support the soffit. As we walked up by the side of the Church, a young lady came out of the Mausoleum door carrying a bucket of rubble and tipped it on a heap. I looked at Richard a bit puzzled and said, "That's the first time I've seen a lady labourer". However, she must have overhead my comment and retorted, "I'll have you know this is highly skilled work". That was our first introduction to Biddy, one of the stalwarts in Barrie’s team.
After making my apologies to her, we worked together well. We took all our measurements for our pattern, made the centre and fixed it into position. Mike Ruther, Mike Palmer, both bricklayers, and Darren Turl, then proceeded to needle and prop the wall above the arch. This done, they removed the wall down to the top of the carved stone arch. We then fixed shuttering and cast a concrete beam over, so there would be no pressure on the carved arch in the future. The two panelled sides of the arch were refixed, this time, however, with stainless steel cramps. This done, Barry and his team rebuilt the chest tomb and replaced the two alabaster effigies.
That Job completed we then made a start on the monument of the east end. This being the one of Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley and his wife. The chest tomb and the very highly ornate entablature were suffering from the effects of rusty iron cramps and damp through the exterior wall. First, the ornate entablature was removed, this done, we discovered a window that had been blocked up. The two alabaster effigies were next removed and a start made on the chest tomb. Barry had nearly finished taking it down when he discovered a wooden box 2'6" x 2' x 14" deep. It was in a very bad state of decay and when he opened it he found that it was full of bones, but oddly enough no skull. I made a new box to put the bones in and placed it at the far end of the Mausoleum. Barry had a young bull terrier that he would take to work with him, so he put a blanket over the box for the dog to lie on. Barry carried on working and a few minutes later the dog gave an almighty yelp and sprang off the box. Barry swears to this day that he saw the box moving and said that there was an uncanny feeling about the place! Another unusual happening!
When we were ready to start the building, I made a proper box for the bones, the wood was treated with preservative, dovetail joints and the top and bottom screwed on with brass screws and to finish it off I carved a cross on the lid. We nailed a piece of lead on the bottom of the box with the date and all our names carved on it, someone, one day may come across this box. There is a strange coincidence regarding this tomb. The tomb was made in Stroud for the sum of £80.00 by a stone-mason by the name of Samuel Baldwin and Barry Baldwin's son's just so happens to be Samuel. Barry, however, does not come from this part of the Country. He told me that he had an eerie feeling all the time he worked on the tomb. The coincidence continues in that, in the bill of sale, dating back to 1615, it is stated that the descendants of Samuel Baldwin were to put to rights any faults that would occur to the tomb thereafter.It would have been interesting if the family had been traced to the present day and to see what their reactions would have been. Biddy restored some of the coats of arms above the tomb as the paintwork was in a very bad state. This, the work for which Biddy is trained, is a very skilful profession and which she is very talented at.
It was at this time that Arthur Francis was taken very ill and his assistant Phillip Tunstall, took over the business. Phillip was of the same mould as Arthur, no doubt Arthur's ways had rubbed off on him, and we got along like 'a house on fire'. The next job in the mausoleum was to remove and replace some of the stone members in the perpendicular screen as the problem here was the same as before - rusty iron cramps. Phillip, Robert, Neil and myself worked out a system of propping the screen so that Robert and Neil could work on it to cut out the defective stone. Richard and I rigged up the propping which consisted of eight needles and props, all strapped together so that the top of the screen stayed in place while the underneath was dismantled. Robert and Neil set up their mason's banker and cut and worked all the stone and mouldings in the mausoleum. One has to give them credit for their excellent work, particularly bearing in mind that both were only in their early 20's. Neil went on to become the top stonemason apprentice in the Country and also in 1991, Barry Baldwin won the Stone Federation of Great Britain Award for Excellence in Craftsmanship of Stone. This award was for a 35 ft. high arch entrance carved each side with endangered species of animals set up as the entrance of the Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London. I saw this work in Barrie's yard before its erection, when he was still in the process of carving it, and it gave me a wonderful feeling to know that there are still craftsmen who can produce work of this quality.
After the masons had completed their work and left, Terry Nichols, Darren Turl and I had to refix the Berkeley coat of arms to the wall above the vault where Lord and Lady Berkeley lie. This was put up by Lady Berkeley after the death of Lord Berkeley and is a magnificent piece of wood carving. It proved a very tricky job. The only way we could cope with it was to use a very quick setting cement to set the plugs and cramps into the wall. Terry and Darren then went on to whitewash the mausoleum and on completion it looked magnificent.
From Gate to Gate contains a transcription of the Bill of Sale for Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley’s tomb, dated 1615.
I was present when the bones and remains of the original box were transferred to the ‘proper’ box that Jim had made. This was one of the very few occasions on which I had ever been into the mausoleum. During the 1950s Mr Ashby, who had been Head Gardener during the time of the 8th Earl, regularly placed flowers below the monument to the last Earl.
There is an elaborate ogee crocketed arch over the doorway with the Berkeley arms held by an angle.
Externally the parapet has carved enrichments of strawberry leaves and figures of angels holding shields. The buttresses are surmounted by pyramidal pinnacles, crocketed at the angles and terminated in finials. In 1905 the secretary of the BGAS was able to record: In front of one of these pinnacles is a large figure excellently carved with St. George and the Dragon. On another pinnacle is a figure presenting the Witch of Berkeley borne away on the back of the devil. (Canon J. E. Gethyn-Jones described this as a cowled monk riding the devil.)
Internally the vaulting bosses represent:
- The Annunciation and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
The Holy Trinity.
Our Lord in Glory.
One of these ‘grotesques’ is described as: a fox with his paws on the pulpit, preaching to two geese, who are turning their heads away.
Another of the ‘grotesques’ appears to be a green-man.
The following accounts are taken from Jim Mowat’s book ‘From Gate to Gate’; Jim was the Foreman on The Berkeley Estate from the early 1950s until his retirement in February 1990.
Towards the end of the 1970's, I was in the workshop one day when Joyce, our Secretary, came in to tell me that she had received a telephone message from London to say that Lady Berkeley had died in Italy and was being brought home to Berkeley to be interned in the mausoleum and I was asked to organise the opening of the vault. I went to the mausoleum with Bill Mills and Ken Long and showed them which stones were to be lifted. That evening, at home, I suddenly realised that, in all the continental funerals I had seen on television, the coffins were always rectangular and not shaped as in England.
Next morning, I went to the Estate Office to see Joyce, as at the time Mr. Robertson was on holiday in Scotland. I told Joyce that I thought there could be a problem if I was right in my thinking about the different shaped coffins, so she rang London and I then spoke to the executor of Lady Berkeley's estate, who confirmed that the casket was indeed rectangular. I tried to explain that it would not go in the vault and he glibly told me to "plane a bit off the sides". (Now there's an old country saying that "If you want to find a fool in the country you have to bring him from the town first"). Well at this remark, I nearly blew my top, but I managed to keep under control and I just replaced the receiver. Joyce then said "we'll telephone Mr. Berkeley", who at the time was at Spetchley. When I explained everything to him, he said he would get the name and telephone number of the funeral director. This he did and I telephoned a Mr. Kenyon in London. I told him of our predicament and told him that things needed sorting out as it would be tragic if events didn't work out on the day of the funeral. He said he would meet me at the mausoleum that following Saturday to discuss the coffin.
We met on that day and as soon as he entered the mausoleum and saw the opened vault he said "Well, Jim, you are absolutely right and it's just as well you contacted me, the trouble is that city folk think that country people have got a bit of straw in their hair, but I find that they are far more level headed and down to earth on most things". Lady Berkeley was the last person to be interned in the mausoleum.
Jim had told me this story long before his book was published. The version that he told me had some extra; when the coffin was being taken to the mausoleum the party following were detained out of sight of the door while the coffin was manoeuvred through the doorway, and the funeral directors had been responsible for Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral.
See end section Berkeley Family Monuments for details of the monument.
It was in 1984, when Arthur Francis and I met at the Berkeley Mausoleum, to survey and talk through the method of restoration of the roof and tombs. Arthur and I had worked together on other jobs at the Castle and we worked very well together. The Mausoleum was built by James, 11th Lord Berkeley, in the mid-15th Century and is attached to the Parish Church of St. Mary's. The Mausoleum contains a perpendicular stone screen and stone lierne-vaulting with curved bosses to the ceiling and a lead covered timber roof.
Inside the Mausoleum are two fine monuments, one below the high level chancel window under a free stone canopy within the chancel wall with recumbent alabaster effigies of James 11th Lord Berkeley (died 1463) and his second son James, resting on an alabaster tomb chest. At the east end of the chapel is the second monument, also with alabaster effigies, one of Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley (died 1615) and his wife, with a free stone tomb chest under an alabaster canopy of Renaissance design. The lierne-vaulting showed displacement of the stone ribbing so severe that any direct propping may have caused it to collapse.
Ken Long and I made a platform at springing level of the ribbing on an "A" frame scaffold structure. On the platform we made up frames of 4" x 2" timber decked over with 3/4" chipboard and covered with polythene. We also covered the ceiling with polythene so that when the polyurethane foam was pumped in, it would not adhere to the stone vaulting. This was the first time that foam had been used to support a roof whilst it was being repaired. We then removed the lead sheets, board decking and 4" x 3" rafters and, to reduce the load on the stone vaulting, we removed some 5 tons of stone rubble and lime mortar.
Robin Spreage, a local Engineer from Wanswell, made and fixed the steelwork and Darren Turl and I secured some of the stone vaulting to it with stainless steel bolts, anchored with resin in the stone ribs. Then we refixed all the 4" x 3" rafters and made 2" x 1/8" iron straps, fixed these to the rafters over the stone ribs and secured them with stainless steel bolts as we had done with the steelwork. We laid the decking and then Norman Underwood of Leicester covered it with stainless steel sheet. This helped to reduce the load on the vaulting quite a lot. When the roof was finished, we dismantled the shuttering and scaffold and removed the expanded polyurethane, and after consultation with the local Fire Brigade, we took the polyurethane to the Deer Park and burnt it. The next job, was for Richard Rugman, and I to erect a screen in the Church to prevent dust escaping whilst work was being carried out on the tombs.Barry Baldwin, a Stonemason, with his staff of Biddy, Neil, Robert and Chris, who came from Corsham in Wiltshire, came to take down and restore the two tombs and monuments.
I met Arthur Francis and Barry in the Mausoleum to sort out the programme of work. Barry said that he had a small crane to lift the alabaster effigies off the tombs, so it was necessary to check that the floor of the Mausoleum was strong enough to carry the combined weight of the crane and the effigies, as alabaster weighs 160 Ibs per cubic ft. Under this suspended floor, the vault contains at least 27 coffins of the Berkeley family. In the floor were two flagstones, each approximately 12 inches square with iron rings set in them. We proceeded to chisel these out and, when they had been removed, we made all the necessary measurements that we needed. We could see quite a few of the coffins and one in particular, which was directly under the flagstone that we had lifted. This coffin was covered in leather and close nailed in patterns with brass round-head nails.
The floor of the Mausoleum was made of 6" thick concrete beams, overlaid with flagstones. I had previously remembered my father-in-law, Harry Mills, who was a Mason's mate, telling me that in the late 1920's, they had taken up the floor in the Mausoleum as it was giving way. At that time it had oak beams with flagstones on the top and the oak beams had started to decay on the ends. I gathered from him, and others who worked on that particular job, that it was quite a difficult undertaking. Anyhow, Arthur decided that it was safe to continue with the job, so Richard and Terry Stevenson, an apprentice on Berkeley Estate, laid 6" x 4" joists at 16" centres and covered them with 9" x 2" decking. All was then ready for Barry Baldwin to start on the monument within the chancel wall.
The finely carved canopy and chest tomb were in a very bad state of repair, due to the iron cramps that had been used and which had expanded with rust, splitting the stone extensively. Barry first removed the two effigies, followed by the chest tomb, and then the canopy, leaving the arched soffit in place. At this point Richard and I came to the Mausoleum to take a pattern for a centre to support the soffit. As we walked up by the side of the Church, a young lady came out of the Mausoleum door carrying a bucket of rubble and tipped it on a heap. I looked at Richard a bit puzzled and said, "That's the first time I've seen a lady labourer". However, she must have overhead my comment and retorted, "I'll have you know this is highly skilled work". That was our first introduction to Biddy, one of the stalwarts in Barrie’s team.
After making my apologies to her, we worked together well. We took all our measurements for our pattern, made the centre and fixed it into position. Mike Ruther, Mike Palmer, both bricklayers, and Darren Turl, then proceeded to needle and prop the wall above the arch. This done, they removed the wall down to the top of the carved stone arch. We then fixed shuttering and cast a concrete beam over, so there would be no pressure on the carved arch in the future. The two panelled sides of the arch were refixed, this time, however, with stainless steel cramps. This done, Barry and his team rebuilt the chest tomb and replaced the two alabaster effigies.
That Job completed we then made a start on the monument of the east end. This being the one of Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley and his wife. The chest tomb and the very highly ornate entablature were suffering from the effects of rusty iron cramps and damp through the exterior wall. First, the ornate entablature was removed, this done, we discovered a window that had been blocked up. The two alabaster effigies were next removed and a start made on the chest tomb. Barry had nearly finished taking it down when he discovered a wooden box 2'6" x 2' x 14" deep. It was in a very bad state of decay and when he opened it he found that it was full of bones, but oddly enough no skull. I made a new box to put the bones in and placed it at the far end of the Mausoleum. Barry had a young bull terrier that he would take to work with him, so he put a blanket over the box for the dog to lie on. Barry carried on working and a few minutes later the dog gave an almighty yelp and sprang off the box. Barry swears to this day that he saw the box moving and said that there was an uncanny feeling about the place! Another unusual happening!
When we were ready to start the building, I made a proper box for the bones, the wood was treated with preservative, dovetail joints and the top and bottom screwed on with brass screws and to finish it off I carved a cross on the lid. We nailed a piece of lead on the bottom of the box with the date and all our names carved on it, someone, one day may come across this box. There is a strange coincidence regarding this tomb. The tomb was made in Stroud for the sum of £80.00 by a stone-mason by the name of Samuel Baldwin and Barry Baldwin's son's just so happens to be Samuel. Barry, however, does not come from this part of the Country. He told me that he had an eerie feeling all the time he worked on the tomb. The coincidence continues in that, in the bill of sale, dating back to 1615, it is stated that the descendants of Samuel Baldwin were to put to rights any faults that would occur to the tomb thereafter.It would have been interesting if the family had been traced to the present day and to see what their reactions would have been. Biddy restored some of the coats of arms above the tomb as the paintwork was in a very bad state. This, the work for which Biddy is trained, is a very skilful profession and which she is very talented at.
It was at this time that Arthur Francis was taken very ill and his assistant Phillip Tunstall, took over the business. Phillip was of the same mould as Arthur, no doubt Arthur's ways had rubbed off on him, and we got along like 'a house on fire'. The next job in the mausoleum was to remove and replace some of the stone members in the perpendicular screen as the problem here was the same as before - rusty iron cramps. Phillip, Robert, Neil and myself worked out a system of propping the screen so that Robert and Neil could work on it to cut out the defective stone. Richard and I rigged up the propping which consisted of eight needles and props, all strapped together so that the top of the screen stayed in place while the underneath was dismantled. Robert and Neil set up their mason's banker and cut and worked all the stone and mouldings in the mausoleum. One has to give them credit for their excellent work, particularly bearing in mind that both were only in their early 20's. Neil went on to become the top stonemason apprentice in the Country and also in 1991, Barry Baldwin won the Stone Federation of Great Britain Award for Excellence in Craftsmanship of Stone. This award was for a 35 ft. high arch entrance carved each side with endangered species of animals set up as the entrance of the Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London. I saw this work in Barrie's yard before its erection, when he was still in the process of carving it, and it gave me a wonderful feeling to know that there are still craftsmen who can produce work of this quality.
After the masons had completed their work and left, Terry Nichols, Darren Turl and I had to refix the Berkeley coat of arms to the wall above the vault where Lord and Lady Berkeley lie. This was put up by Lady Berkeley after the death of Lord Berkeley and is a magnificent piece of wood carving. It proved a very tricky job. The only way we could cope with it was to use a very quick setting cement to set the plugs and cramps into the wall. Terry and Darren then went on to whitewash the mausoleum and on completion it looked magnificent.
From Gate to Gate contains a transcription of the Bill of Sale for Henry, 17th Lord Berkeley’s tomb, dated 1615.
I was present when the bones and remains of the original box were transferred to the ‘proper’ box that Jim had made. This was one of the very few occasions on which I had ever been into the mausoleum. During the 1950s Mr Ashby, who had been Head Gardener during the time of the 8th Earl, regularly placed flowers below the monument to the last Earl.