An article written for the Rutland Magazine (issue of February - April 2003) by T.C.Swinfen.

The Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Exton, Rutland.

As you walk up the lane to the church and see it from the south-east you might think that it looks Victorian
(PHOTO OF THE CHURCH FROM THE SOUTH-EAST)
rather than - surely? - centuries older than that. But you would not be wrong. In 1843 the spire was struck by lightning and much of the west end of the building was destroyed.

Stones fell through the roof of the nave and the windows to west and south were shattered. The Vicar at the time was the Honourable and Reverend Leland Noel, a brother of the Earl of Gainsborough. Exton is Gainsborough country; the family name is Noel and Viscount Campden now the title of the heir. The restoration of the church to its present structure was carried out by J.L.Pearson (who later restored Burley-on-the-Hill and subsequently the tower and choir of Peterborough cathedral).

He did not start the work, though. Previously R.C.Carpenter had been in charge but after a dispute between him and the Vicar & Parish he was replaced.

The first mention of a Vicar at Exton occurs in 1225 and by the end of the century there was a priest for the Parish Church, for the private Chapel of the then Manor House and for a Chantry (a chapel endowed for the singing of masses for the soul of the founder) possibly within the Parish Church.

Whether these offices were filled by the same priest or by more than one is uncertain. Exton Church dates from the 13th and 14th centuries - much restored, of course, after the lightning strike.

The roof, after 150 years or so, is in a leaky state and a Roof Appeal has just been launched, aiming for £150 000 plus. Please help us.

The church is renowned internationally for its splendid monuments, though that is not all that it offers. We will start with the monuments, but in chronological order of the people they commemorate rather than, as in the guidebook, going clockwise round the building.

The De Brus family had owned land in Exton since the Norman Conquest - the first church was built on land given by them - and their heiress Johanna married Nicholas Grene, whose monument is a chest with an alabaster top, placed to the north side of the altar in the chancel.

His great-granddaughter, Katharine Culpeper, married John Harington and brought the estate of Exton into that family. The second John Harington died in 1524 and he and his wife Alice are commemorated by a chest monument with alabaster prone figures in the west end of the south aisle.

John's grandson James and his wife Lucy are remembered by a monument in the north wall of the chancel, showing husband and wife kneeling at a prayer desk. James died in 1592 at over 70 years of age and with 18 children. Good going for the 16th century!

In the south transept you will find another Harington monument, known as the Kelwey (or Kelway, original spelling Keylwey) monument.

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It shows Robert Kelwey (a noted Elizabethan lawyer), his daughter Anne and her husband John Harington, the eldest son of James and Alice. In 1603 John was created Baron Harington by James I and looked after the king's eldest daughter Elizabeth who was to become Queen of Bohemia.

One of the rides in Exton Park, in Tunneley Wood, is still known as "The Queen of Bohemia's Ride". The cost of this task virtually ruined him and in 1613 the king granted him a Royal Patent to coin brass farthings for three years, which in fact made him no money.

So the phrase "it isn't worth a brass farthing" can be attributed to Exton.

There is some confusion over the spelling of Harington - a street in Exton spells it with two Rs and so do many people - but the writer has met a descendant of John who insists that one R is correct.

In the Rutland Magazine of 1907 there is an engraving of John Lord Harington and his signature, dated 1610, as "Haryngton".

..........................TOMB OF SIR JAMES HARINGTON,1591
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Back to James and Alice - their sixth daughter married Sir Andrew Noel, of Brooke, and that is how the connection between Exton and the Noel family began.
The most impressive of the monuments is that to Baptist Viscount Campden, by Grinling Gibbons, in the north transept

GRINLING GIBBONS MONUMENT

Gibbons is usually known for his woodcarving, but this is in marble and cost in 1683 the enormous sum of £1000 (in 2001 its restoration alone cost over £49 000).

.....Click for larger image

It depicts Baptist, his four wives and 19 children and is a masterpiece. Baptist was a Royalist in the Civil War but managed to suffer only a fine of £5000 for being on the losing side - better than decapitation!

His fifth son, James, died aged 18: his monument is in the north transept facing that of his father and shows him in quasi-Roman dress with a seventeenth-century wig. Baptist's eldest son was created 1st Earl of Gainsborough and in the south side of the chancel there is a monument to Baptist the 4th Earl and his wife Elizabeth.

She was an Exton girl (and known as 'The Cottage Countess' so perhaps an unusual marriage) who survived him and later married his cousin Thomas Noel. All three are depicted on this work by Nollekins.
Another Nollekins opus can be found at the west end of the north aisle commemorating Lieutenant-General Bennett Noel, showing a richly-draped female figure extinguishing a torch and leaning on an urn carrying a portrait of the general.

Nearby a chest of black and white marble carries a figure of Anne, granddaughter of John and Anne Harington and wife of Lord Bruce of Kinlosse.
These are the nine 'grand' monuments but other wall tablets to members of the Noel family show their contribution to the village community, to Rutland and to the nation.

The monuments are indeed grand, but by 1998 their condition was giving cause for concern. Under the leadership of the late Archdeacon of Oakham, the Ven. Bernard Fernyhough, the Exton Monuments Restoration Fund was set up with the Earl of Gainsborough as Patron.

Work by the Skillington Workshop, of Grantham, began in October 2000 and the Bishop of Peterborough dedicated the restored monuments in April 2002. A plaque in the north transept records the principal trusts and foundations whose generosity is greatly appreciated.

The Fund was, incidentally, a Registered Charity and independent of the Parochial Church Council. Thanks to the Fund the Gibbons and Kelwey monuments are illuminated by a bank of spotlights, controlled by a timeswitch.

Though the monuments are a great 'draw' for visitors from all over the world there is a lot more to be seen in the church.

Stand at the back of the nave and look up. You will see 21 banners showing coats-of-arms and various heraldic devices. These are replicas of funerary and armorial banners of the Noel family.

The originals would have been carried in the deceased's funeral processions, together with his helmet, surcoat and other items, and later presented to the church. The original banners, dating from the mid-eighteenth century, had been painted in oils on silk - not a good combination - and were disintegrating.

Those that remained were taken down in 1991, photographed and put into storage in Exton Park. The replicas now in their place were created from the photographs by Mrs. Judy Swinfen, an Exton artist and a member of the PCC, as a gift to the church.

They were painted, using emulsion paint on theatrical calico, (which should last for a couple of centuries) and mounted on poles with finials turned and donated by eight craftsmen in the village.
Lower your glance a little and admire the great east window.

This was made in 1866 and was "erected in memory of Charles Earl of Gainsborough by his grateful tenantry upon the Exton Estates". He was the 1st Earl of the second creation. The window shows scenes from the parable of the sheep and the goats (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, etc.)

The window in the south side of the chancel is in memory of the daughter of Sir Gerard Noel-Noel: theme 'Rising from the Dead'. The third and last stained-glass window, in the west wall of the tower, commemorates the Hon. and Revd. Leland Noel, Vicar 1832-1870, and his wife Arabella: theme 'The Good Samaritan'. Visitors may not climb the tower, except with a churchwarden, and the ring of six bells is out of action until the bellframe has been refurbished.

Your view of the window is obscured by the screen across the tower arch (early 1930s) separating the nave from what is now the Choir Vestry. The figures of angels decorating the screen are playing various musical instruments and the Latin inscription urges us to "Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord..."

The font, by the door, is probably 14th century but the village bier is more modern. It was given "for the exclusive use of the parish of Exton" by the parents of Joseph Cross, who died in Canada but was buried at Exton in 1912.
I am writing this article just after Remembrance Day. The tablets recording those from the village who died in the two World Wars can be found in the south transept. The crucifix above their names was originally dedicated at the village War Memorial (beside The Green) in 1922 but after damage and renovation came to the church in 1995 (the Memorial now carries a replica).

This area of the church is called the 'Soldiers' Chapel' - a shade unkind to those who served and died in the RN, the RFC or the RAF!

And as we remember our own dead, in war or peace or whatever, walk round the churchyard and look at the memorials, the flowers and the recurring names - signs that Exton is a living community.

Photo credits: Irene Kettle LRPS.
Mrs Kettle is a freelance photographer who accepts commissions for weddings, portraits and all kinds of photographs. (Oak Lawn, 8 Stamford End, Exton LE15 8BQ)

Text credits: copyright © T.C.Swinfen 2002.
All fees payable for this article have been donated to the Exton PCC Roof Fund.