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The east window in this chapel (in above picture, partially
obscured and to the right) is large and
luminous, by far the biggest in the church. It has five lights
with tracery above and now has clear glass. Most of the glass in
the church was blown out by two parachute land-mines in 1940. This
act of war was not without benefit, for it is certainly due to the
loss of a number of undistinguished windows of Victorian stained
glass that the church is now so diffused with light.
Culpeper Kneeler in Bedgebury Chapel
Stone Relief of Old Sir Alexander Culpeper10
and family
In the jamb of the bay window above
the recumbent effigies of Old Sir Alexander Culpeper10
and his wife (the effigies are pictured in the right-side column
of this page), there is a small stone relief dated 1537. It
depicts God in majesty, the Virgin and Child, St George slaying
the dragon, and kneeling figures of the Culpepers.
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"Ould" Sir
Alexander Culpeper9 was the son of Sir John Culpeper of
Bedgebury8, who was a direct ancestor of the modern-day
Culpepers. Old Sir Alexander's iron foundries at Bedgebury cast
guns for the fleet that fought the Spanish Armada. That knight and
his lady lie in wooden effigy (pictured above and below) just outside the chapel below the
bay window in the south aisle, serenely awaiting the day of
judgment. His funeral helm hangs above. This rare memorial is
clearly a true portrait of the couple. It was carved and painted
in 1537 during the Reformation and is one of only eighty or so of
its kind in the country.
Dogs at the feet of Old Sir Alexander Culpeper10 and
wife, Constantina Chamberlayne
Constantina and Sir Alexander,
from above
Genealogy: See page
3 for the relationship of Sir Alexander to the other Culpepers
memorialized at St. Mary's, Goudhurst.
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