The tale of not ten green bottles but just one.
Plus a wander further afield in the midst of today’s weather-reminder that winter isn’t over yet!
If you do play the video you will hear me say that John Wood Senior and Junior – architects of Queen Square, the Royal Crescent and the Circus – are buried in Swainswick Church – despite the fact they are more associated with the city centre.
Historian and publisher Kirsten Elliott told me:
‘As regards the Woods being buried in Swainswick – I think, though I can’t prove it, that this was a holding exercise until Wood the Younger had built the church he planned at the back of the Royal Crescent, which was to have a family vault.
Only he never built it, instead, it was Gilbert Scott who built St Andrews described, rather tactlessly, by Pevsner as happily bombed – though I can see his point.
This is what I’ve written in a book which one day I may finish.
“On the green behind the Crescent, the plans show that Wood intended to build a chapel for the use of Walcot.
In the deeds it says that Wood himself was to have a burial plot 14 feet square – that is, just over 18 square metres, for the use of his family. This may explain why his father has such a plain stone, tucked away in a dark corner of Swainswick church.
Probably, Wood intended to make this a family tomb, bringing his father’s coffin here so that both father and son would lie right beside their marvellous creation. Instead, they lie together in Swainswick.“
Thanks for that Kirsten.
