Berkeley Chapel Monument, Spetchley

The Berkeley Chapel in Spetchley Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and dates from 1614. This monument is to the memory of Sir Rowland (d.1611) and Lady Katharine Berkeley (née Haywood). Rowland Berkeley was MP for the City of Worcester and the founder of the Berkeley “dynasty” at Spetchley.

The south wall of the chapel has a figure of Sir Robert Berkeley, Sir Rowland's son, d.1656, who fought for the Royalist cause at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. At that time, the original Manor House was destroyed - not by Cromwell's soldiers as you'd expect, but by a “disgruntled band of Scottish Presbyterians”^[1], wanting to stop Cromwell using it as a garrison. Thereafter Sir Robert, and his descendants were to live in the stable block, until the present house was built in 1811.

The chapel contains many other monuments to the family.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)

Reference
[1] This snippet was discovered on a former version of the website of Spetchley Park Gardens.