It was originally a chapel of ease for Kirkby Mallory Parish Church which has given Earl Shilton a connection with the Byron family . Lady Byron was the estranged wife of the famous poet, the sixth Lord Byron . It was Lady Byron who appointed the Revd. Ferdinand Tower as first Vicar of the living in 1854. He painted the walls of the church with murals of which some remain today and also painted the chancel ceiling , which is worth seeing as fine Victorian art. He rebuilt the Parish Church of Earl Shilton in 1854. The architect who designed the church was Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812-1855) who also was the architect of Lancing College in Sussex (1854). He was asked to submit a design for Inverness Cathedral (1855) but finally Alexander Ross became architect of the Inverness Cathedral in 1866, due to the death of Richard Carpenter. The medieval tower and steeple from the 13th and 14th century still remain attatched to the Victorian Church. (Please see the notes on his son, Walter Tower who became Chairman of the Board of Directors of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd, the famous stained glass company) There are four very famous stained glass windows designed by Charles Kempe. It is thought by some that the Revd Ferdinand Tower's son, Walter Tower, (see the notes on Walter Tower below) married into the Kempe family but in actual fact he was a distant relative of Charles Kempe, who eventually became Managing Director of Charles Kempe & Co. Ltd. and hence the reason why the church had Kempe glass. There is a Kempe Society for those interested in Kempe glass. A famous personality who visited the church to preach was the Revd G.A .Studdert Kennedy better known by his nickname, "Woodbine Willy" an army padre in the First World War so named for he gave Woodbine cigarettes to dying soldiers whilst offering spiritual help to them. He has written several books and poems. At one time the church would have belonged to the castle in Earl Shilton belonging to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. The castle would have been his hunting lodge. Nothing remains now of the castle except the mound where the keep stood and the Hall Field next to the church, the site of the castle. The village of Earl Shilton is so named because of its association with the Earls of Leicester. They retained the manor after the Norman Conquest until the forfeiture of the great Simon de Montfort in 1265. (Battle of Evesham). A tablet in the Earl Shilton Parish Church dating from 1694 refers to the village as Earl Shilton. Quoting the Rev. F.E. Tower's "History of Earl's Shilton "(1894) "This village is called Shilton, otherwise Shulton, otherwise Schelton, otherwise Earles Shilton as written in an apprentice indenture of 1698, and otherwise as Earl's Shilton, as written by Nichols, the County historian . (1811). Tower wrote, "Its situation is high, like "a city set on a hill which cannot be hid." - hence the name of Shilton, or Shil-ton, or Shelfy-town, from the Saxon, "scylf", meaning a shelf or slope or incline, and "ton" or "town". The first families settling here came from the southern parts of Germany and gave the Saxon name to the place. Earl Shilton was once a thriving industrial village of which there were several Hosiery and Shoe factories. Much of the industry has gone or moved away. Orton's Shoe Factory until recently was still remaining as a thriving business but unfortunately closed down in the earlier part of 2006. Please refer to the newspage for orderering copies of the book "Lady Byron and Earl Shilton" by David Herbert. WALTER TOWER 1873-1955 Walter Ernest Tower was born at Earl Shilton in 1873, the sixth and youngest son of the Revd. Ferdinand Ernest Tower, the first vicar of St. Simon and St. Jude Parish Church, Earl Shilton. The "little turrets", as the Tower children were called by some of their relatives, were Henry (who became a Revd. Canon), Fred, William, Ernest, David, Walter, Agatha, and May. With such a large family, the Vicar's stipend was stretched very thinly, but apparently the family was a happy one. After leaving school Walter trained with the architect, Anton Webb. He did not qualify as an architect but he set up his own architectural business from his home in Queensgate about 1896. At this time, relatives of Walter approached Charles Eamer Kempe, of Kempe's Glass Works, a distant relation, and asked him to put some architectural work in Walter's way. Walter did not design or make stained glass windows, but he sometimes assisted with their installation and with architectural commissions which Kempe received, when he would work under the direction of William Tate, the chief architect of Kempe's Glass Works. At this time, Kempe employed fifty artists, designers, draughtsmen and glass painters. Walter continued to run his own architectural practice from his home address whilst working on commissions from Kempe until Kempe's death in 1907. Kempe left a will directing that a new firm of C.E.Kempe & Co. Ltd. should be set up. Tower now joined the firm as Chairman of the Board of Directors, who were:
From this time, windows installed by the new company of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. began to be signed with the wheat sheaf which now included a black tower - an heraldic pun on Tower's name. All the Kempe stained glass windows in Earl Shilton Parish Church have this emblem of the wheat sheaf and black tower. Walter married a charming and pretty girl, Marion Lindsay MacDonnell, and they had one child, Celia (who became known as Cicely). Kempe left his beautiful home, Old Place, in Lindfield, Sussex and his entire and considerable fortune to Walter, but Walter was an extravagant and ambitious man who worked his way through most of his inheritance. The firm of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. ceased trading in 1934 and Walter Tower died in 1955.
© CJG 2002
GO TO TOP |
click here