Sunday 4th March 1990
Stourton Parish Church is dedicated to St Peter, and consists of a chancel, a nave with three bays, aisles, a north porch and a western tower.
The church has many monuments including the effigy of an unknown lady, circa 1400, who lies facing the door.
The most magnificent monument here is that of the fifth Lord Stourton (died 1536) with its tomb chest and two recumbent figures. The bearded Lord Stourton, with his long hair, is wearing fine armour, and lays beside his wife Agnes. Kneeling at their heads are three small figures: a headless lady, a bearded man wearing a chain around his neck, and a youth wearing a furred gown.
The ancient Stourton family, many of whom are buried in the church, held this place from Saxon times until the beginning of the 18th century.
St Peter’s Church also contains memorials to the Hoare family. Henry Hoare (1677 – 1725) was known as “Good Henry” because of his many charitable works. His son, also called Henry (1705 – 1785) was dubbed “the Magnificent,” and Sir Richard Colt Hoare, are both buried here. Richard’s wife, Hester, who died in 1785, aged 23, leaving him a widower, has a memorial of a pink granite sarcophagus on a tall base with a black granite urn.
Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758 – 1838), the famous Wiltshire antiquarian, lies in a small mausoleum. His tomb comprises a marble sarcophagus in classical style, under a Gothic canopy with a pierced parapet.
Sir Richard’s Ancient History Of Wiltshire describes some of the earliest archaeological surveys of the county and details of excavations he made with William Cunnington of the barrow mounds on Salisbury Plain between 1800 and 1810. He also planned and wrote part of the History Of Modern Wiltshire which was unfinished at the time of his death.
Stourton Church nestles in a peaceful hollow, tucked under a tree-topped hill, oppsite the Bristol High Cross, and makes a fitting resting place for Sir Richard, a man who loved Wiltshire so much.