Church of St Denys, Colmworth from the road

Church of St Denys is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

church in

Colmworth Colmworth is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England about north-east of Bedford. The parish, including the hamlet of Duck's Cross, had a population of 393 at the 2011 census. Geography Colm ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964. The four stage west tower is topped by an octagonal

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

with

lucarne In general architecture a lucarne is a term used to describe a dormer window. The original term french: lucarne refers to a dormer window, usually set into the middle of a roof although it can also apply to a façade lucarne, where the gable of th ...

s and is supported by diagonal

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (si ...

. There is a ring of six bells with the earliest two dated 1635. The steel frame was made in 1984. To the left of the altar is an alabaster and black marble monument to Sir William Dyer erected in 1641 by his wife,

Katherine Doyley Dyer Katherine Doyley Dyer (b.c. 1585-1654) notable for the epitaph she placed on her husband's tomb at Colmworth, Bedfordshire, England Katherine was one of the four daughters of John Doyley (d. 1593) and Anne Barnard, and was a co-heir of the Doyley e ...

(d. 1654).Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, ''A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen'' (Abingdon, 2017), p. 571. It has the following verse inscription: :If a large hart, joined with a noble minde :Shewing true worth unto all good inclin’d :If faith in friendship, justice unto all, :Leave such a memory as we may call :Happy, thine is; then pious marble keepe :His just fame waking, though his lov’d dust sleepe. :And though death can devoure all that hath breath, :And monuments them selves have had a death, :Nature shan’t suffer this, to ruinate, :Nor time demolish’t, nor an envious fate, :Rais’d by a just hand, not vain glorious pride, :Who’d be concealed, wer’t modesty to hide :Such an affection did so long survive :The object of ’t; yet lov’d it as alive. :And this greate blessing to his name doth give :To make it by his tombe, and issue live. :My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day :Afford thy drowsy patience leave to stay :One hour longer, so that we might either :Have sat up or gone to bed together? :But since thy finished labour hath possessed :Thy weary limbs with early rest, :Enjoy it sweetly, and thy widow bride :Shall soon repose her by thy slumbering side, :Whose business now is only to prepare :My nightly dress and call to prayer. :Mine eyes wax heavy, and the day grows old, :The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold, :Draw, draw the closed curtains and make room, :My dear, my dearest dust, I come, I come.

References

Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service: Colmworth Church Alterations and Additions

Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service: Colmworth Church Architecture

“My Dearest Dust”: Lady Katherine Dyer and Her Epitaph to Her Beloved Husband, Johann Wiserr
Church of England church buildings in Bedfordshire Grade I listed churches in Bedfordshire {{England-church-stub

See also

References