Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
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From the end of September, the Parish Office is moving into the Church itself, into a room at the East end of the Beauchamp Chapel. Access will be through the main West end door from 10.00am to 1.00pm, Monday to Friday. Ask at Reception for directions. The telephone number will stay the same: 01926 403940. Clergy Surgery will be held in the Church after that date, on Wednesdays at 6.30pm; ring the Parish Office for an appointment.
Vacancies are currently available for singers in all parts. Contact Ruaraidh Sutherland on 01926 403940, or email him at
St Mary's new flagpole is now in place. The previous flagpole had to be removed as its condition deteriorated to the point where it was becoming unsafe, but St Mary's were unable to fund its replacement. Thanks to the kindness of the Thornton family, we have been able to erect a new, steel flagpole, in memory of the late John and Peggy Thornton.
A new book on the history of the music at St Mary's, covering the last 900 years, is now available from St Mary's Shop, price £10.00. The author is Geoffrey Holroyde, former Choirmaster at St Mary's, and Vice President of the Guild of Ex Choristers. The book includes photographs covering the last 100 years, and personal reminiscences from ex choristers and other musicians dating back to the 1920s.
An item of graffiti came to light recently in one of the rooms in St Mary's Tower. Some ballast was cleared, revealing the following message written on the wall:
Octr 12th 1784 Was Launched
a Balloon
being the 1st(?) ever
Exhibited
No one has yet been able to find a reference to this flight, which is within a year of the first manned flight in France, and two months of the first manned flight in Great Britain. The writing is unclear at one point, so it is uncertain whether a 1st, or a 2nd or 3rd flight, is being referred to. Is it the first flight from Warwick, or one of the very first in Great Britain?
There has been much interest in the media lately concerning the monument to Fulke Greville. This enigmatic structure stands in the Chapter House at St Mary's and, while it is widely believed to be Greville's tomb he is in fact buried in a sealed vault nearby.
The monument has come to prominence recently in relation to the Shakespeare authorship question. A publication by A W L Saunders makes the claim that Fulke Greville is the real author of Shakespeare's works, citing Greville's own claim to be the "Master of Shakespeare", and Ben Jonson's description of Shakespeare as a "monument without a tomb".
Fulke Greville had the most remarkable career, being a soldier, sailor, courtier, statesman, poet, spymaster, dramatist, historian and literary patron, and was noted for his friendship with the poet, Sir Philip Sidney.
The excellence of Greville's writing is attested to by many literary critics:
"Greville is one of the most profound of our poets" (John Buxton)
"How great a poet Greville is. It is my opinion that he should be ranked with Jonson as one of the great masters of the short poem in the Renaissance" (Yvor Winters)
"Fulke Greville was one of the finest sonneteers of his day" (John F Danby)
There has also been recent interest in the inscription around the monument; this is thought to be a Rosicrucian cipher like the inscription on the Shakespeare monument in Westminster Abbey. Even paranormal investigators have claimed to have received a message from Fulke Greville recently.
A W L Saunders believes that Greville has left important and significant documents in the monument, and recent radar scan has shown the presence of objects inside which look like boxes. Further investigation using an endoscope (a small camera) has revealed only rubble, and evidence that the monument has been opened and investigated before.
The imposing monument may be viewed in St Mary's, free of charge, every day of the week.