Relhan Collection : 250 Long Stow church. High tomb with recumbent effigies to the Cage family

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>In 1609 Sir John Cage (grandson of the first Sir Anthony Cage) built a chapel S of the nave and his son, Sir Anthony, built another on the N side. Sir Anthony built a monument to his father in the S chapel, leaving space for himself on the N. There were other memorials for the Cage family in the church including one for the 2nd Anthony Cage (d. 1603). Layer was delighted by the 2 new chapels and ‘<i>fair monuments’</i>. However, monuments to the Bovey family caused more anger with church authorities, for they blocked the chancel, and orders for removal were ignored. When Blomefield visited 1727 he was appalled to discover the mess the neglected memorials were causing. ‘<i>I found a dismal sight of noble monuments of curious workmanship, battered and spoiled in a most frightful manner....here one may see a lady in fine marble kneeling on her cushion without a head....there a knight in complete armour...thrown into a vault’</i>. When Cole drew the church 1743 he showed the S chapel and the memorial in a derelict state, with the top half of the building removed and an opened tomb exposed. The N chapel looks complete. In 1827 there were still complaints about ‘<i>a (Bovey </i>252<i>) monument of preposterous size, thrusting the Communion table from its proper place’</i>. By 1929 almost the whole church except the tower had been rebuilt and only the Bovey monument remained. Now the mutilated remains of the effigies have been pieced together, Lady Cage probably having the wrong head, with figures of the 10 children and an inscription to the 2nd Sir Anthony Cage reset in N aisle, with the extraordinary Bovey memorial above them. Cole gives a long detailed account of these monuments as he saw them in 1743. </p><p>Boissier 1827; Palmer 1932 and 1935; Blomefield 1751; RCHME 1968; VCH 1973</p></p>