Norwich, Norfolk, UK - a photo on Flickriver

Church of St Peter Parmentergate, situated on King Street. Redundant since 1981 and now in the care of The Norwich Historic Churches Trust.

Monument to Richard †1615 and Elizabeth (née Hobart)† 1622 Berney. South wall of chancel, next to altar. Plaster. Commissioned by Elizabeth’s brother, Edward, 1623, at her request. Possibly by a member of Edward Stanyon’s workshop.

The monument was restored by Dr David Carrington of Skillingtons in 2008. Their website includes an account of the work and a portfolio of photos: www.skillingtons.co.uk/portfolio/norwich-st-peters/

A large and impressive monument, unusual in being of plaster. In scale it fits into the tradition of monuments to lords of the local manor, and the Latin inscription notes that the deceased were Richard Berney †1615 of Langley and Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Jacob Hobart of Hales Hall. It continues that she died in 1622, and that the monument was commissioned by her brother, Edward Hobart in 1623. Blomefield notes that by 1626 the Berneys are recorded as owning Berneys-Inn near the churchyard. It was recorded in King Street from 1267 to the 15th century and the site has been identified by Plunkett as nos 86 to 90, on the same side as the church just before King Street joins Mountergate.

Richard and Elizabeth Berney lie in their dark robes on their backs, their hands clasped prayer, presumably to the haloed heads of Christ and the Virgin Mary on the elaborate decorative scroll framing the Latin inscription. Elizabeth rests her feet on a heraldic bull (the Hobart family emblem) and Richard on a bear (a punning reference to Berney). The base is decorated with simulated marble with two cherubs to remind us of death. One sleeps on a skull, holding an extinguished torch and his companion on an hour-glass, holding a grave-digger’s spade. The colour is taken up in the figures of the three cardinal virtues flanking the splendid achievement: Hope with anchor and chain, Faith, bible in hand and Charity giving suck, with another infant at her feet. The canopy, with its black Doric columns, is decorated with angel heads and in the centre an improbable plumed American Indian – a reminder of the renewed call for recruits to and investment in the London based Virginia Company.

Their coats of arms are supported by two bears, with Father Time holding his scythe above as a further reminder of death. Given the difficulty of producing plaster figures it is not surprising that the patterning of the surround behind them (based on a Renaissance model popularised by Sansovino in Venice), the strapwork of the cartouche and decoration of their ruffs, for instance, is of higher quality than the effigies. This, though, raises the question of the choice of plaster for a funeral monument. One obvious reason is cost. In 1608 Sir William Paston paid £200 for a comparable monument in St Edmund, Paston, which had combined alabaster and marble. Plaster must have been considerably cheaper and Edward Hobart may have been encouraged by the presence of one of London’s leading plasterers, Edward Stanyon, in Norfolk. Especially since he would have known Stanyon’s ceilings for Sir Henry Hobart at Blickling in 1620, as well as those at Felbrigg for Thomas Windham from 1621-23. Stanyon remained in Norfolk to produce a now lost overmantel at Hunstanton Hall from 1624-1626, which would have included modelling in higher relief than his ceilings. Both branches of the Hobarts (Blickling and Hales Hall) were descended from Sir James Hobart (d. 1517), attorney-general to Henry VII, who had moved into his major residence at Hales Hall, Loddon by 1482. Stanyon had trained a number of apprentices, some of whom would have worked with him in Norfolk, and later Apethorpe Hall in Northampton. Dr. Claire Gapper, the leading specialist of British Renaissance plasterwork, has suggested that it is therefore probable that the monument was produced by Stanyon’s team, but added that that it is difficult to be certain in the absence of any surviving comparative plasterwork.

Francis Blomefield, 'City of Norwich, chapter 42: Upper, or North Conisford ward, St Peter Per Mountergate and South Conisford ward' in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 4, the History of the City and County of Norwich, Part II (London, 1806), pp. 64-84 and 84-120; www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norwich/kin.htm; www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/norwich/bnorwich/ncbei.htm; clairegapper.info/search-results.html?search Chapter VI
Transmission and Diffusion, The plasterwork of Edward Stanyon and the dominant style of the 1620s.

detail of the coat of arms

Taken on: November 25, 2018

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Sets appears in: • Norwich, Church of St Peter Parmentergate

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