Friday 16 January 2009

Minchinhampton


Minchinhampton is the family 'Seat'. Gatcombe Park was the family home, and there are still plaques and graves in Minchinhampton Church with the Sheppard name.

This picture (small one scanned, I have a huge version in the attic somewhere) says 'Minchinhampton the Seat of Philip Sheppard'and there's a small version of part of the family arms too*.

When I was much younger, the family took a trip to Minchinhampton. We went into the church and there were the name plates on the wall... we met the church warden and he saw us looking at them. He said something disparaging, about name plates on church walls not being right, in answer to an innocent question from my brother. Not very nice of him.

In the graveyard was a huge monument to some members of the family, I'll scan in the picture at some point.

* Coat of arms is the shield, the crest, the supporters and the motto. What people usually call a family crest is actually just the shield. I did some work on heradldry when I was working for a University.

No comments:

Post a Comment