Church Street
A display of photographs of church monuments to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Friends of Malvern Priory
You can see the monuments created by Samuel Baldwin (died 1645) in churches in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Chrys Plumley , an expert on 16C and 17C dress, has photographed many of Baldwin’s sculptures. He considers that the figures are ‘real characters’ and that his work was influenced by the arrival of Huguenot refugess from the Netherlands. The display includes the Knotsford monument in Malvern Priory, dated to around 1618. Mr and Mrs Knotsford lived in the Prior’s lodgings (now replaced by the Abbey Hotel).
One mystery is that Anne savage, the Knotsford’s daughter, wears Elizabthen dress whereas her mother is dressed in the up to date Puritan style of 1618. The explanation is that Baldwin’s son, fresh from his apprenticeship in London and aware of the latest fashions in dress, was responsible for carving Mrs Knotsford.