The mausoleum is built of stone and attached to the north side of the church, towards the west end. It is a large rectangular structure designed in a cardboard Gothic style with battlements etc.
Not known
Gothic Revival
Grade I (England and Wales)
1800
The plaque on the exterior of the mausoleum says it was built by Henry Dawkins for himself and his heirs. Above the door inside the church leading into the mausoleum is a large pedimented tablet bearing twenty names. The earliest is that of Lt Col Charles Dawkins, 7th son of Henry Dawkins, who died in 1799 of wounds received at Alkmaar, aged 27. The others include Henry Dawkins, of Over Norton and Standlynch, Wilts (later renamed Trafalgar House), 1728-1814, and his wife, Juliana Colyear, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Portmore and Juliana, Dowager Duchess of Leeds (d.1821), and George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, Henry’s 2nd son, the builder of Penryn Castle (his grandfather had married Elizabeth Pennant). To left and right of the large tablet are round-headed niches of grey marble. One contains a monument to William Morant of Jamaica, d.1744 (his connection with the Dawkins family is unknown, but they too came from Jamaica where, in 1844, George Dawkins-Pennant owned 764 slaves). The other contains a monument with an elegant urn to James Dawkins, of Upper Norton, d.1766: it was designed by Nicholas Revett (who was a friend of Henry’s elder brother, another James, 1722-57, who, together with Robert Wood, discovered Palmyra).
The stonework is in good condition, and the downpipes are in reasonable order, but there are plants growing in the roof (visited 2003).
BoE: Oxfordshire (1974), 537-8;
Penryn Castle (National Trust, 1991).
None
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Church of St Mary
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire
OX7 5NT
England