< Previous | Contents | Next >
Bevercotes and West Markham
The mausoleum at Milton was designed by Robert Smirke and built in 1831-2. It was intended as a tomb for the Duchess of Newcastle who died in 1822.(A. Nicholson, 1999).
To an unusual degree the district hereabouts has been productive of heroic and determined men, animated by a stern sense of duty, and prepared to do diligently and firmly that which they believed to be right, at whatever cost. About four miles from Tuxford there are two villages which consist each of a few scattered farmhouses, standing far apart in the middle of green fields. One of these is Bevercotes, which covers a broad expanse of well wooded and apparently fertile country. Here and there are comfortable homesteads dotting the landscape, amid which Lound Hall, a more imposing building, occupies a prominent place, but there are no clusters of cottages lining a well-worn street, as in the typical English hamlet. The main road passes through fields where the cattle are grazing, and winding branches of it lead conveniently from farm to farm. It is on record that a church once stood here which fell down during the seventeenth century, and traces of it have occasionally been met with. In the thirteenth century the village gave its name to a family of some influence, of whom William de Bevercotes was Chancellor of Scotland (35th Edward I.). Thoroton gives a full pedigree, which shows that the last heir, Cuthbert Bevercotes, died without male issue, and the property was carried by his daughter Mary to Rutland Molyneux, her husband, grandson of Judge Molyneux, by whom it was sold to the Earl of Clare.
All Saints church, West Markham. (A. Nicholson, 1983).
A visitor returning from Haughton to Tuxford cannot fail to be attracted by a fine church erected at West Markham by the Duke of Newcastle in 1831. It was built from Doric designs by Sir R. Smirk, and is intended to serve partly as a mausoleum. Here is the vault of the noble family of Clinton; and herein the two last Dukes of Newcastle were interred. The church contains a monument to the fourth Duke, and opposite to it is a beautiful piece of statuary to the memory of his Duchess, by Westmacott. The inscription states that her Grace "gave birth to fourteen children, ten of whom lived to deplore the bereavement of an incomparable mother. Of the others, Anne Maria preceded her by a few months, and it is humbly hoped led the way to regions of eternal bliss. Two infants were carried by their parent to the grave." The parishioners of West Markham and Bevercotes worship in this new edifice, and the old church at Markham, which stands at the foot of the village, is not now used.