Kedleston Hall: Part three of my ‘jolly’ there last year – inside All Saints Church with skulls under the floor. Revisiting my blog during lockdown.
As promised here are my photos of the inside of the church of All Saints,
the only survivor of medieval village at Kedleston which Sir Nathaniel Curzon demolished to make way for his new home.
He didn't want to disturb the burial-place of his ancestors so the church was saved.
One enters the church through its oldest surviving feature, the Norman south door.
Most of the late 13th century building is constructed from local Derbyshire sandstone, when the early English style was giving way to the more elaborate Decorated style.
The Church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
In about 1700 Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Bt. employed Smith of Warwick to classicise the east wall facing the house.
He put up a sundial inscribed
'Wee shall [soon died all]' next to a skull and crossbones.
The 4th Lord Scarsdale was rector there from 1855-1916, and in 1884-5 he commissioned John Oldrid Scott to undertake a major restoration, which entailed removal of the box pews and the two-decker pulpit.
Jane Risdon 
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