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Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland only
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Rothley: Knights Templar chapel

NAME

TYPE

MATERIAL

DATE

unknown Master Templar

effigy

limestone

1250

Photograph taken during a heritage open day in 2006.

"The five foot long effigy is thought to have been carved in AD 1250. It was drawn and described in John Nichols History and Antiquities of of the County of Leicester and had had an insecure existence since 1567 when it was taken from Rothley parish church to the cemetery. John Nichols discovered it in 1790 covered in weeds and it was replaced in the church by Thomas Babington, Lord of Rothley Manor.

"In 1876 the church was restored and the effigy moved into the entrance of the Chapel of the Knights Templar but it suffered yet another eviction at an unknown date to an unknown place. In 2004 Brian Verity, the Rothley Archaeological Warden, went on the trail of the effigy and discovered it in a rockery outside the chapel. It was rescued, cleaned up and the project to restore it forever was started by the Rothley Heritage Trust.

source [The display case was no longer extant by October 2026. Instead the effigy was propped up against an interior wall of the chapel.]

Bob Trubshaw 2026


Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland
Text copyright Max Matthews 2002. Selected text copyright Bob Trubshaw 2025–6.
Images copyright Max Matthews 2002 or Bob Trubshaw 2002, 2025–6.
No copying or reproduction without prior written permission.
Published by Heart of Albion Press


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