page_title: Norbury, Derbyshire
section_title: Fitzherbert memorials
hierarchical_section_title: Norbury, Derbyshire / The church / Fitzherbert memorials
caption_attribution_description: (St Mary and St Barlok)Monument to Sir w:Ralph Fitzherbert,d.1483,and his wife:detail of wife in church in Norbury, Derbyshire
context_page_description: Norbury is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is located 3 miles north of Rocester, on the B5033 road and the River Dove. The hamlet has links with George Eliot's family, the Evans. George Eliot's father, Robert Evans, was born in Roston Common and sang in the choir at Norbury church, and most of George Eliot's paternal ancestors are buried there.
  The ecclesiastical parish of Norbury includes Norbury, Roston, the parochial chapel and manor of Snelston, the hamlets of Birchwood and Darley Moor, and formerly included the liberty of Stydd, now in Yeaveley.
  A Methodist chapel stood where Chapel Farm, by the Queen Adelaide Inn, is now. Dinah Morris preached here. Eliot's father Robert was a carpenter at Norbury, and became a land agent here- he moved with his employer to Arbury, where Eliot was born to his second wife. Eliot's own connections with Norbury were slight- "As to my indebtedness to facts of locale- the details which I knew as facts and have made use of for my picture were gathered from such imperfect allusion and narrative as I heard from my father in his occasional talk about old times."
context_section_description: There are a number of memorials to the Fitzherbert family in the church, including Sir Henry (d. 1315) depicted as a cross-legged knight, Nicholas (d. 1473) carved in alabaster with attendant mourners, and Sir Ralph Fitzherbert (d. 1483) and his wife, again in alabaster.
  The crossed legs of Henry, 6th Lord of Norbury c. 1275- c. 1315 indicate his profession of Christian faith and not participation in a Crusade; although his year of death is uncertain it is known that he was not a Crusader
  Nicholas Fitzherbert, High Sheriff of Derbyshire and 11th Lord of Norbury died in 1473. He is shown in full plate armour with a collar of alternating suns and roses with a pendant of the White Lion of the House of Marche, the badge of Edward IV. There is a small angel supporting his right foot.
  Ralph's feet rest on a lion; next to it and under Ralph's shoe crouches the small figure of a bedesman. The bearded bedesman is telling his rosary for the souls of the departed. Ralph bears the Yorkist livery collar of alternating suns and roses, with the White Boar of Richard III as a pendant. Since the destruction of the effigy of Ralph Neville (d. 1484) at Brancepeth, this is the only surviving representation of a boar pendant.
  The armour portrayed on the effigy of Ralph Fitzherbert has been reproduced as a fully functional suit of plate.
  An incised effigy on an alabaster slab of a woman tied in a shroud has been identified as that of Benedicta (d. 1531) wife of John Fitzherbert, 13th Lord. The effigy is surrounded with four coats of arms, one of which is of the Bradbourne family of Benedicta. Above the figure is a worn inscription with the date 1531.
  John Fitzherbert separated from Benedicta early in their marriage. In his will he disinherited Benedicta and denied paternity of her children, stating  "…Bennett my wyffe hath been of lewd and vile disposicion and cowde not be content with me but forsaken my houshoolde and company and lyffed in other places where yt pleased her."
  The great east window of the chapel originally held 14th century glass depicting a large scene with full-sized figures. By 1770 the glass was in very bad condition. At that time the rectors of parishes were personally responsible for the financing of repairs to their churches- so the rector of Norbury, the Rev. S. Mills, had the window bricked up with the glass remaining in situ. In 1830 the then rector, the Rev. Thomas Bingham, was approached by a Roman Catholic family of Yorkshire with a view to purchasing the glass. Whether the glass was removed and sold, or stolen (as happened at Haddon Hall), or had disintegrated is not known, but it had disappeared by 1842 when the window was opened up again and filled with 15th century glass taken from the rest of the church windows.
caption: Ralph's wife
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot G7", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "3399/10", "Image YResolution": "3399/10", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:21 17:30:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1160", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5125", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:21 10:42:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:21 10:42:48", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "85/16", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2259/250", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1280", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1600", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1280", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1012", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3648000/287", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "547200/43", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "64d32516aa6d1707663e039489c2b3fb"}