Gardner gothic at St Mary's Church, Warwick

A visit to the folks in Warwick during the weekend, and a special trip to the Collegiate Church of St Mary's, which towers over the medieval-and-Georgian town centre.

I was on the lookout for a bit of Gardner family history - an inscription bearing the tribe's name. And after much searching, there it was, carved into the back of a seat. Dedicated to E.A. Gardner, the seat was endowed by my great-grandmother as a memorial to her husband Ernest, who died during the Great War.

My father is Welsh - from a small mining town in South Wales - but clearly the links with Warwick and Leamington Spa can be traced back a long way.

The church itself is fascinating, and definitely helped to spark my interest in architecture as a nipper. It is one of the largest (non-cathedral) churches in England - not to mention the only one with a chapter house - and its tower can be seen from miles around. Much of the church was razed to the ground during the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694, and was rebuilt in a curious hybrid of classical and gothic (clothic? gothical?), with the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren, who was paid a princely £10 for his trouble – plus an extra £1 for his "man". 

The Gardner memorial chair is located in the diminutive Dean's Chapel, which is squeezed inside the buttresses between the church's 14th century chancel and celebrated Beauchamp Chapel, a grand 15th century mausoleum. It has extremely intricate plaster fan vaulting, and provides an intimate interlude while touring the monumental interior of the church.

The chancel is best-known for its vaulted ceiling, which features "flying ribs" of stone. A similar feature is found in Bristol Cathedral. Meanwhile, the Beauchamp Chapel houses tombs and other sculpture that are of unparalleled quality in Britain. The famous gilded effigy of Earl Richard was recently borrowed by the V&A for its Gothic exhibition, and was described by the museum as "the finest 15th-century funerary monument in England".

Meanwhile, the chapter house is home to the oversize tomb of Tudor poet, dramatist and statesman Fulke Greville, who was murdered by his servant in 1628. It is currently the focus of an investigation into whether Fulke Greville was actually author of several plays by his contemporary and friend William Shakespeare. Permission has recently been granted to insert an endoscope video camera into a crack in the tomb, to see if it houses a casket of documents including a first edition of Antony and Cleopatra.