The Percy Tomb is described in The Buildings of England, Yorkshire: York and the East Riding by Nikolaus Pevsner and David Neave as ‘the most splendid of all British Dec funerary monuments’. It is not known for whom the tomb was actually built, although it is thought that it is for Lady Eleanor Percy, the wife of the first Lord Alnwick, who died 1328. The tomb is located adjacent to the high altar of the church, indicating the wealth and status of the Percy family in the 14th century. It dates to around 1340 and has an elaborately decorated canopy showing the journey of the soul after death. There is no effigy on the tomb and the top slab was removed in 1825.
This photograph was withdrawn from the open Red Box Collection for conservation reasons during the 2011-2012 Red Box Project.
This is part of the Series: RBO01/20 Early Photographic Print Collection: Humberside; within the Collection: RBO01 Early Photographic Print Collection
© Courtauld Institute of Art
Photographer: Crossley, Frederick Herbert
Medieval Minster, Parish Church, Medieval Canopied Tomb