Robert Pursglove of Tideswell

Sylvester was the Prior of Guisborough in 1534 and the Suffragan Bishop of Hull1538.  He was also adviser to King Henry VIII and an important figure in  the church, surviving the changes in the reformation.  In 1563 Robert obtained letters of consent from Queen Elizabeth I to establish a Grammar School in his home village of Tideswell in Derbyshire.  It is at Tideswell that he was buried in  1579.

In front of the high alter of the Church of St John the Baptist is a large slab and floor brass commemorating his interment.

Considering its age, the detail of the brass is very fine.

 The church, which is also called the Cathedral of the Peaks, is a substantial building on the main route through the village.

The Interior is splendid and the box pews are numbered and would have been originally used as family pews.

The stained glass at the high alter and the figures in the saintly recesses are all details which are characteristic of a time before the Reformation and the English Civil War when many churches were damaged or adjusted to fit the politics of those times.

The carving and detail in the choir is also very grand for a church outside of the mainstream routes and cities.
Alas, many of the church records were destroyed during the English Civil war and those of Bishop Pursgloves birth, death and a 60 year time thereafter are not to be found.

Tideswell is an interesting place to visit.