Apperly Mausoleum, Rodborough Church, Stroud

A small mausoleum, built in about 1913 for Sir Alfred Apperly (1839-1913), designed by Percy Morley Horder (1870-1944) with carved tympanum by John Houghton Maurice Bonnor (1875-1917); further family inscriptions were added later. Percy Morley Horder was married to one of Sir Alfred’s nieces, Rosa Catherine Apperly.  Sir Alfred died on 7 September 1913, aged 74. and was laid to rest in what was described in his obituary in the London Evening Mail as a ‘newly constructed vault in Rodborough Churchyard’, indicating that the mausoleum had already been at least partly built. The work is not included in the Final List of Percy Horder’s Works and was presumably done privately.

From about 1910 to 1915, Morley Horder worked in close association with John Houghton Maurice Bonnor (1875-1917), an architectural draughtsman turned craftsman, best known for his Arts and Crafts influenced jewellery, who also undertook commissions from Morley Horder for church furnishings, windows, and interior fittings. Bonnor made the carved angel tympanum which forms the major decorative element of the mausoleum.