Church Monuments -

Exton & Stoke Dry in the East Midlands of Rutland and consists of the combined area of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and most of Lincolnshire. Its main settlements are Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, Northampton and Chesterfield. Leicester is officially the largest city in the region of The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw were the five main towns of Danish Mercia (what is now the East Midlands).

The word Stoke is probably from the Saxon stokken which means a farm or land holding. Norse and Saxon usage put the adjective after the noun so whilst in Doomsday the village is referred to as Drystoke by 1300 we find reference to 'Thomas Nevill held Stoke Dry and half of Lyddington'. After the Nevills, Roger de Morewood's family held the village until it passed to the Digby family. The Digbys won fame through several notable scholars and Court officials to the Everard Digby who was hung drawn and quartered for his complicity in the gunpowder plot.

Of Stoke Dry, Camden says It is never to be forgotten as being the ancient residence of the famous and ancient family of the Digbys; but branded with everlasting infamy by Everard Digby, who wickedly conspired, with other execrable incendiaries, to destroy his king and country at one blow of hellish thunder'. However there is no firm evidence that the small room above the porch in the church was ever used by the plotters, although it is a popular tradition.
The church itself has monuments to the Digby family, memorials to the Peach family, and an area of yard devoted to the Bryan family. Some very significant murals in the Digby Chapel have been dated to 1280- 1284 and show figures resembling Red Indians which supports the view that North America was known at least 200 years before it was 'discovered by Christopher Columbus. The building was developed in the late fourteenth century with the top part of the tower added in the mid eighteenth century.

Here we see the children of Kenelm Digby (d.1590) and his wife, standing against the side of their tomb chest in the Digby Chapel.

Exton & Stoke Dry in the East Midlands of Rutland and consists of the combined area of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and most of Lincolnshire. Its main settlements are Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, Northampton and Chesterfield. Leicester is officially the largest city in the region of The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw were the five main towns of Danish Mercia (what is now the East Midlands).

	The word Stoke is probably from the Saxon stokken which means a farm or land holding. Norse and Saxon usage put the adjective after the noun so whilst in Doomsday the village is referred to as Drystoke by 1300 we find reference to 'Thomas Nevill held Stoke Dry and half of Lyddington'. After the Nevills, Roger de Morewood's family held the village until it passed to the Digby family. The Digbys won fame through several notable scholars and Court officials to the Everard Digby who was hung drawn and quartered for his complicity in the gunpowder plot.
Of Stoke Dry, Camden says It is never to be forgotten as being the ancient residence of the famous and ancient family of the Digbys; but branded with everlasting infamy by Everard Digby, who wickedly conspired, with other execrable incendiaries, to destroy his king and country at one blow of hellish thunder'. However there is no firm evidence that the small room above the porch in the church was ever used by the plotters, although it is a popular tradition. The church itself has monuments to the Digby family, memorials to the Peach family, and an area of yard devoted to the Bryan family. Some very significant murals in the Digby Chapel have been dated to 1280- 1284 and show figures resembling Red Indians which supports the view that North America was known at least 200 years before it was 'discovered by Christopher Columbus. The building was developed in the late fourteenth century with the top part of the tower added in the mid eighteenth century.