Royal Arms of King George III painted on a wooden panel located over the north door of St Denys' church, Cold Ashby. The arms are dated 1778.
This was cleaned and restored by Mrs Avis Smigielski in 1970 when she lived in the Old Vicarage.
"George III was the third Hanoverian king of Great Britain. During his reign, Britain lost its American colonies but emerged as a leading power in Europe. He suffered from recurrent fits of madness and after 1810, his son acted as regent.
George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London, son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He became heir to the throne when his father died in 1751, succeeding his grandfather George II in 1760. He was the first Hanoverian monarch to use English as his first language. In 1761, George married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and they enjoyed a happy marriage, with 15 children.
George chose his mentor the Earl of Bute as his first chief minister. He was a poor choice, isolating George from senior politicians. Effective government became almost impossible, and George was increasingly vilified. The instability following Bute's resignation in 1763 did little to solve the crown's financial difficulties, made worse by the Seven Years' War. In 1770, George appointed Lord North as his first minister. Although an effective administrator, North's government was dominated by disagreements with the American colonists over British attempts to levy taxes on them. War began in 1775 and was prolonged in 1779, at the king's insistence, to prevent copycat protests elsewhere. The British defeat in 1781 prompted North to resign.
In 1783, North and the prominent Whig politician Fox formed a coalition government. Their plans to reform the East India Company gave George the chance to regain popularity. He forced the bill's defeat in Parliament, and the two resigned. In their place George appointed William Pitt the Younger. The combination of Pitt's skill and war with France in 1793 strengthened George's position, but disagreements over emancipation of the Catholics - Pitt was in favour and George vehemently opposed - led to Pitt's resignation in 1801.
The American war, its political aftermath and family quarrels put great strain on George. After serious bouts of illness in 1788 - 1789 and 1801, thought now to be caused by porphyria, he became permanently deranged in 1810. The Prince of Wales (later George IV) became regent.
George remained ill until his death at Windsor Castle on 29 January 1820. In 1801, under the Act of Union Great Britain and Ireland were united into a single nation - the United Kingdom. George was thus the first king of the new nation."
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"St Denys has a nave without aisles but with a clerestorey on the S side. It retains its wooden W gallery, now housing the organ. It has a W tower, a chancel with a 19thc. E window in a 14thc. style and porches covering the N and S nave doorways. The N porch was converted into a vestry in 1881, and the N doorway retains some of its 12thc. sculpture. The S porch is dated 1696. A stained glass window installed by the vicar Gregory Bateman in 1882 in memory of his wife shows the interior and exterior of the church.
Cold Ashby was one of twenty four villages bestowed on the Abbey of Coventry by Earl Leofric, the founder, in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). Coventry's holding of two hides and a half is recorded in the Domesday Survey, along with half a hide held by William from the Count of Mortain, a virgate and a half held by Drogo from William Peverel, and two and a half virgates belonging to Geoffrey de la Guerche's manor of Welford, held from him by Alvred. The situation was complicated further by the fact that the soke was held by the manor of Winwick. The church of Cold Ashby along with that at West Haddon, was given to Daventry Priory by Hugh Poer, the Abbot of Coventry's consent to the grant dating from 1150. The abbot's consent protected the rights of Winwick church over both of these churches. Winwick's rights as a mother church to Cold Ashby were still in force in 1367, when there was a dispute over the amount of pension owed to the rector of Winwick by the vicar of Cold Ashby."
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