Lord Cardigan,distantly related to the
man who helped lead the Charge of the Light Brigade,admits the
crypt holds the bones of eighteen of his ancestors,but insists he
is not responsible for its upkeep. Lord Denies Ownership Of Historical Moument
Old Etonian Lord Cardigan is getting his chequebook out to end a long-running fued over a crumbling mausoleum in a village churchyard.
For the past three years,the 47-year-old Earl has been locked in dispute with Bedfordshire County Council over ownership of the delapidated 340-year-old crypt in the graveyard of St Mary the Virgin Church in Maulden.
Lord Cardigan,distantly related to the
man who helped lead the Charge of the Light Brigade,admits the
crypt holds the bones of eighteen of his ancestors,but insists he
is not responsible for its upkeep.
The council,which is duty bound to ensure the historic mausoleum's maintainance because of its listed status,insists the Earl should pay to fix it.
Now an end to the row may be in sight after the council applied for a Lottery grant towards the estimated £60,000 renovation of the building,and the Earl said he would chip in too.
Council spokesman Glen Kildane "The council resolved to take on the building in a repaired state as it was felt taxpayers' money should be used elsewhere.
"No-one was willing to accept responsibility for the building and meantime it was crumbling away.This is a listed building under threat.
"The council have no desire to get into a costly and drawn-out legal dispute over ownership,which is why we have applied for the Lottery funds.
"An agent,working free of charge,has putting in a request for the funds so the work can be carried out."
The Earl of Cardigan,David Brudenell-Bruce,who lives in Savernake Forest,near Marlborough,Wilts,has agreed to make an contribution of "some thousands" to back the Lottery fund bid,but says that does not signify he accepts any responsibility for the mausoleum.
He said today that although previous Cardigans were interred there,his own ancestors only picked up the title by default,and he feels he has no duty to maintain the mausoleum..
"I liken the situation to that of finding a £5 note in the street - nobody knows who it belongs to,but it certainly does not belong to me or the Savernake Estate."
The Eton-educated Earl said "When the seventh Earl fell leading the legendary Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea,he died childless.
"According to the law of the day,an aristocratic title had to be kept alive,so the Cardigan name was transferred to one of my forebears.
"Although he wasn't blood-related,a
set of coincidental marriages put him next in line according to
tradition.
"We have said that if the Church or the County Council are going to use the building above ground for some new use,it might be more fitting if the coffins in the crypt below were removed to Savernake and buried here,where past members of my family have been buried down the centuries.
"This is because whatever the new use for the building in Bedfordshire is going to be,it certainly isn't going to be a mausoleum any more,and it is therefore no longer a proper place for coffins to permanently be.
"It is simply not known who owns this mausoleum,that is to say the semi-derelict building above ground.
"Bedfordshire County Council have told us they wish to take the building on,and as we do not own it,we have said that we have no views either way on that.
"Neither do we have any views on what future use it is put to,it not being our property.
"The idea that 'it must be yours because you are the present Earl of Cardigan' is nice and tidy,but it is simply factually wrong.
"The leader of the Charge of the Light Brigade died childless,and had no brothers or sisters.
"Indeed,'Here goes the last of the Brudenells' were his last words before charging the Russian cannons at Balaclava.Families DO die out.
"And when he died,his house,his papers,his money,his medals,his property,even the stuffed head of the horse on which he charged at Balaclava,all stayed with his nearest relatives,the Brudenells,who live in his house to this day.
"But under the rules that governed the use of titles in those days over a century ago,though the Brudenells kept all his property,with the man having no male heir,the title passed to an extremely distant relation from whom I am descended.
"He is not therefore my ancestor,nor am I descended from that childless man.
"Bedfordshire County Council accept that the mausoleum is not the property of the Trustees of Savernake Estate,nor of the current Marquess of Ailesbury who was not the Marquess in the '60s,nor is it the property of myself.
"They have said that in order to apply for a Lottery grant,they have themselves to raise some of the money they want to spend on the building,because one would never receive a 100 per cent grant for a restoration project like this.
"I cannot be expected to foot the bill for the restoration work,but we have said that we would be willing to make an ex gratia contribution of some thousands,enabling them to get the Lottery grant for the balance that they want."
Edmund Brudenell,also a descendant of the Cardigan family,admits removing a number of artefacts from the mausoleum in the 1960s.
He said "I took some items from the mausoleum at the request of the Marquess of Ailesbury (the present Earl of Cardigan's father) but I do not own it."