Christopher Kempster (1627 – 1715) was an English master stonemason and architect who trained with Sir Christopher Wren, working on St Paul's Cathedral.[1]
Christopher Kempster (1627 – 1715) was an English master stonemason and architect who trained with Sir Christopher Wren, working on St Paul's Cathedral.[1]
Kempster was from Burford in Oxfordshire, England. He sold Cotswold stone from his quarry at Upton, near Burford, to rebuild London after the Great Fire of London in 1666.[2] He was also Christopher Wren's master mason during the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral in London. His County Hall, built 1678–82 in Abingdon, is now the Abingdon County Hall Museum.[3]
The Kempster family quarry supplied stone for Blenheim Palace, Oxford colleges, and Windsor Castle.
His buildings, many with Sir Christopher Wren, include:
John Perrott, Lord of the Manor, engaged Kempster to refit St Mary's Church, North Leigh, and to build a burial chapel for the Perrott family to the north of the north aisle.[5] Kempster linked the Perrott chapel and the north aisle by an arcade of Tuscan columns.[7]
St John the Baptist's Church in Burford has a memorial to Christopher Kempster.[2][8]
