Northamptonshire's Delapre Abbey raises funds to bid on rare sword

More than £8,500 has been raised so a bid can be made to bring a rare sword back home to a 12th Century abbey.

Delapre Abbey Preservation Trust wants to buy at auction the sword that belonged to Everard Bouverie, a former owner of the Northamptonshire abbey.

Gen Bouverie, who owned the abbey from 1858 to 1871, had the sword when he was in the Royal Horse Guards and fought in the Battle of Waterloo.

It would be "really special" to own the artefact, the trust said.

The online auction will be held on Tuesday.

Richard Clinton, chief executive of Delapre Abbey, said: "The opportunity to bring back an original artefact of Delapre Abbey is so incredibly rare.

"The story of the abbey is that for the Bouveries, the last family who owned it, times became quite hard so everything was sold and we've been painstakingly trying to build up the collection."

Gen Bouverie was the eldest the son of Edward and Catherine Bouverie of Delapre Abbey.

A colonel in the 15th Hussars, he was later appointed as an equerry for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and retired when he inherited the abbey aged 69, the trust said.

The trust already owns his medal from the Battle of Waterloo and a cartoon of him when he was in the Royal Horse Guards.

"The sword would be a natural fit to add to this as part of the storytelling of Everard," it said.

"It is also a step along our new aspiration to be an accredited museum with a collection which we display and share with as many people as possible."

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