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With Christmas greetings to all who pass by!
Glass by Douglas Strachan in Holy Trinity church, St. Andrews.
Holy Trinity
Anglican church. 1849. By W Railton. For Mary and Elizabeth Beckett. Coursed squared gritstone with herring-bone tooling, ashlar details, steeply-pitched slate roofs with gable copings and crocketed finials. Gothic Revival style. PLAN: nave of 5 bays with S aisle and gabled porch, chancel with S door, N and S transepts, crossing tower. EXTERIOR: elaborate scrolled hinges to double doors; paired lancet windows to nave, 3 lancets to E window, 4 to W end, paired lancets with tall buttress between to transepts. 2-stage tower with stone broach spire, pinnacles, lucarnes and clock faces. INTERIOR: octagonal nave piers, carved bosses to corbels, high Gothic arched ribbed roof; tall moulded chancel arch; the chancel S door opens into a lobby area with the studded and decorated door to the tower stairs opposite. Original board doors, numbered pews. Octagonal stone font with niches, cover replaced, choir stalls and pulpit 1961. Other C19 features include: eagle lectern given by Mary Beckett, 1880; W window stained glass depicting prophets and apostles in memory of Sir Thomas Beckett of Somerby and Meanwood; N transept window in memory of Marian, wife of Thomas Wolryche Stansfield of Weetwood Grove, d.1861; S transept window in memory of Christopher Beckett of Meanwood, date lost; the E window glazing is a memorial to the founders, given by their brothers and sister, Sir Thomas Beckett bart., Edmund Denison, Henry Beckett and Fanny Marriott. S aisle windows: 2 commemorate Thomas Wolrych Stansfield of Weetwood Grove, died 15 December 1885; a fine pair of windows in Art Nouveau style in memory of Marian and Walter Rowley of Alder Hill, a knight of St John of Jerusalem, died 9 February 1926. A plaque on the N wall of the chancel records that the founders were daughters of Sir John Beckett bart, the Revd George Urquart vicar, Mr Thomas Midgley, churchwarden. The extensive use of the Beckett family name throughout the church compensates for the lack of any inscription on the family burial vault to the east (qv). (Linstrum, D: The Historic Architecture of Leeds: 1969-: 38).
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/125558...
The only place in Kent that begins with the letter Q that has a church.
Just so you know.
I have John Vigar to blame for me crossing over onto the island, I never usually crib on a church before I go, but I did wonder if Holy Trinity was worth a visit.
Turns out it very much was, and as I was just the other side of The Swale, a short drive to get here.
Queenborough is an industrial, busy, tightly packed place, like a borough of London uprooted into the Kent marshes.
It seems so unlikely to have a fine church, but then the town is ancient, and the links with the sea, long.
I followed the sat nav past the old castle mound, and to the church, on a main road in residential housing.
First look was unpromising, with what looked like a garden shed bolted on the north side: turns out this is the vestry, and in a poor state. But the churchyard was packed full of interesting and grand monuments.
Don't know why I'm trying to get in, I told myself as I walked to the porch, bound to be locked.
But the porch door is unlocked, and although the church is empty, I can hear people in the vestry to the north, I try to make as much noise as possible so not to surprise them.
My eye goes straight to the font of 1610, and then the painted ceiling, the details of which are partially hidden under nearly a century-old covering of soot, but still stunning.
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The town of Queenborough grew to serve the long-vanished castle which had been founded in the fourteenth century by Edward III. The church - which should not be missed - dates from 1366 and consists of nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. Its churchyard is entirely crowded with headstones to those associated with the Royal Dockyard at Sheerness. Inside the church are two main items of interest. The most striking is the nave roof which is ceiled and painted with looming clouds. This work dates from the seventeenth century, as does the other item of note: the font. This is dated 1610 and includes a finely carved picture of Queenborough Castle, with four corner turrets and two cannon halfway up the walls. The fine Royal Arms are of Queen Anne's reign - the lion has the head of Charles I - and show the loyalty of the people of Queenborough to the monarch who had granted them their town charter.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Queenborough
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QUEENBOROUGH,
THE parish of which lies the next adjoining southwestward from that of Minster, on the western shore of this island, was so called in honor of Philippa, queen to Edward III.
THERE was an antient castle here, called the Castle of Shepey, situated at the western mouth of the Swale formerly, as has been already mentioned, accounted likewise the mouth of the river Thames, which was built for the defence both of the island and the passage on the water, the usual one then being between the main land of the county and this island.
This castle was begun to be new built by king Edward III. about the year 1361, being the 36th of his reign, (fn. 1) and was finished about six years afterwards, being raised, as he himself says in his letters patent, in his 42d year, for the strength of the realm, and for the refuge of the inhabitants of this island.
This was undertaken under the inspection of William of Wickham, the king's chief architect, afterwards bishop of Winchester, who considering the difficulties arising from the nature of the ground, and the lowness of the situation, acquitted himself in this task with his usual skill and abilities, and erected here a large, strong, and magnificent building, fit equally for the defence of the island, and the reception of his royal master. When it was finished, the king paid a visit to it, and remained here for some days, during which time he made this place a free borough, in honor of Philippa his queen, naming it from thence Queenborough, and by charter in 1366, he created it a corporation, making the townsmen burgesses, and giving them power to choose yearly a mayor and two bailiffs, who should make their oath of allegiance before the constable of the castle, and be justices within the liberties of the corporation, exclusive of all others; and endowing them with cognizance of pleas, with the liberty of two markets weekly on Mondays and Thursdays, and two fairs yearly, one on the eve of our Lady, and the other on the feast of St. James, and benefiting them with freedom of tholle, and several other privileges, which might induce men to inhabit this place. Three years after which, as a further favor to it, he appoined a staple for wool at it.
King Henry VIII. repaired this castle in the year 1536, at the time he rebuilt several others in these parts, for the defence of the sea-coast; but even then it was become little more than a mansion for the residence of the constable of it. And Mr. Johnston, in his book intitled Iter Plantarum Investigationis ergo susceptum, anno 1629, tells us, that he saw in this castle at that time, a noble large dining-room or hall, round the top of which were placed the arms of the nobility and gentry of Kent, and in the middle those of queen Elizabeth, with the following verses underneath:
Lilia virgineum pectus regale leonis
Significant; vivas virgo, regasque leo:
Umbra placet vultus, vultus quia mentis imago;
Mentis imago placet, mens quia plena Deo:
Virgo Deum vita, Regina imitata regendo,
Viva mihi vivi fiat imago Dei.
Qui leo de Juda est, et flos de jesse, leones
Protegat et flores, Elizabetha, tuos.
Lillies the lion's virgin breast explain,
Then live a virgin, and a lion reign.
Pictures are pleasing, for the mind they shew;
And in the mind the Deity we view:
May she who God in life and empire shews,
To me th' eternal Deity disclose!
May Jesse's flower, and Judah's lion deign
Thy flowers and lions to protect, great Queen.
¶In this situation it continued till the death of king Charles I. in 1648; soon after which the state seized on this castle, among the rest of the possessions of the crown, and then vested them in trustees, to be surveyed and sold, to supply the necessities of government, accordingly this castle was surveyed in 1650, when it appears to have consisted of a capital messuage, called Queenborough-castle, lying within the common belonging to the town, called Queenborough Marsh, in the parish of Minster, and containing about twelve rooms of one range of buildings below stairs, and of about forty rooms from the first story upwards, being circular and built of stone, with six towers, and certain out-offices belonging to it, the roof being covered with lead; that within the circumference of the castle was one little round court, paved with stone, and in the middle of that one great well, and without the castle was one great court surrounding it; both court and castle being surrounded with a great stone wall, and the outside of that moated round, the whole containing upwards of three acres of land. That the whole was much out of repair, and no ways defensive by the commonwealth, or the island on which it stood, being built in the time of bows and arrows. That as no platform for the planting of cannon could be erected on it, and it having no command of the sea, although near unto it, they adjudged it not fit to be kept, but demolished, and that the materials were worth, besides the charge of taking down, 1792l. 12½d.
The above survey sufficiently points out the size and grandeur of this building, which was soon afterwards sold to Mr. John Wilkinson, who pulled the whole of it down and removed the materials.
The scite of the castle remained in his possession afterwards till the restoration of king Charles II. when the inheritance of it returned again to the crown, where it has continued ever since. There are no remains of the castle or walls to be seen at this time, only the moat continues still as such, and the antient well in the middle of the scite within it, a further account of which will be given hereafter.
THE CONSTABLES of this castle were men of considerable rank, as appears by the following lift of them:
In the reign of queen Elizabeth, the annual fee of the keeper of this castle was 29l. 2s. 6d. (fn. 7)
ALTHOUGH Queenborough was formerly, whilst the castle waas standing, a place of much more consequence than it is at present, yet as to its size and number of inhabitants, it was much less so; for in the reign of queen Elizabeth, as may be seen by the return made of it in the 8th year of that reign, it ap pears, that there were here houses inhabited only 23; persons lacking proper habitation one; boats and ships twelve, from four tons to sixteen; and a key and landing-place to the town; proper persons occupied in carrying things from port to port, and in fishing, forty-five. At present this town consists of one principal wide street, the houses of which are neat, and mostly well-built, in number about one hundred and twenty, or more. The market house is a small antient brick building, in the middle of the street, with a room over over it. The court-hall is the upper part of a mean plaistered dwelling-house, close to the church-yard.
Notwithstanding the above-mentioned increase both of houses and inhabitants, it is, even now, but a poor fishing town, consisting chiefly of alehousekeepers, fishermen, and dredgers for oysters; the principal source of wealth to it being the election for members of parliment, which secures to some of the chief inhabitants many lucrative places in the ordnance, and other branches of government.
The corporation still subsists, consisting of a mayor, chosen on Sept. 29th, four jurats, two bailiffs, a recorder, town-clerk, chamberlain, and other officers, chosen annually by the free burgesses of the town and parish. (fn. 8)
The liberties of the corporation extend by water from the point of land joining to the river Medway to King's Ferry.
The arms of the town are, On a mount vert, a tower, with five spires on it, argent.
There is a copper as-work carried on in this place, which is the property of several different persons.
¶Though the water throughout the whole island of Shepey has been mentioned before to be in general exceeding unwholesome and brackish, yet the well be fore-mentioned on the scite of the castle here, is one of the exceptions to it. This well has been useless for many years, having little or no water in it, though several attempts had been made to restore it, when in the year 1723 it was more effectually opened by order of the commissioners of the navy, a full account of which was communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. (fn. 9) The depth of it was then found to be two hundred feet, and artificially steamed, the whole of it with circular Portland stone, the mean diameter four feet eight inches, there was little or no water then in it; on boring down they brought up a very close blueish clay, and after three days endeavours the augur slipping down, the water flowed up very fast, and kept increasing for some days, till there was one hundred and seventy six feet and upwards depth of water; what was extraordinary, they bored eighty-one feet below the trunk they had fixed four feet below the curb at the bottom of the well, before they met with this body of water, which by comparison is one hundred and sixty-six feet below the deepest place in the adjacent seas. This water proved excellently good, soft, sweet, and fine, and in such plenty as in great measure, excepting in time of war, when there is a more than ordinary call for it, to supply the inhabitants, as well as the shipping and several departments of government, which, jointly with the new well at Sheerness before-described, it now fully does.
The corporation have taken upon themselves to repair this well for several years past, at their own expence; notwithstanding which, it still continues the property of the crown, there having never yet been any grant made of it.
Anno 7 George III. an act passed for the better and more effectual maintenance and relief of the poor of the borough and parish of Queen borough.
Though Queenborough was made a borough by king Edward III. as before-mentioned, yet it had not the privilege of returning burgesses to parliament till the 13th year of queen Elizabeth's reign, in which year it made its first return of them.
QUEENBOROUGH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
¶The church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a handsome building, consisting of one isle and one chancel; it is decorated with a painted roof, and other ornaments, and very neatly kept. There is a high-raised seat in it, for the mayor and two bailiffs. The whole of it was raised, paved, and ceiled, and the gallery at the west end, erected by Thomas King, esq. the first time he was elected member of parliament in 1695. It has a square tower steeple at the west end, which seems much older than the church itself, and at the top of it there is a small wooden turret, in which hang five bells. It was once accounted as a chapel to the mother church of Minster, and belonged with it to the monastery of St. Sexburg in that parish, but it has long since been independent of it.
It is now esteemed as a donative, in the gift of the corporation of this place, and is of the yearly certified value of 20l. 2s. 6d.
Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, Grade II Listed building, largely 12th century with the usual Victorian restoration. Seen in February with the snowdrops out.
I berated myself all the way from the banks of the Medway up the A249 to Sittingbourne, telling myself it would be a wasted trip as clearly the church wouldn't be open. I had, in fairness, just struck out three churches in a row that were closed.
I arrived at the church, found a place to park.
There were no ride and stride signs, nothing to indicate it was open.
More dark mutterings to myself.
As I walked to the churchyard, families were coming out of the park next door, workers were clearing ivy from the wall surrounding the churchyard.
The porch gate had a lock on it, as before, but closer inspection showed it to not actually locking the gate. I tried it and the gate opened.
The next door was also unlocked, so I went through, and was in a void before the inner door.
I pushed and it did not yield.
I opened the middle door to let some light in, found the latch, pushed down and the door swung open to reveal a huge space.
To the west was the interior of the huge tower, big enough to fit some churches in. No ropes now hang down to ring bells.
I could find no light switches, so had to make do with natural light, meaning some details might have been missed.
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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
I berated myself all the way from the banks of the Medway up the A249 to Sittingbourne, telling myself it would be a wasted trip as clearly the church wouldn't be open. I had, in fairness, just struck out three churches in a row that were closed.
I arrived at the church, found a place to park.
There were no ride and stride signs, nothing to indicate it was open.
More dark mutterings to myself.
As I walked to the churchyard, families were coming out of the park next door, workers were clearing ivy from the wall surrounding the churchyard.
The porch gate had a lock on it, as before, but closer inspection showed it to not actually locking the gate. I tried it and the gate opened.
The next door was also unlocked, so I went through, and was in a void before the inner door.
I pushed and it did not yield.
I opened the middle door to let some light in, found the latch, pushed down and the door swung open to reveal a huge space.
To the west was the interior of the huge tower, big enough to fit some churches in. No ropes now hang down to ring bells.
I could find no light switches, so had to make do with natural light, meaning some details might have been missed.
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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
I berated myself all the way from the banks of the Medway up the A249 to Sittingbourne, telling myself it would be a wasted trip as clearly the church wouldn't be open. I had, in fairness, just struck out three churches in a row that were closed.
I arrived at the church, found a place to park.
There were no ride and stride signs, nothing to indicate it was open.
More dark mutterings to myself.
As I walked to the churchyard, families were coming out of the park next door, workers were clearing ivy from the wall surrounding the churchyard.
The porch gate had a lock on it, as before, but closer inspection showed it to not actually locking the gate. I tried it and the gate opened.
The next door was also unlocked, so I went through, and was in a void before the inner door.
I pushed and it did not yield.
I opened the middle door to let some light in, found the latch, pushed down and the door swung open to reveal a huge space.
To the west was the interior of the huge tower, big enough to fit some churches in. No ropes now hang down to ring bells.
I could find no light switches, so had to make do with natural light, meaning some details might have been missed.
-------------------------------------------
The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
I berated myself all the way from the banks of the Medway up the A249 to Sittingbourne, telling myself it would be a wasted trip as clearly the church wouldn't be open. I had, in fairness, just struck out three churches in a row that were closed.
I arrived at the church, found a place to park.
There were no ride and stride signs, nothing to indicate it was open.
More dark mutterings to myself.
As I walked to the churchyard, families were coming out of the park next door, workers were clearing ivy from the wall surrounding the churchyard.
The porch gate had a lock on it, as before, but closer inspection showed it to not actually locking the gate. I tried it and the gate opened.
The next door was also unlocked, so I went through, and was in a void before the inner door.
I pushed and it did not yield.
I opened the middle door to let some light in, found the latch, pushed down and the door swung open to reveal a huge space.
To the west was the interior of the huge tower, big enough to fit some churches in. No ropes now hang down to ring bells.
I could find no light switches, so had to make do with natural light, meaning some details might have been missed.
-------------------------------------------
The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
Ingham, written as “Hincham” in the Domesday Book of 1086, means “seated in a meadow”. Nothing of this period survives in the church today. Holy Trinity dates to the 13th. century, but there may have been a church on this spot since the late Saxon period. The oldest part of the present building is a stretch of walling at the south-west corner of the chancel. This is made of whole flints, as against the knapped flint of the rest of the building. The wall contains traces of what appears to be a blocked priest's doorway. Some of the stonework is in herringbone style, common in the late Saxon and early Norman period, but it seems doubtful that this is any earlier than 13th century.
Most of the church dates to the middle of the 14th century, just prior to the onset of the Black Death in 1348. On the north side of the chancel is the tomb of Sir Oliver de Ingham, who died in 1343. The tomb is in the position usually reserved for the founder, which might suggest that the church was erected around 1343, however the style of Sir Oliver's effigy points to an earlier time period, so it seems more likely that he had his own tomb and effigy prepared during his lifetime.
The nave was certainly rebuilt by Sir Oliver's daughter Joan and her husband Sir Miles Stapleton, after Sir Oliver's death. The Stapleton's founded a college of Trinitarian friars dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St. Victor to serve the church. There were two brothers, a sacrist, and a prior to serve Ingham and nearby Walcot churches, and the sacrist also acted as the vicar of Ingham. Though it was never very large, Ingham Priory was the mother house for all the other Trinitarian foundations in England.
There are traces of the monastic buildings on the north side of the church, but the best surviving parts of Ingham Priory now form the core of the nearby Swan Inn.
The college had risen to support six canons, a sacrist, and a prior by the 16th century. Perhaps the college finances could not support so many, for when Thomas Cromwell's commissioners descended upon Ingham in 1536 to suppress the college, they discovered that it had already stopped operating.
Though the nave is mostly 14th century, the south porch is from 1440. It is almost unique in English parish churches in that there are two storeys above the porch entrance. These two chambers were used as a residence by the sacrist of Ingham Priory, in his role as vicar of the church. Only seven parish churches in England have two upper storeys to a porch like this.
The exact date that the west tower was built is unknown but in 1488 the rector of Sutton, Roger King, left 6s 8d in his will towards the building of it, so it is assumed to have been built around that time. On the east face of the tower battlements is a Maltese Cross, the symbol of the Trinitarian Order. There are two bells in the tower, the oldest is medieval, of an unknown date, and the second was cast in 1661.
The main historic interest inside the church are the medieval tombs. In the nave is the tomb of Sir Roger de Bois (d. 1300) and his wife Margery (d. 1315), with worn alabaster effigies of the deceased. The style of the effigies suggest that they were carved well after the couple died. On the north side of the chancel is the founder's tomb of Sir Oliver de Ingham. His effigy rests on an unusual bed of pebbles, a design found in only two other English churches. One of the others is at Reepham, Norfolk, and was likely carved by the same mason.
The church gained Grade: I listed building status on 16th. April 1955. (English Heritage Legacy ID: 223662).
Allington, Lincolnshire - Holy Trinity Church. Dating from the C12th, with C13th; C15th; C16th and late C18th additions and alterations. Grade 2* listed. The church is in unusual in the lack of vehicle or permanent path access, there being just a grassy entrance from the road, and another private gate to Allington Hall.
Allington, Nr Grantham, Lincolnshire - Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, Manor Lane
September 2019
I went to a meeting for Bible Society volunteer speakers. We were updated on the latest news from China.
In 1804 the British & Foreign Bible Society was founded by men who worshipped in this church.
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
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The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
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The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
Sittingbourne is a large town up from Faversham on the A2, or the old high road.
Today it is post industrial, mostly, with a one way system and out of town big box stores.
I have seen little of worth in the town when we have passed through. So, Milton Regis was expected to be more of the same.
But the ancient borough is full of fine old timber-framed houses, narrow streets, but beyond them there are endless estates full of identical houses.
Holy Trinity sits the other side of a busy junction, at the end of a short lane, now used mostly by people visiting the large playing field so their dogs don't crap in their owner's back gardens.
Or so it seemed.
Urban churches are rarely open for causal visits, so it proved this time. The young folks paiting the parish offices didn't have a key for the church, so could not help.
So I made do with snapping the outside of the church and large collection of ancient gravestones, one I learn was connected to the Gunpowder Plot.
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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
Sittingbourne is a large town up from Faversham on the A2, or the old high road.
Today it is post industrial, mostly, with a one way system and out of town big box stores.
I have seen little of worth in the town when we have passed through. So, Milton Regis was expected to be more of the same.
But the ancient borough is full of fine old timber-framed houses, narrow streets, but beyond them there are endless estates full of identical houses.
Holy Trinity sits the other side of a busy junction, at the end of a short lane, now used mostly by people visiting the large playing field so their dogs don't crap in their owner's back gardens.
Or so it seemed.
Urban churches are rarely open for causal visits, so it proved this time. The young folks paiting the parish offices didn't have a key for the church, so could not help.
So I made do with snapping the outside of the church and large collection of ancient gravestones, one I learn was connected to the Gunpowder Plot.
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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
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The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
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The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
By now it was raining quite hard, so I grabbed a couple of shots from the other side of the road before going in.
Hello I said to the churchwarden, we've come to photograph the church.
Oh I don't know if that's possible, you might be journalists. What do you want the pictures for?
I explained about the website and liking churches and that we had come from Dover to see this church. I gave he my Moo card, and she siad it was OK. And then would not shut up, she told us all about the history of the church, the town, businesses. All nice, but I wanted to snap the church.
In the end, Jools took over and I set about snapping. And very fine it is too.
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Holy Trinity Church, which dominates the High Street, was built by Bishop Gundulf c.1080. There is good evidence to suggest that a much earlier church occupied the site in Saxon times. The church provided a focus for the religious and ceremonial life of medieval Dartford. The building was significantly enlarged during the reign of Henry III (1216-72) to accommodate a new chapel dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury for use by visiting pilgrims. Pilgrimages to Canterbury ceased in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII. At this time, Becket’s altar was removed from the church, his festivals abolished, and the local trade in pilgrim souvenirs was halted. Consequently, many Dartford traders lost a valuable source of income.
Further extensions were added to the church during the reigns of Edward I (1272-1307) and Edward II (1307-27). In 1313, Thomas de Wouldham, Bishop of Rochester, visited the church to inspect a new window, which his chaplain Hamo de Hethe commissioned. About 1470, bells were hung in the newly heightened tower.
Regular maintenance and upkeep of the church property was an expensive business, the cost being borne by the parishioners. In 1470 the church roof had to be re-covered with lead. Shortly afterwards, the church tower was heightened. A document of 1453 confirms that the church administered its own cemetery sited right next to the church building.
Prior to the Reformation, the church had no seats or pews for worshippers. The congregation remained standing during services. At least four main altars and other shrines decorated the church. The high altar was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Three additional altars were dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, St Mary, and St Ann. Statues of the Virgin Mary and St Anthony occupied a prominent position. A niche known as Sepulchre was used to display a crucifix during Holy Week. The front of the church was dominated by a large illuminated rood or cross.
Masses were said in the church for the souls of the departed. Singing or chanting in Latin formed an integral part of the worship. In c.1485, a magnificent fresco depicting St George slaying the dragon was painted on the east wall of St Mary's chapel. This painting can still be seen in the church today. Some of Dartford’s wealthy residents, like Thomas Bond, asked to be buried close to the main altar in the church. Prominent local worthies were commemorated in the church when they died. A fine commemorative brass can still be seen in the church today commemorating Richard Martyn who died 18 February 1402. A chantry or chapel known as Stampit Chantry was founded by Thomas de Dertford at Holy Trinity church in 1338.
dartfordparishchurch.org/history/index.html
Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall.[1] Born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from a young age. The son of a mining captain, he performed poorly in school, but went on to be an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport. His most significant contribution was to the development of the first high-pressure steam engine, he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive. On 21 February 1804 the world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.[2][3]
Turning his interests abroad, Trevithick also worked as a mining consultant in Peru and later explored parts of Costa Rica. Throughout his professional career, he went through many ups and downs, and at one point faced financial ruin, also suffering from the strong rivalry of many mining and steam engineers of the day. During the prime of his career, he was a well-respected and known figure in mining and engineering, but near the end of his life and after he fell out of the public eye. Today, his legacy is mostly known to the mining, engineering, and railway circles.
Richard Trevithick was born at Tregajorran (in the parish of Illogan), between Camborne and Redruth, in the heart of one of the rich mineral mining areas of Cornwall. He was the youngest-but-one child and the only boy in a family of six children. He was very tall for the era at 6 ft 2in, as well as athletic and concentrated more on sport than schoolwork. Sent to the village school at Camborne, he did not take much advantage of the education provided – one of his school masters described him as "a disobedient, slow, obstinate, spoiled boy, frequently absent and very inattentive". An exception was arithmetic, for which he had an aptitude, but arrived at the correct answers by unconventional means.[4]
Trevithick was the son of mine "captain" Richard Trevithick (1735–1797) and of miner's daughter Ann Teague (died 1810). As a child he would watch steam engines pump water from the deep tin and copper mines in Cornwall. For a time he was a neighbour to William Murdoch, the steam carriage pioneer, and would have been influenced by his experiments with steam-powered road locomotion.[5]
Trevithick first went to work at the age of 19 at the East Stray Park Mine. He was enthusiastic and quickly gained the status as a consultant, unusual for such a young person. He was popular with the miners because of the respect they had for his father.
In 1797, Trevithick married Jane Harvey of Hayle. They raised six children.
Jane's father, John Harvey, formerly a blacksmith from Carnhell Green, formed the local foundry, Harveys of Hayle. His company became famous worldwide for building huge stationary "beam" engines for pumping water, usually from mines, based on Newcomen's and Watt's engines.
Until this time, such steam engines were of the condensing or atmospheric type, originally invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and which also became known as low-pressure engines. James Watt, on behalf of his partnership with Matthew Boulton, held a number of patents for improving the efficiency of Newcomen's engine, including the "separate condenser patent" – which proved the most contentious.
Trevithick became engineer at the Ding Dong Mine in 1797, and there (in conjunction with Edward Bull) he pioneered the use of high-pressure steam. He worked on building and modifying steam engines to avoid the royalties due to Watt on the separate condenser patent. At Ding Dong Boulton and Watt served an injunction on him and posted it "on the minestuffs" and "most likely on the door" of the Count (Account) House which, although now a ruin, is the only surviving building from Trevithick's time at Ding Dong.
He also experimented with the plunger-pole pump, a type of pump – with a beam engine – used widely in Cornwall's tin mines, in which he reversed the plunger to change it into a water-power engine.
As his experience grew, he realised that improvements in boiler technology now permitted the safe production of high-pressure steam, which could move a piston in a steam engine on its own account, instead of using pressure near to atmospheric in a condensing engine.
He was not the first to think of so-called "strong steam". William Murdoch had developed and demonstrated a model steam carriage, starting in 1784, and demonstrated it to Trevithick at his request in 1794. In fact, Trevithick lived next door to Murdoch in Redruth in 1797 and 1798. Oliver Evans in the U.S. had also concerned himself with the concept, but there is no indication that his ideas had ever come to Trevithick's attention.[6]
Independently of this, Arthur Woolf was experimenting with higher pressures whilst working as the Chief Engineer of the Griffin Brewery (proprietors Meux and Reid). This was an Engine designed by Hornblower and Maberly, and the proprietors were keen to have the best steam engine in London. Around 1796, Woolf believed he could save substantial amounts of coal consumption.
According to his son Francis, Trevithick was the first to make high-pressure steam work in England in 1799. Not only would a high-pressure steam engine eliminate the condenser, but it would allow the use of a smaller cylinder, saving space and weight. He reasoned that his engine could now be more compact, lighter and small enough to carry its own weight even with a carriage attached. (Note this did not use the expansion of the steam, so-called "expansive working" came later).
Trevithick started building his first models of high-pressure (meaning a few atmospheres) steam engines, initially a stationary one and then one attached to a road carriage. A double-acting cylinder was used, with steam distribution by means of a four-way valve. Exhaust steam was vented via a vertical pipe or chimney straight into the atmosphere, thus avoiding a condenser and any possible infringements of Watt's patent. The linear motion was directly converted into circular motion via a crank instead of using a more cumbersome beam.
Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne.[7] (A steam wagon built in 1770 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot may have an earlier claim.) Trevithick named his carriage 'Puffing Devil' and on Christmas Eve that year, he demonstrated it by successfully carrying several men up Fore Street and then continuing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon. His cousin and associate, Andrew Vivian, steered the machine. This is widely recognised as the first demonstration of transportation powered by steam. It inspired the popular Cornish folk song "Camborne Hill".
During further tests, Trevithick's locomotive broke down three days later after passing over a gully in the road. The vehicle was left under some shelter with the fire still burning whilst the operators retired to a nearby public house for a meal of roast goose and drinks. Meanwhile the water boiled off, the engine overheated and the machine burned, destroying it. Trevithick did not consider this a serious setback, but rather operator error.
In 1802, Trevithick took out a patent for his high-pressure steam engine.[8][9] To prove his ideas, he built a stationary engine at the Coalbrookdale Company's works in Shropshire in 1802, forcing water to a measured height to measure the work done. The engine ran at forty piston strokes a minute, with an unprecedented boiler pressure of 145 psi.
The Coalbrookdale company then built a rail locomotive for him, but little is known about it, including whether or not it actually ran. To date, the only known information about it comes from a drawing preserved at the Science Museum, London, together with a letter written by Trevithick to his friend, Davies Giddy. The design incorporated a single horizontal cylinder enclosed in a return-flue boiler. A flywheel drove the wheels on one side through spur gears, and the axles were mounted directly on the boiler, with no frame.[10] On the drawing, the piston-rod, guide-bars and cross-head are located directly above the firebox door, thus making the engine extremely dangerous to fire while moving.[11]
This is the drawing used as the basis of all images and replicas of the later "Pen-y-darren" locomotive, as no plans for that locomotive have survived.
The Puffing Devil was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use. In 1803 he built another steam-powered road vehicle called the London Steam Carriage, which attracted much attention from the public and press when he drove it that year in London from Holborn to Paddington and back. It was uncomfortable for passengers and proved more expensive to run than a horse-drawn carriage and was abandoned.
Also in 1803, one of Trevithick's stationary pumping engines in use at Greenwich exploded, killing four men. Although Trevithick considered the explosion was caused by another case of careless operation rather than design error, the incident was exploited relentlessly by Watt and Boulton (competitors and promoters of the low-pressure engine) who highlighted the perceived risks of using high-pressure steam.
Trevithick's response was to incorporate two safety valves into future designs, only one of which could be adjusted by the operator.[13] The adjustable valve comprised a disk covering a small hole at the top of the boiler above the water level in the steam chest. The force exerted by the steam pressure was equalised by an opposite force created by a weight attached to a pivoted lever. The position of the weight on the lever was adjustable thus allowing the operator to set the maximum steam pressure. Trevithick also added a fusible plug of lead, positioned in the boiler just below the minimum safe water level. Under normal operation the water temperature could not exceed that of boiling water and kept the lead below its melting point. If the water ran low, it exposed the lead plug, and the cooling effect of the water was lost. The temperature would then rise sufficiently to melt the lead, releasing steam into the fire, reducing the boiler pressure and providing an audible alarm in sufficient time for the operator to damp the fire, and let the boiler cool before damage could occur. He also introduced the hydraulic testing of boilers, and the use of a mercury manometer to indicate the pressure.
In 1802, Trevithick built one of his high-pressure steam engines to drive a hammer at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. With the assistance of Rees Jones, an employee of the iron works and under the supervision of Samuel Homfray, the proprietor, he mounted the engine on wheels and turned it into a locomotive. In 1803, Trevithick sold the patents for his locomotives to Samuel Homfray.
Homfray was so impressed with Trevithick's locomotive that he made a bet with another ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, for 500 guineas that Trevithick's steam locomotive could haul ten tons of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren (51°45′03″N 3°22′33″W) to Abercynon (51°38′44″N 3°19′27″W), a distance of 9.75 miles (16 km). Amid great interest from the public, on 21 February 1804 it successfully carried 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men the full distance in 4 hours and 5 minutes, an average speed of approximately 2.4 mph (3.9 km/h).[14] As well as Homfray, Crawshay and the passengers, other witnesses included Mr. Giddy, a respected patron of Trevithick and an 'engineer from the Government'.[15] The engineer from the government was probably a safety inspector and particularly interested in the boiler's ability to withstand high steam pressures.
The configuration of the Pen-y-darren engine differed from the Coalbrookdale engine. The cylinder was moved to the other end of the boiler so that the firedoor was out of the way of the moving parts. This obviously also involved putting the crankshaft at the chimney end. The locomotive comprised a boiler with a single return flue mounted on a four wheel frame[citation needed]. At one end, a single cylinder with very long stroke was mounted partly in the boiler, and a piston rod crosshead ran out along a slidebar, an arrangement that looked like a giant trombone. As there was only one cylinder, this was coupled to a large flywheel mounted on one side. The rotational inertia of the flywheel would even out the movement that was transmitted to a central cog-wheel that was, in turn connected to the driving wheels. It used a high-pressure cylinder without a condenser, the exhaust steam was sent up the chimney assisting the draught through the fire, increasing efficiency even more.
The bet was won. Despite many people's doubts, it had been shown that, provided that the gradient was sufficiently gentle, it was possible to successfully haul heavy carriages along a "smooth" iron road using the adhesive weight alone of a suitably heavy and powerful steam locomotive. Trevithick's was probably the first to do so;[16] however some of the short cast iron plates of the tramroad broke under the locomotive as they were intended only to support the lighter axle load of horse-drawn wagons and so the tramroad returned to horse power after the initial test run.
Homfray was pleased he won his bet. The engine was placed on blocks and reverted to its original stationary job of driving hammers.
In modern Merthyr, behind the momument to Trevithick's locomotive is a stone wall, the sole remainder of the former boundary wall of Homfray's Penydarren House.[17]
A full-scale working reconstruction of the Pen-y-darren locomotive was commissioned in 1981 and delivered to the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum in Cardiff; when that closed, it was moved to the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. Several times a year it is run on a 40m length of rail outside the museum.
Christopher Blackett, proprietor of the Wylam colliery near Newcastle, heard of the success in Wales and wrote to Trevithick asking for locomotive designs. These were sent to John Whitfield at Gateshead, Trevithick's agent, who built what was probably the first locomotive to have flanged wheels.[18] Blackett was using wooden rails for his tramway and, once again, Trevithick's machine was to prove too heavy for its track.
In 1808, Trevithick publicised his steam railway locomotive expertise by building a new locomotive called 'Catch me who can', built for him by John Hazledine and John Urpeth Rastrick at Bridgnorth in Shropshire, and named by Mr. Giddy's daughter. The configuration differed from the previous locomotives in that the cylinder was mounted vertically and drove a pair of wheels directly with the connecting rods, without flywheel or gearing. This was probably Trevithick's fourth locomotive, after those used at Coalbrookdale, Pen-y-darren ironworks and the Wylam colliery. He ran it on a circular track just south of the present day Euston Square tube station in London. The site in Bloomsbury has recently been identified archaeologically as that occupied by the Chadwick Building, part of University College London.[20]
Admission to the "steam circus" was one shilling including a ride and it was intended to show that rail travel was faster than by horse. This venture also suffered from weak tracks and public interest was limited.
Trevithick was disappointed by the response and designed no more railway locomotives. It was not until 1812 that twin cylinder steam locomotives, built by Matthew Murray in Holbeck, successfully started replacing horses for hauling coal wagons on the edge railed, rack and pinion Middleton Railway from Middleton colliery to Leeds, West Yorkshire.
In 1805 Robert Vazie, another Cornish engineer, was selected by the Thames Archway Company to drive a tunnel under the River Thames at Rotherhithe. Vazie encountered serious problems with water influx and got no further than sinking the end shafts when the directors called in Trevithick for consultation. The directors agreed to pay Trevithick £1000 (the equivalent of £67,387 as of 2013[21]) if he could successfully complete the tunnel, a length of 1220 feet (366 m). In August 1807 Trevithick began driving a small pilot tunnel or driftway 5 feet (1.5 m) high tapering from 2 feet 6 inches (0.75 m) at the top to 3 feet (0.9 m) at the bottom. By 23 December after it had progressed 950 feet (285 m) progress was delayed after a sudden inrush of water and only one month later on 26 Jan 1808, at 1040 feet (312 m), a more serious inrush occurred. The tunnel was flooded and Trevithick, being the last to leave, was nearly drowned. Clay was dumped on the river bed to seal the hole and the tunnel was drained but mining was now more difficult. Progress stalled and a few of the directors attempted to discredit Trevithick but the quality of his work was eventually upheld by two colliery engineers from the North of England. Despite suggesting various building techniques to complete the project, including a submerged cast iron tube, Trevithick's links with the company ceased and the project was never actually completed.
The first successful tunnel under the Thames would be started by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel in 1823, three quarters of a mile upstream, assisted by his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel (who also nearly died in a tunnel collapse). Marc Brunel finally completed it in 1843, the delays being due to problems with funding.
Trevithick's suggestion of a submerged tube approach was successfully implemented for the first time across the Detroit River in Michigan with the construction of the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel, under the engineering supervision of The New York Central Railway's engineering vice president, William J Wilgus. Construction began in 1903 and was completed in 1910. The Detroit–Windsor Tunnel which was completed in 1930 for automotive traffic, and the tunnel under the Hong Kong harbour were also submerged tube designs.
Trevithick went on to research other projects to exploit his high-pressure steam engines: boring brass for cannon manufacture, stone crushing, rolling mills, forge hammers, blast furnace blowers as well as the traditional mining applications. He also built a barge powered by paddle wheels and several dredgers.
Trevithick saw opportunities in London and persuaded his wife and 4 children reluctantly to join him in 1808 for two and a half years lodging first in Rotherhithe and then in Limehouse
In 1808, Trevithick entered a partnership with Robert Dickinson, a West India merchant. Dickinson supported several of Trevithick's patents. The first of these was the 'Nautical Labourer'; a steam tug with a floating crane propelled by paddle wheels. However, it did not meet the fire regulations for the docks, and the Society of Coal Whippers, worried about losing their livelihood, even threatened the life of Trevithick.
Another patent was for the installation of iron tanks in ships for storage of cargo and water instead of in wooden casks. A small works was set up at Limehouse to manufacture them, employing 3 men. The tanks were also used to raise sunken wrecks by placing them under the wreck and creating buoyancy by pumping them full of air. In 1810 a wreck near Margate was raised in this way but there was a dispute over payment and Trevithick was driven to cut the lashings loose and let it sink again.
In 1809, Trevithick worked on various ideas on improvements for ships: iron floating docks, iron ships, telescopic iron masts, improved ship structures, iron buoys and using heat from the ships boilers for cooking.
In May 1810, he caught typhoid and nearly died. By September, he had recovered sufficiently to travel back to Cornwall by ship and in February 1811 he and Dickinson were declared bankrupt. They were not discharged until 1814, Trevithick having paid off most of the partnership debts from his own funds.
In about 1812, Trevithick designed the ‘Cornish boiler’. These were horizontal, cylindrical boilers with a single internal fire tube or flue passing horizontally through the middle. Hot exhaust gases from the fire passed through the flue thus increasing the surface area heating the water and improving efficiency. These types were installed in the Boulton and Watt pumping engines at Dolcoath and more than doubled their efficiency.
Again in 1812, he installed a new 'high-pressure' experimental steam engine also with condensing at Wheal Prosper. This became known as the 'Cornish engine' and was the most efficient in the world at that time. Other Cornish engineers contributed to its development but Trevithick's work was predominant. In the same year he installed another high-pressure engine, though non-condensing, in a threshing machine on a farm at Probus, Cornwall. It was very successful and proved to be cheaper to run than the horses it replaced. It ran for 70 years and was then exhibited at the Science Museum.
In one of Trevithick's more unusual projects, he attempted to build a 'recoil engine' similar to the aeolipile described by Hero of Alexandria in about AD 50. Trevithick's engine comprised a boiler feeding a hollow axle to route the steam to a catherine wheel with two fine-bore steam jets on its circumference. The first wheel was 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter and a later attempt was 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter. To get any usable torque, steam had to issue from the nozzles at a very high velocity and in such large volume that it proved not to operate with adequate efficiency. Today this would be recognised as a reaction turbine.
In 1811 draining water from the rich silver mines of Cerro de Pasco in Peru at an altitude of 14,000 feet (4267 m) posed serious problems for the man in charge, Francisco Uville. The low pressure condensing engines by Boulton and Watt developed so little power as to be useless at this altitude, and they could not be dismantled into sufficiently small pieces to be transported there along mule tracks. Uville was sent to England to investigate using Trevithick's high-pressure steam engine. He bought one for 20 guineas, transported it back and found it to work quite satisfactorily. In 1813 Uville set sail again for England and, having fallen ill on the way, broke his journey via Jamaica. When he had recovered he boarded the Falmouth packet ship 'Fox' coincidentally with one of Trevithick's cousins on board the same vessel. Trevithick's home was just a few miles from Falmouth so Uville was able to meet him and tell him about the project.
On 20 October 1816 Trevithick left Penzance on the whaler ship Asp accompanied by a lawyer named Page and a boilermaker bound for Peru. He was received by Uville with honour initially but relations soon broke down and Trevithick left in disgust at the accusations directed at him. He travelled widely in Peru acting as a consultant on mining methods. The government granted him certain mining rights and he found mining areas, but did not have the funds to develop them, with the exception of a copper and silver mine at Caxatambo. After a time serving in the army of Simon Bolivar he returned to Caxatambo but due to the unsettled state of the country and presence of the Spanish army he was forced to leave the area and abandon £5000 worth of ore ready to ship. Uville died in 1818 and Trevithick soon returned to Cerro de Pasco to continue mining. However, the war of liberation denied him several objectives. Meanwhile, back in England, he was accused of neglecting his wife Jane and family in Cornwall.
After leaving Cerro de Pasco, Trevithick passed through Ecuador on his way to Bogotá in Colombia. He arrived in Costa Rica in 1822 hoping to develop mining machinery. He spent time looking for a practical route to transport ore and equipment, settling on using the San Juan River, the Sarapiqui River, and then a railway to cover the remaining distance. In a biography his son wrote that Trevithick had in mind a steam-driven railway and not mule-driven.
The initial party comprised Trevithick, Scottish mining projector James Gerard,[22] two schoolboys: José Maria Montealegre (a future president of Costa Rica) and his brother Mariano, whom Gerard intended to enrol in Highgate School, North London,[23] and seven natives, three of whom returned home after guiding them through the first part of their journey. The journey was treacherous – one of the party was drowned in a raging torrent and Trevithick was nearly killed on at least two occasions. In the first he was saved from drowning by Gerard, and in the second he was nearly devoured by an alligator following a dispute with a local man whom he had in some way offended. He made his way to Cartagena where he met Robert Stephenson who was on his way home from Colombia. It had been many years since they last met (when Stephenson was just a baby). Stephenson gave Trevithick £50 to help his passage home. He arrived at Falmouth in October 1827 with few possessions other than the clothes he was wearing. Trevithick never returned to Costa Rica.
Taking encouragement from earlier inventors who had achieved some successes with similar endeavours, Trevithick petitioned Parliament for a grant but he was unsuccessful in acquiring one.
In 1829 he built a closed cycle steam engine followed by a vertical tubular boiler.
In 1830 he invented an early form of storage room heater. It comprised a small fire tube boiler with a detachable flue which could be heated either outside or indoors with the flue connected to a chimney. Once hot the hot water container could be wheeled to where heat was required and the issuing heat could be altered using adjustable doors.
To commemorate the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 he designed a massive column to be 1000 feet (300 m) high, being 100 feet (30 m) in diameter at the base tapering to 12 feet (3.6 m) at the top where a statue of a horse would have been mounted. It was to be made of 1500 10-foot-square (3 m) pieces of cast iron and would have weighed 6000 tons. There was substantial public interest in the proposal, but it was never built.
bout the same time he was invited to do some development work on an engine of a new vessel at Dartford by John Hall, the founder of J & E Hall Limited. The work involved a reaction turbine for which Trevithick earned £1200. He lodged at The Bull hotel in the High Street, Dartford, Kent.
After he had been working in Dartford for about a year, Trevithick was taken ill with pneumonia and had to retire to bed at The Bull hotel, where he was lodging at the time. Following a week's confinement in bed he died on the morning of 22 April 1833. He was penniless, and no relatives or friends had attended his bedside during his illness. His colleagues at Hall's works made a collection for his funeral expenses and acted as bearers. They also paid a night watchman to guard his grave at night to deter grave robbers, as body snatching was common at that time.
Trevithick was buried in an unmarked grave in St Edmunds Burial Ground, East Hill, Dartford. The burial ground closed in 1857, with the gravestones being removed in the 1960s. A plaque marks the approximate spot believed to be the site of the grave.[24] The plaque lies on the side of the park, near the East Hill gate, and an unlinked path.
Holy Trinity
Church. 1851-2. E.H. Shellard. Snecked stone with slate roof. Nave, chancel, aisles, clerestory, west tower and north porch. Projecting plinth. Parapet above moulded band with gargoyles and moulded copings. 6-bay clerestory and aisles with weathered buttresses (diagonal at corners). 3-light aisle windows and 2-light clerestory windows have rectilinear tracery and hoodmould. 5-light east window. Raked gable parapets with cross finials. The 3-stage tower has angled buttresses, a weathered plinth, a west door with crocketed ogee hoodmould, a 3-light transomed west window, clock apertures in the second stage, two 2-light belfry openings in the third stage with crocketed ogee hoodmoulds and is castellated. Octagonal columns with moulded capitals support the nave arcade. West gallery. Arch-braced roof trusses.
britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101068022-holy-trinity-churc...
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
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The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
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The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
Sittingbourne is a large town up from Faversham on the A2, or the old high road.
Today it is post industrial, mostly, with a one way system and out of town big box stores.
I have seen little of worth in the town when we have passed through. So, Milton Regis was expected to be more of the same.
But the ancient borough is full of fine old timber-framed houses, narrow streets, but beyond them there are endless estates full of identical houses.
Holy Trinity sits the other side of a busy junction, at the end of a short lane, now used mostly by people visiting the large playing field so their dogs don't crap in their owner's back gardens.
Or so it seemed.
Urban churches are rarely open for causal visits, so it proved this time. The young folks paiting the parish offices didn't have a key for the church, so could not help.
So I made do with snapping the outside of the church and large collection of ancient gravestones, one I learn was connected to the Gunpowder Plot.
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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis
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MILTON,
OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.
THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.
Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.
This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.
Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.
Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.
The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.
The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on
The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.
The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.
There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.
The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.
In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.
In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)
THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.
King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.
After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.
The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.
The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:
— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.
The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.
IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.
¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.
DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.
MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.
Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.
In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)
Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.
In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.
Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.
About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)
There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.
The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)
Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.
But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.
But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)
The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.
The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.
¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.
The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.
The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
------------------------------------------
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
---------------------------------------------
The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
------------------------------------------
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
---------------------------------------------
The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
C13 W tower with lancet windows (one is visible below the bell openings); aisles were added in the late C13. However, the church was extensively restored and altered in the C19 - the S porch was added (or rebuilt), the tower heightened (1878), the S transept added (replacing a chapel demolished at the start of the C19) and the chancel rebuilt (1855) in style of c.1300, to the designs of C.A. Buckler. The work was carried out during the incumbency of the Robert Goodwin from 1847; according to the church guidebook, Goodwin had been a leading light in the Cambridge Camden Society during his time at the University and financed some of the work himself, along with his widowed sister, Elizabeth Hemington-Goodwin. Listing: www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/11... .
The Holy Trinity Church in Upper Brook Street, Manchester was the first Armenian Church built and consecrated in Western Europe. It opened its Victorian doors to the Manchester Armenians on Easter Sunday, 1870.
The Armenians are an ancient people whose country included Mount Ararat, the present Republic of Armenia and much of eastern Turkey. It is a mountainous region surrounded by powerful often-warring neighbours. In the year 301 Armenia was the first country to establish Christianity as its state religion and this became a bone of contention with its non-Christian neighbours.
It appears that some Armenians have settled in Britain since Roman times. A later link with Britain was forged in India, where many Armenians had prospered since the sixteen hundreds. Again, their knowledge of languages and trade was valued by the British entrepreneurs, who paved the way until 1858, when India became “the jewel in the Crown of Britain England“.
Armenians have lived in western Turkey, such as Constantinople (Istanbul) and Smyrna (Izmir) since the Byzantine days. As many of them were in the cotton trade, they had established connections with Manchester.
“Cottonopolis“, as Manchester was nicknamed, became the obvious destination for some Armenians in the textile trade. The Armenian pioneers had set up agencies here in the 1830s and 1840s and by 1862 about thirty Armenian firms were operating in Manchester. As they prospered their thoughts turned to building their own church. They bought the plot of land on the corner of Upper Brook Street and Swinton Grove, raised the funds and built the present Holy Trinity Armenian Church.
A resident priest occupied the Vicarage at Holy Trinity Church. The incumbent, as well as looking after the spiritual needs of the community also often produced journals etc. The community used the Church as a focal point not only for worship but also as a social centre. The community of Manchester, because of its prosperity, held a distinctive position in the European Armenian Diaspora.
In recent years, the Manchester community has declined: the older generations have died and their children have moved away or intermarried. The number of Armenians in and around London however has increased. They have come from trouble spots around the world, namely: Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
The only place in Kent that begins with the letter Q that has a church.
Just so you know.
I have John Vigar to blame for me crossing over onto the island, I never usually crib on a church before I go, but I did wonder if Holy Trinity was worth a visit.
Turns out it very much was, and as I was just the other side of The Swale, a short drive to get here.
Queenborough is an industrial, busy, tightly packed place, like a borough of London uprooted into the Kent marshes.
It seems so unlikely to have a fine church, but then the town is ancient, and the links with the sea, long.
I followed the sat nav past the old castle mound, and to the church, on a main road in residential housing.
First look was unpromising, with what looked like a garden shed bolted on the north side: turns out this is the vestry, and in a poor state. But the churchyard was packed full of interesting and grand monuments.
Don't know why I'm trying to get in, I told myself as I walked to the porch, bound to be locked.
But the porch door is unlocked, and although the church is empty, I can hear people in the vestry to the north, I try to make as much noise as possible so not to surprise them.
My eye goes straight to the font of 1610, and then the painted ceiling, the details of which are partially hidden under nearly a century-old covering of soot, but still stunning.
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The town of Queenborough grew to serve the long-vanished castle which had been founded in the fourteenth century by Edward III. The church - which should not be missed - dates from 1366 and consists of nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. Its churchyard is entirely crowded with headstones to those associated with the Royal Dockyard at Sheerness. Inside the church are two main items of interest. The most striking is the nave roof which is ceiled and painted with looming clouds. This work dates from the seventeenth century, as does the other item of note: the font. This is dated 1610 and includes a finely carved picture of Queenborough Castle, with four corner turrets and two cannon halfway up the walls. The fine Royal Arms are of Queen Anne's reign - the lion has the head of Charles I - and show the loyalty of the people of Queenborough to the monarch who had granted them their town charter.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Queenborough
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QUEENBOROUGH,
THE parish of which lies the next adjoining southwestward from that of Minster, on the western shore of this island, was so called in honor of Philippa, queen to Edward III.
THERE was an antient castle here, called the Castle of Shepey, situated at the western mouth of the Swale formerly, as has been already mentioned, accounted likewise the mouth of the river Thames, which was built for the defence both of the island and the passage on the water, the usual one then being between the main land of the county and this island.
This castle was begun to be new built by king Edward III. about the year 1361, being the 36th of his reign, (fn. 1) and was finished about six years afterwards, being raised, as he himself says in his letters patent, in his 42d year, for the strength of the realm, and for the refuge of the inhabitants of this island.
This was undertaken under the inspection of William of Wickham, the king's chief architect, afterwards bishop of Winchester, who considering the difficulties arising from the nature of the ground, and the lowness of the situation, acquitted himself in this task with his usual skill and abilities, and erected here a large, strong, and magnificent building, fit equally for the defence of the island, and the reception of his royal master. When it was finished, the king paid a visit to it, and remained here for some days, during which time he made this place a free borough, in honor of Philippa his queen, naming it from thence Queenborough, and by charter in 1366, he created it a corporation, making the townsmen burgesses, and giving them power to choose yearly a mayor and two bailiffs, who should make their oath of allegiance before the constable of the castle, and be justices within the liberties of the corporation, exclusive of all others; and endowing them with cognizance of pleas, with the liberty of two markets weekly on Mondays and Thursdays, and two fairs yearly, one on the eve of our Lady, and the other on the feast of St. James, and benefiting them with freedom of tholle, and several other privileges, which might induce men to inhabit this place. Three years after which, as a further favor to it, he appoined a staple for wool at it.
King Henry VIII. repaired this castle in the year 1536, at the time he rebuilt several others in these parts, for the defence of the sea-coast; but even then it was become little more than a mansion for the residence of the constable of it. And Mr. Johnston, in his book intitled Iter Plantarum Investigationis ergo susceptum, anno 1629, tells us, that he saw in this castle at that time, a noble large dining-room or hall, round the top of which were placed the arms of the nobility and gentry of Kent, and in the middle those of queen Elizabeth, with the following verses underneath:
Lilia virgineum pectus regale leonis
Significant; vivas virgo, regasque leo:
Umbra placet vultus, vultus quia mentis imago;
Mentis imago placet, mens quia plena Deo:
Virgo Deum vita, Regina imitata regendo,
Viva mihi vivi fiat imago Dei.
Qui leo de Juda est, et flos de jesse, leones
Protegat et flores, Elizabetha, tuos.
Lillies the lion's virgin breast explain,
Then live a virgin, and a lion reign.
Pictures are pleasing, for the mind they shew;
And in the mind the Deity we view:
May she who God in life and empire shews,
To me th' eternal Deity disclose!
May Jesse's flower, and Judah's lion deign
Thy flowers and lions to protect, great Queen.
¶In this situation it continued till the death of king Charles I. in 1648; soon after which the state seized on this castle, among the rest of the possessions of the crown, and then vested them in trustees, to be surveyed and sold, to supply the necessities of government, accordingly this castle was surveyed in 1650, when it appears to have consisted of a capital messuage, called Queenborough-castle, lying within the common belonging to the town, called Queenborough Marsh, in the parish of Minster, and containing about twelve rooms of one range of buildings below stairs, and of about forty rooms from the first story upwards, being circular and built of stone, with six towers, and certain out-offices belonging to it, the roof being covered with lead; that within the circumference of the castle was one little round court, paved with stone, and in the middle of that one great well, and without the castle was one great court surrounding it; both court and castle being surrounded with a great stone wall, and the outside of that moated round, the whole containing upwards of three acres of land. That the whole was much out of repair, and no ways defensive by the commonwealth, or the island on which it stood, being built in the time of bows and arrows. That as no platform for the planting of cannon could be erected on it, and it having no command of the sea, although near unto it, they adjudged it not fit to be kept, but demolished, and that the materials were worth, besides the charge of taking down, 1792l. 12½d.
The above survey sufficiently points out the size and grandeur of this building, which was soon afterwards sold to Mr. John Wilkinson, who pulled the whole of it down and removed the materials.
The scite of the castle remained in his possession afterwards till the restoration of king Charles II. when the inheritance of it returned again to the crown, where it has continued ever since. There are no remains of the castle or walls to be seen at this time, only the moat continues still as such, and the antient well in the middle of the scite within it, a further account of which will be given hereafter.
THE CONSTABLES of this castle were men of considerable rank, as appears by the following lift of them:
In the reign of queen Elizabeth, the annual fee of the keeper of this castle was 29l. 2s. 6d. (fn. 7)
ALTHOUGH Queenborough was formerly, whilst the castle waas standing, a place of much more consequence than it is at present, yet as to its size and number of inhabitants, it was much less so; for in the reign of queen Elizabeth, as may be seen by the return made of it in the 8th year of that reign, it ap pears, that there were here houses inhabited only 23; persons lacking proper habitation one; boats and ships twelve, from four tons to sixteen; and a key and landing-place to the town; proper persons occupied in carrying things from port to port, and in fishing, forty-five. At present this town consists of one principal wide street, the houses of which are neat, and mostly well-built, in number about one hundred and twenty, or more. The market house is a small antient brick building, in the middle of the street, with a room over over it. The court-hall is the upper part of a mean plaistered dwelling-house, close to the church-yard.
Notwithstanding the above-mentioned increase both of houses and inhabitants, it is, even now, but a poor fishing town, consisting chiefly of alehousekeepers, fishermen, and dredgers for oysters; the principal source of wealth to it being the election for members of parliment, which secures to some of the chief inhabitants many lucrative places in the ordnance, and other branches of government.
The corporation still subsists, consisting of a mayor, chosen on Sept. 29th, four jurats, two bailiffs, a recorder, town-clerk, chamberlain, and other officers, chosen annually by the free burgesses of the town and parish. (fn. 8)
The liberties of the corporation extend by water from the point of land joining to the river Medway to King's Ferry.
The arms of the town are, On a mount vert, a tower, with five spires on it, argent.
There is a copper as-work carried on in this place, which is the property of several different persons.
¶Though the water throughout the whole island of Shepey has been mentioned before to be in general exceeding unwholesome and brackish, yet the well be fore-mentioned on the scite of the castle here, is one of the exceptions to it. This well has been useless for many years, having little or no water in it, though several attempts had been made to restore it, when in the year 1723 it was more effectually opened by order of the commissioners of the navy, a full account of which was communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. (fn. 9) The depth of it was then found to be two hundred feet, and artificially steamed, the whole of it with circular Portland stone, the mean diameter four feet eight inches, there was little or no water then in it; on boring down they brought up a very close blueish clay, and after three days endeavours the augur slipping down, the water flowed up very fast, and kept increasing for some days, till there was one hundred and seventy six feet and upwards depth of water; what was extraordinary, they bored eighty-one feet below the trunk they had fixed four feet below the curb at the bottom of the well, before they met with this body of water, which by comparison is one hundred and sixty-six feet below the deepest place in the adjacent seas. This water proved excellently good, soft, sweet, and fine, and in such plenty as in great measure, excepting in time of war, when there is a more than ordinary call for it, to supply the inhabitants, as well as the shipping and several departments of government, which, jointly with the new well at Sheerness before-described, it now fully does.
The corporation have taken upon themselves to repair this well for several years past, at their own expence; notwithstanding which, it still continues the property of the crown, there having never yet been any grant made of it.
Anno 7 George III. an act passed for the better and more effectual maintenance and relief of the poor of the borough and parish of Queen borough.
Though Queenborough was made a borough by king Edward III. as before-mentioned, yet it had not the privilege of returning burgesses to parliament till the 13th year of queen Elizabeth's reign, in which year it made its first return of them.
QUEENBOROUGH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.
¶The church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a handsome building, consisting of one isle and one chancel; it is decorated with a painted roof, and other ornaments, and very neatly kept. There is a high-raised seat in it, for the mayor and two bailiffs. The whole of it was raised, paved, and ceiled, and the gallery at the west end, erected by Thomas King, esq. the first time he was elected member of parliament in 1695. It has a square tower steeple at the west end, which seems much older than the church itself, and at the top of it there is a small wooden turret, in which hang five bells. It was once accounted as a chapel to the mother church of Minster, and belonged with it to the monastery of St. Sexburg in that parish, but it has long since been independent of it.
It is now esteemed as a donative, in the gift of the corporation of this place, and is of the yearly certified value of 20l. 2s. 6d.