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Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Kimpton, Hertfordshire. Grade I. Photographed 1 January 2013.
So on entering the church, the first thing that stands out, other than the sheer size of the place, is this organ in the nave, directly opposite the porch. This organ was built in 1897 in memory of Lady Dacre (I can't find out which one but I can only assume it's Barbarina Brand, wife of Thomas Brand, 20th Baron Dacre - she died in 1854 and is mentioned in other memorials in the church). It was originally located in the organ chamber and was moved to this location in 1965. Before the construction of this organ there was a barrel organ in the south chapel.
Pictures taken inside the church are of varying quality. Sometimes the flash improved the picture but sometimes it didn't. I deliberately photographed everything at least twice, for that reason.
St. Peter stands at the gates of heaven flanked by his nuns / bouncers, and bids Nelson Mandela (off stage, right), welcome, for all of eternity. Cherubs and angels frolic just pass the threshold.
The parish church of St Peter, Wolferton, Norfolk, dates from around 1300 and is unusual - for a Norfolk church - in that it is almost impossible to find any flint in the walls. The church is constructed from the local Carstone with limestone dressings. Walking around it I eventually found three small bits of flint jammed in the wall around the back - hence my caveat of 'almost'.
www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157644820801895/ to see full set.
The church was gutted by fire in 1486 and rebuilt with a handsome late 15th century hammer beam timber roof. The wooden wall posts have carved apostles on them while the hammer beams have carved clerics. Traces of the fire remain with the reddening of the internal stonework.
As presented now it has a western tower, a central nave flanked by two more or less equal aisles and a chancel at the far end. The internal timber is handsome and is mostly 15th century - this includes the poppyhead choir stalls, the chancel screen and a parclose screen in the north aisle but what appears to be a 14th century parclose screen in the south aisle. Either this survived the fire or else it was brought from another church later.
There is a wall painting on the chancel arch but this appears to be 19th century but painted in medieval style. The church was restored by A. Blomfield in 1886 at the expense of the Prince of Wales (Bertie - later King Edward VII) as the church is close to Sandringham. The silver brass eagle lectern was gift of Alexandra Princess of Wales after Bertie survived typhoid in 1871 and was taken from St Mary Magdelene on the Sandringham estate.
There was no church guidebook on my visit (although it was unlocked) so I am grateful to the website 'British Listed Buildings'.
St Peter, Boughton Monchelsea, is one of a series of parish churches built on a sandstone ridge overlooking the Kentish Weald. It is one of them which was closed on my last visit to the area, so on Heritage Weekend I returned, and found it open and very friendly.
A volunteer had cleared some of the vegetation in the churchyard, and was making busy with a bonfire, whose smoke lazily crept through the boughs of ancient trees down the slope of the down.
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A church whose interior does not quite deliver all its picturesque exterior promises. The situation on the end of the sandstone ridge with far-ranging views is wonderful - and the lychgate is one of the oldest in the county, probably dating from the fifteenth century. Inside the results of a serious fire in 1832 and subsequent rebuildings are all too obvious. The plaster has been stripped from the walls and the rubble stonework disastrously repointed, whilst the poor quality mid-nineteenth-century glass installed by Hardman's studio is not typical of the usual high quality of that firm's output. However, the stone and alabaster reredos is just the right scale for the chancel, and compliments the medieval aumbry, piscina and sedilia. There is also a good range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century memorials including a large piece at the west end by Scheemakers to commemorate Sir Christopher Powell (d. 1742).
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Boughton+Monchelsea
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BOUGHTON MONCHENSIE
LIES the next parish northward from Hedcorne. It is written in Domesday, Boltone; in later records, Bocton, and sometimes West Bocton; and now usually Boughton. It has the addition of Monchensie, (commonly pronounced Monchelsea) to it from the family of that name, antiently possessors of it, and to distinguish it from the other parishes of the same name within this county; and it is sometimes called, in the neighbourhood of it, Boughton Quarry, from the large quarries of stone within it.
THIS PARISH lies upon the lower or southern ridge, commonly called the Quarry hills, which cross it, the summit of them being the northern boundary of the Weald, so much therefore of this parish as is below it is within that district. The church stands about half way down of the hill southward, and close to the churchyard is the antient mansion of Boughton-place, pleasantly situated, having an extensive prospect southward over the Weald, in a park well wooded and watered; from hence the parish extends into the Weald, towards that branch of the Medway which flows from Hedcorne towards Style-bridge and Yalding, over a low deep country, where the soil is a stiff clay like that of Hedcorne before-described. Northward from Boughtonplace, above the hill, the parish extends over Cocksheath, part of which is within its bounds, on the further side of it is a hamlet called Boughton-green, and beyond it the seat of Boughton-mount, the grounds of which are watered by the stream, which rises near Langley park, and having lost itself under ground, rises again in the quarries here, and flowing on through Lose, to which this parish joins here, joins the Medway a little above Maidstone. These large and noted quarries, usually known by the name of Boughton quarries, are of the Kentish rag-stone, of which the soil of all this part of the parish, as far as the hills above-mentioned consists, being covered over with a fertile loam, of no great depth. At the end of Cocksheath eastward is the hamlet of Cock-street, usually called, from a public-house in it, Boughton Cock, when the soil becomes a red earth, much mixed with rotten flints; a little to the southward of which, at the edge of the heath is the parsonage, with some coppice wood adjoining, and on the brow of the hill, at the eastern bounds of the parish, the seat of Wiarton, having an extensive prospect over the Weald.
THIS PARISH was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror, on his accession to the crown of England, to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, whom he likewise made earl of Kent, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the survey of Domesday, taken about the year 1080:
Hugh, grandson of Herbert, holds of the bishop of Baieux Boltone. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there is nothing. But five villeins have five carucates there, and two acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty hogs. There is a church. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, and afterwards, it was worth eight pounds, now six pounds. Alunin held it of earl Goduine.
Four years after the taking the above-mentioned survey, the bishop of Baieux was disgraced, and all his possessions were consiscated to the crown.
After which, this manor came into the possession of the family of Montchensie, called in Latin records, De Monte Canisio, the principal seat of which was at Swanscombe, in this county. (fn. 1) William, son of William de Montchensie, who died anno 6 king John, was possessed of this manor, and it appears that he survived his father but a few years, for Warine de Montchensie, probably his uncle, succeeded to his whole inheritance in the 15th year of that reign. Soon after which this manor passed into the possession of the family of Hougham, of Hougham, in this county.
OUGHTON MONCHENSIE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sutton.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, having a handsome square tower at the west end.
This church was given to the priory of Leeds, soon after the foundation of it by Henry de Bocton, and was afterwards appropriated to it, with the licence of the archbishop, before the reign of king Richard II. at which time the parsonage of it was valued at ten pounds, and the vicarage of it at four pounds yearly income, (fn. 4) both which remained part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of that house, into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter in his 33d year, settled both the parsonage and advowson of the church of Bocton on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose possessions they now remain.
The lessee of the parsonage is Mrs. Eliz. Smith; but the presentation to the vicarage, the dean and chapter reserve to themselves.
¶On the abolition of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was surveyed by order of the state in 1649, when it was returned, that it consisted of the scite, which, with the tithes, was worth 56l. 3s. 4d. that the glebe land of twenty-nine acres and two roods was worth 8l. 16s. 8d. per annum, both improved rents; which premises were let anno 14 Charles I. to Sir Edward Hales, knight and baronet, by the dean and chapter, for twenty one years, at the yearly rent of 13l. 10s. The lessee to repair the chancel of the parish church, and the advowson was excepted by the dean and chapter out of the lease.
The vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 13s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 4d. per annum. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds per annum. Communicants, 177. In 1649 it was surveyed, with the parsonage, by order of the state, and valued at thirty pounds per annum, clear yearly income. (fn. 5)
The vicar of this church in 1584, but his name I have not found, was deprived for non-conformity; though he was so acceptable to the parishioners, that they, to the number of fifty-seven, made a petition to the lord treasurer, to restore their minister to them.
It has taken some time to see inside of this church. Repeated attempts at either Open House or whenever up in the City, and always the same story, the doors are locked, or people entering walk right by you.
Last year I was in St Andrew Undercroft and explained how frustrated I was, and other in the GWUK group were, and was told, just ring up and access will be allowed.
I had to wait, until Christmas had passed, and so I asked among the group who were interested, and a few other like-minded souls joined my, and so this afternoon we gathered outside hopefully to be let in.
In the end, no worries, we were allowed in, and we spent a good hour inside photographing it.
St Peter now comes under the umbrella of St Helen's Bishopsgate, and so there is a mix of the traditional and modern. The church itself is used for private study, and a kitchen, apparently.
The fabric of the church is unaltered pretty much, with just the pews having been replaced with tables and chairs
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St Peter upon Cornhill is an Anglican church on the corner of Cornhill and Gracechurch Street in the City of London of medieval origin. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It is now a satellite church in the parish of St Helen's Bishopsgate and is used for staff training, bible studies and a youth club. The St Helen's church office controls access to St Peter's.[1]
The church was used by the Tank Regiment after the Second World War, subsumed under St Helen's Bishopsgate.
The church of St Peter upon Cornhill stands on the highest point of the City of London. A tradition grew up that the church was of very ancient origin and was the seat of an archbishop until coming of the Saxons in the 5th century, after which London was abandoned and Canterbury became the seat for the 6th-century Gregorian mission to the Kingdom of Kent.[2]
The London historian John Stow, writing at the end of the 16th century, reported "there remaineth in this church a table whereon is written, I know not by what authority, but of a late hand, that King Lucius founded the same church to be an archbishop's see metropolitan, and chief church of his kingdom, and that it so endured for four hundred years".[3] The "table" (tablet) seen by Stow was destroyed when the medieval church was burnt in the Great Fire,[4] but before this time a number of writers had recorded what it said. The text of the original tablet as printed by John Weever in 1631 began:
Be hit known to al men, that the yeerys of our Lord God an clxxix [AD 179]. Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond, then callyd Brytayne, fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent Peter apon Cornhyl, and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant, and cheef Chirch of this kingdom...[5]
A replacement, in the form of an inscribed brass plate, was set up after the Great Fire[4] and still hangs in the church vestry today. The text of the brass plate has been printed several times, for example by George Godwin in 1839,[6] and an engraving of it was included in Robert Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata (1819–25).[7]
In 1444 a "horsemill" was given to St Peter's. The bells of St Peter are mentioned in 1552, when a bell foundry in Aldgate was asked to cast a new bell.
The church was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The parish tried to patch it up, but between 1677 and 1684 it was rebuilt to a design by Christopher Wren at a cost of £5,647.[citation needed] The new church was 10 feet (3.0 m) shorter than its predecessor, the eastern end of the site having been given up to widen Gracechurch Street.[8]
St Peter's was described by Ian Nairn as having "three personalities inextricably sewn into the City".[9] The eastern frontage to Gracechurch Street is a grand stone-faced composition, with five arched windows between Ionic pilasters above a high stylobate. The pilasters support an entablature; above that is a blank attic storey, then a gable with one arched window flanked by two round ones. The north and south sides are stuccoed and much simpler in style. Unusually, shallow 19th-century shops have survived towards Cornhill, squeezed between the church and the pavement. The tower is of brick, its leaded cupola topped with a small spire, which is in turn surmounted by a weather vane in the shape of St. Peter’s key.[6][10]
The interior is aisled, with square arcade piers[11] resting on the medieval pier foundations. The nave is barrel vaulted, while the aisles have transverse barrel vaults.[10] Unusually for a Wren church, there is a screen marking the division between nave and chancel. This was installed at the insistence of the rector at the time of rebuilding, William Beveridge.[12]
Charles Dickens mentions the churchyard in "Our Mutual Friend". A theatre group called The Players of St Peter were formed at the church in 1946 and performed there until 1987.[13] They are now based at St Clement Eastcheap where its members perform medieval mystery plays each November.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
My good friend and EA church expert and all round good bloke, Simon K, www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/, provided me a list of fine churches to visit in the Dedham Vale which I should visit if the planned trip to Suffolk ever came off.
I left Dover early on the Thursday morning, and mixed it with the rush hour traffic at Dartfod before turning up the A12 and away from the craziness. And into the driving craziness that is Essex. But that's another story.
I turned off just after crossing the border into Suffolk at Stratford St Mary, and then got lost. I was trying to get to Stoke by Nayland, but I found no signs for it, and had to pull the sat nav out to find my way.
In preparing the list, I noted the name of Boxted, as it was nearly the same name as my first employer, Buxted, so when I saw a sign for Boxted, I followed it.
I thought I was in Suffolk still, but somewhere along the line I must have crossed back into Essex, as there are villages in both counties, very near each other, called Boxted.
Boxted village has two netres, the new part down in the valley, and the old part around the church up the hill. The church took some finding, but along and up Church Hill (always a giveaway), there it was.
I couple were preparing to do some pruning of the brambles growing out of the wall near the gate, and they gave me a disdainful look, but were pleasant enough when I left as I remarked what a wonderful church it is.
In fact, this might be one of my favourite churches I have visited, maybe even the favourite. I was surprised that Simon says so little about it, I found it a delight. The gallery so steeply raked the church felt like a theatre, and I am sure services here are special.
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There are two settlements in the parish, a large village a mile away down in the valley, and this smaller, older hamlet around the church.
While I was photographing the exterior, a rather brusque, rude woman asked me to move my bike so she could reverse up to the church because she was 'doing the flowers'. She then parked directly in front of the porch. She must have known her car would spoil my photographs. She got out and took - I kid you not - a single leafy branch from the back of her car and went into the church. I took as long as I could before joining her, by which time she was just leaving, thankfully. She had the grace to say goodbye.
This is a nice interior, full of light, curious pointed arcades punched through thick Norman walls, and a large west gallery raked so steeply that one has the impression of being in a cinema or theatre. An 18th Century memorial has an angel and a skeleton arm-wrestling over a corpse. I liked this one a lot, despite the rude woman.
Simon Knott, October 2012
www.essexchurches.org.uk/boxted.htm
In the early years of the 11th century a Saxon lord named Edwin built a church at Boxted, on the southern slopes of the Dedham Vale. The site chosen by Edwin for his church is rumoured to have been occupied by the ruins of a Roman villa destroyed by Queen Boudicca in her rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. Certainly the Saxon church was built using Roman bricks, mixed with local rubble.
Early historical studies of Boxted church suggest that Edwin's church used septaria stones, of the sort used to build the town walls of Colchester a few miles to the south.
In the late 11th century Edwin's church was replaced with a grand new building in stone. The builders were Robert de Horkesley and his wife Beatrice. The building was begun sometime around 1090 and completed by 1130. The church was dedicated to St Mary, and that dedication held true until sometime around the Reformation - perhaps when nearby Little Horkesley Priory was dissolved, at which point the church was rededicated to St Peter. The first priest was a monk from Little Horkesley Priory named Roberto. The material was a mix of puddingstone, rubble, and Roman brick, but the upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 16th century with brick, and brick buttresses added. At the same time a timber porch was added.
he church was always kept in good repair; following the Reformation the locals complained that the chancel was in such poor condition that the vicar refused to hold services there. The church was heavily repaired in 1870 by AW Blomfield, one of the most active Victorian church architects. During a subsequent restoration in 1930 medieval wall paintings were uncovered, then just as quickly painted over again.
Historical Highlights
Interior features include a series of 17th century floor slabs to members of the Maidstone family, and to two servants of the Earl of Oxford. A painted and gilded royal coat of arms to George III are hung on the north wall of the nave. There is a 17th centuiry oak chest and several 12th century windows set high above the north arcade. The simple chancel arch is also 12th century. The nave roof is an intriguing crown-post design. On the wall is an attractive early 17th century memorial to Nathaniel Bacon.
Summming up Boxted church
I'd call St Peters an attractive church, not blessed with an enormous number of historic features, but a church with an ancient and interesting history nonetheless. Rather than making a special trip to see it I'd suggest seeing St Peters as part of a longer outing visiting several of the fascinating historic churches in Dedham Vale, like those at Little Horkesley, Wormingford, and Langham. To the best of my knowledge the church is normally open daylight hours.
The parish church of St Peter was built in the 12th century, with decorated gothic additions in the 13th century.
St Peter and St Paul, Wing, Rutland
Another bike ride in England's smallest county. Sixteen churches altogether, which sounds a lot, but churches in Rutland are refreshingly close together, and generally open, although I did find two that said they were open and weren't, and one that said it wasn't, but was.
Part five.
I cycled out to the edge of Uppingham, and at a crossroads kissed lightly the tour I had made a fortnight before. That time I arrived at the crossroads from the south and turned east, today I arrived from the west and turned north. Across a narrow valley stood the village of Bisbrooke. To be honest, I had chickened out of Bisbrooke two weeks previously on the strength of the alarming dip between me and it, but with a bit more physical and mental energy now I hurtled down, and then puffed and panted up into a delightful and intensely rural little hilltop village. Just off of the main street, a narrow lane led to the church.
This is a 19th Century rebuilding of a medieval church, presumably on the same site but much larger, making it difficult to photograph and also making it seem far more imposing than it needs to be. Indeed, the battered gingerbread of the exterior makes it seem something of a fortress. The tower sits at the west end of a south aisle, and a nave with clerestories has been built beside it, so I wondered if the aisle was on the plan of the original church, the tower built on the foundations of the previous one. A painting inside the church shows it with a spire, but whether this was never built, or if it was taken down later, I don't know. Externally, it is all a bit forbidding, and I feared for the interior, but in the event I couldn't have been more wrong, for it is full of light and space. At some time towards the end of the 20th Century all the Victorian trappings were removed, the floor repaved in cool stone and the pews replaced by simple modern chairs. It is a clean, simple delight.
The east window, looking out to the valley below, has excellent glass of the Risen Christ, a central figure in opulent textured glass surrounded by clear glass, which creates a dramatic effect. I'd been led to believe that it was by Francis Skeat, but when I got home I noticed a corrigenda slip pasted into the front of my copy of Paul Sharpling's Stained Glass in Rutland Churches which includes the line p 33 Bisbrooke. Now thought not to be by F Skeat, so I'm left to wonder. It does seem to be in a Christopher Webb/Francis Skeat style, though not quite right for either of them, especially with that textured glass.
There is a simple WWI memorial chapel with two battlefield crosses to Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon Percy Evans-Freke, the original burial cross and the later gathered cemetery cross. The only 'old' things remaining in the church are the 19th Century font by the door and a small, unobtrusive window by Burlison & Gryls behind it, the only other coloured glass in the space. It makes you think what could be done with some other gloomy Victorian spaces.
From Bisbrooke it was a short distance back up to the A47, which this being Rutland has a cyclepath beside it here, which led into Glaston. I remembered the big Hall from regular journeys between Ipswich and Leicester, and in truth there isn't much more to the village than this other than a pub and the church up the back lane to the north of the road. Set back from the lane, it is a charming sight, the dumpy central tower above a narrow church with a fizzy mock-Dec window at the west end. There are no transepts. The windows around are eccentric, those to the south being assymetrical Dec. As Pevsner notes, if you take the south porch as their central axis, they become symmetrical with regard to each other. So they were conceived as a set, but this must often have been the case, so one wonders why it happened here and not elsewhere.
Internally, it is a bit gloomy but not without charm, as long, narrow churches often are. There is a north aisle, and the roof of it carries over from the nave, bringing the clerestory openings above the arcade inside the building. The interior had a pretty extensive going over in the late 19th Century, perhaps bankrolled by the Evans-Freke family of the Hall whose memorials are here and at Bisbrooke, with glass by a number of 19th Century workshops.
I was heading north again, back across that dreaded valley, but it was not so severe here and I soon reached the hilltop village of Wing, barely a hundred yards from where I had turned off for Preston and Uppingham an hour or two earlier. In the village street was the church, with a large 'church open' sign outside. The great star here is a fabulous Norman south arcade in a county where Norman arcades are by no means unusual. There is also some good 20th Century glass, and the feel of a well-used, well-loved church. None of the oddities perhaps that I had encountered previously on this journey, and if I visited it in isolation it would probably have been more memorable, but a nice church nonetheless.
And now, I headed east, scenting the train home from Stamford but with three more churches to visit before I got there.
To be continued.
Some churches provide no challenge to see inside, whilst others have an almost mystique about what delights might be inside, so hard are they to gain entrance.
St Peter is one of the nearest churches to home, and yet despite trying so many times to see inside, and even on the Heritage weekend or Ride and Stride, but it remains closed.
But with the internet, it is possible to arrange a meeting, and so it was that this morning I had arranged to meet the warden who would facilitate my visit.
It was the weekly church tidy up, I suppose, so I park outside, grab my camera bag, and see even from the car park, I could see the door ajar.
The first thing I see when I walk in is the altar right in front of me, in what should be the middle of the nave.
It was reorganised in the 1970s, so now the congreation sits in a semi circle around the alter which is in the middle of the north wall.
In the south wall, there were the remains of three ancient pillars, which had been allowed to be seen among the rendered walls.
Many thankls to the warden for allowing me to see inside this wonderful, modernised but ancient church, on the edge of the modern town of Whitfield.
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A picturesque church in the fields – not yet joined up to its village. In the west wall can be seen a double-splayed Saxon window which takes this church back to the 8th or 9th century. From the outside all looks pretty ordinary for a country church but on opening the door we find that in the 1970s the church was reordered so that the altar is in the north aisle! It may be unusual but it works well. The chancel is now a vestry. The original chancel arch was, unfortunately, taken down by Ewan Christian when he restored the church –it would have been a rare survivor indeed. His replacement arch, however, maintains the proportions of Saxon work.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Whitfield
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WHITFIELD, alias BEWSFIELD,
IS the next parish south-eastward from Coldred. It has been variously called by both these names, both which plainly imply its high and open situation; but the latter, written in Domesday, Bevesfel, is its proper name, that of Whitfield being much more modern, by which it is now however in general called. The manor of Norborne claims paramount over great part of this parish.
THIS PARISH is very small and narrow, it is a very unfrequented place, situated on very high ground, in a poor country of open uninclosed land, the soil of which is in general chalk and very light, though there are some few strypes of deep ground more fertile than the rest. The village, called Whitfield-street, having the church in it, is situated at the south-east bounds of it, at a small distance from which is a hamlet of houses, called Lower Whitfield, where is a farm, formerly belonging to the Denews, and then to Brett, of Spring Grove, whence it was sold to the present possessor of it, Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, and at the western bounds, in a dell, Hazling wood. At the northern bounds is the hamlet of Pinham, consisting of three small farms.—There is no fair.
OFFA, king of Mercia, in the first year of his reign, anno 757, gave to the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, land called Bewesfeld, with the privilege of feeding hogs and cattle in the royal wood, and other liberties mentioned in his charter for that purpose, one of which was that of taking one goat in Snowlyn's wood, where the king's goats went; after which this land continued in the possession of the monastery till the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which record it is thus entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine:
Oidelard holds of this manor, viz. Norborne, one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
After which, that part of the above land, which comprehended THIS MANOR OF BEWSFIELD, was held of the abbot by knight's service, by the eminent family of Badlesmere. Guncelin de Badlesmere held this manor in Hen. VIII.'s reign, and another Guncelin de Badlesmere held it in like manner in king John's reign, and was a justice itinerant. He left one son, Bartholomew, and two daughters; Joane, married to John de Northwood, and another to John de Coningsby. Before his death he gave this manor in frank marriage, with this eldest daughter Joane, to Sir John de Northwood, of Northwood, who was a man of great account in the reigns of king Edward I. and II. whose descendants continued in the possession of this manor for some length of time, and till it was at length alienated to Chelesford, alias Chelford, from which name it again passed by sale about Henry VII.'s reign, to Wm. Boys, of Fredville, whose descendant Sir E. Boys the elder, afterwards possessed it, at which time the name of this manor seems to have dropped, and to have been blended in that of the adjoining one of LINACRECOURT, by which name it has ever since been called. He gave it to his second son Roger Boys, esq. (fn. 1) whose only son and heir Edward Boys, about the year 1644, conveyed it by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. and he alienated it to John Day, who sold it to Roger Laming, of Wye, and he parted with it to Hercules Baker, esq. of Deal, whose daughter Sarah carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose third wife she was. She died s. p. as did Mr. Barrett in 1757, possessed of this manor, leaving it in jointure to his fourth wife Katherine, daughter, and at length sole heir of Humphry Pudner, esq. who died in 1785, on which it descended to their only son Thomas Barrett, esq. now of Lee, in Ickham, who is the present possessor of it.
LINACRE MANOR, or LINACRE-COURT, as it is usually called, in which the manor of Bewsfield is now merged, lies in the south-west part of this parish, adjoining to Coldred and River, and was the other part of that land given to St. Augustine's monastery, and described in Domesday as before-mentioned, being held by knight's service of the abbot, by the family of Criol, one of whom, William de Criol, as appears by the book of knights fees in the exchequer, held it as such in the reign of king Edward I. but it did not long afterwards remain with them, for John de Malmains, of Hoo, held it in the next reign of king Edward II. his son John left an only daughter and heir, who carried it in marriage to John Monyn, and he in her right held it in the 20th year of king Edward III. After this it continued but a small time in the name of Monyn, for in the 49th year of that reign, John Solley is entered in the register of the abbey, as holding this manor of the abbot by knight's service. How long it remained in his descendants I have not found, only that it was at length alianated to Chelsesford, alias Chelford, from which name it passed, with the manor of Bewsfield as before related, by sale, about Henry VII.'s reign, to William Boys, esq. of Fredville, who died possessed of both these manors in 1508; after which it descended down to Mr. Edward Boys, who about the year 1644 conveyed this manor by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. since which it has passed in the like chain of ownership as the manor of Bewsfield described before, down to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, in lckham, who is the present owner of this manor of Linacre, in which that of Bewsfield is included. A court baron is held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF WHITFIELD, with THE MANOR OF LITTLE PISING, and THE LANDS OF PIMHAM, was in the reign of king Henry III. in the hands of the crown, in the 13th year of which that eminent man, Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent and chief justice of England, had a grant of it, among others, with licence to give of assign it to whomever he would, either to a religious house or otherwise; not long after which, he appears to have settled this manor, with the estate in this parish, called Little Pising, on the hospital of St. Mary, in Dover, afterwards called the Maison Dieu, then lately founded by him; after which Edward I. granted a charter of free-warren to the master and bretheren of this hospital, for their demesne lands in Whytefeld and Coldred adjoining. After which this manor and estate continued part of the revenues of this hospital till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when on the suppression of it they came into the king's hands, where they staid till king Edward VI. in his 2d year granted the manors of Whitfield and Little Pysing, to Sir Thomas Heneage and William lord Willoughbye, to hold in capiteby knight's service. (fn. 2) They seem to have sold their joint interest in them to James Hales, whose heirs possessed them at the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, after which I find no more of the manor of Whitfield, but that the manor of Little Pysing passed by sale into the family of Monins, of Waldershare, in which it continued down to Sir Edward Monins, bart. who died in 1663, after which his heirs and trustees joined in the sale of it, together with other lands at Pinham, to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, after which his granddaughter Catherine, countess of Rockingham, became possessed of this manor of Little Pising in her own right, and of the lands at Pinham, jointly with her two sisters, as coheirs of their father, in equal shares in coparcenary in tail general, since which her interst in these estates have passed in like manner as Coldred before-mentioned, and her other estates in this county, to her eldest grand son, the present right hon. Geo-Augustus, earl of Guildford, the present possessor of them.
Charities.
THERE was given by a person unknown, for the use of the poor not having relief, land, now vested in Redman Jones, of the annual produce of 10s.
The poor constantly maintained are about ten, casually eight.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of a small nave and two chancels, having one bell in it, but there is no steeple, it is a wretched mean building. The roof is supported by a most uncouth pillar in the middle, so strangely as to prevent, I think, all description of it. There are no monuments in it, nor any thing surther worthy notice.
This church was originally appendant to the manor, and as such was given to St. Augustine's abbey in 757, by king Offa; after which the abbot and convent, in the year 1221, anno 6 Henry III. granted their right in this church to the abbot and convent of Combwell, to hold in perpetual alms, but it was at the same time agreed, that the latter should not exact the tithes of sheaves, arising from twenty-five acres of Napushurst, which the abbot and convent of St. Augustine had sometime granted to Thomas de Newesole, but that the church of Bewefield should enjoy the small tithes of the above lands for the ecclesiastical service, which it should persorm to the tenants of St. Augustine, who inhabited there, and this, by the liberal concession of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, at the time of making the grant; (fn. 3) upon which, though this church became appropriated to the abbot and convent of Combwell, yet there does not seem to have been a vicarage endowed in it till the year 1441, anno 20 king Henry VI. when a composition was made by archbishop Chicheley, between the abbot and convent, appropriators of this church, and Wm. Geddyng, vicar of it, on account of his portion, and the pensions belonging to this church. In which state this appropriation and vicarage continued till the final dissolution of the priory of Combwell, for so it was then esteemed, in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act then passed, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and came into the hands of the crown; after which the king, in his 29th year, granted the scite of the priory, with all its lands and possessions, in which this appropriation and advowson of the vicarage of Beausfield,alias Whitfield, was included, to Thomas Culpeper, esq. to hold in capite, who before the 34th of that reign passed them back again to the crown, whence they were immediately afterwards granted to Sir John Gage, comptroller of the king's household, to hold in like manner; and he next year exchanged them both, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, for the confirmation of which an act passed anno 35 Henry VIII. since which they have continued parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, his grace the archbishop being at this time entitled to them. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee of this parsonage.
This church has been for many years esteemed only as a curacy, to which the archbishop nominates; for Henry Hannington, vicar of it, at the instance of archbishop Abbot, by deed in 1613, renounced all the right and title, that he had by virtue of the endowment or composition made in the time of archbishop Chichele, between the then vicar of this church and the prior and convent of Combwell.
¶This church was valued, anno 8 king Richard II. at twelve pounds, and the vicarage at four pounds, which on account of its smallness was not taxed to the tenth; the latter is valued in the king's books at 5l. 18s. 8d. It formerly paid twelve shillings tenths to the crown receiver, but being certified to be only of the value of twenty-six pounds, it is now discharged of first fruits and tenths. In 1588 here were eighty-two communicants, and it was valued at fifteen pounds only. In 1640 it was valued at forty-five pounds. It was augmented by archbishop Juxon in 1661, with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage; and farther confirmed by indenture anno 28 Charles II. It is now a discharged living of the yearly certified value of twenty-six pounds. There was a payment to the parson of Bewsfield, payable yearly out of the lands of the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, which was granted to the archbishop anno 29 Henry VIII.
"You will make them princes over all the earth; they will remember your name, O Lord, in every generation" (Ps 45:17f) - the Offertory antiphon for the Mass of Ss Peter & Paul.
This Sunday, 28 June, we celebrate the great feast of the apostles, St Peter & St Paul.
This window is from the church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs (OLEM) in Cambridge.
St. Peter's was until recently the largest church ever built and it remains one of the holiest sites in Christendom. Contrary to what one might reasonably assume, St. Peter's is not a cathedral - that honour in Rome goes to the Basilica of St John Lateran.
For the innocent tourist, you will see the famous dome of St Peter ( designed by Michelangelo, who became chief architect in 1546) from far off, so its a natural landmark to head for.
The Via Della Conciliazione is a wide avenue that runs from the River Tiber and the centre of Rome from St Angelo Fort up to St Peter's Square.
If you arrive by Metro, you are about 5 minutes walk through typical Rome streets until you come into St Peter's Square.
Once you arrive at the square, things start to click. This is the square you've seen on the news, and yes there is the balcony the Pope is seen at.
Once you've got the mandatory photographs, its time to think about visiting. The Vatican Museums where the Sistine Chapel is, is a 5/10 minute walk around the Vatican walls. If you think the queues in front of you snaking into St Peter's are long, odds are the Vatican Museums are longer and slower moving. So do read our Vatican logistics page and have an informed strategy in place for one of the main reasons you come all this way to Rome.
This is the roof of the Leeds parish church. This is a beautiful church and I have more images to post of it. This ceiling appears to be wood but closer examination of my full-sized photos shows that it is painted, so I suspect that it may be plaster.
At the time I photographed this it was known as St. Peter-at-Leeds, but about two months later it was re-named Leeds Minster. (The Church of England does not have a cathedral in Leeds. The see is located in nearby Ripon.)
This is what must have been the 4th time I have visited St Peter Old Church. The first was on a Good Friday a few years back, and when I approached the church, there was a service on. Another time there was a wedding, and further, on a Heritage Weekend, it failed to open.
So, when visiting the area at the beginning of the month, I mentioned that St Peter had been a bugbear of mine, Tim said its only a couple of miles away, we could try now.
Of course, driving from a different direction, not along the main road, I did not realise how close we were.
So, we would try.
Apart from the dowser in the churchyard, who was scattering, or rather placing, dozens of small pieces of white cloth about, but would move them if I wanted. I said no thanks, and left him to his stick waggling. Or that is what I said to Tim, but of course, I do not know if dowsing is any good, or what he was dowsing for.
Inside the church, several ladies were making busy, preparing the church for the next day's harvest festival, so many of them are in the shots, but it makes for a very welcoming sight indeed.
So very good to finally get inside, and many thanks to Tim for taking me.
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A much restored Norman church, with a tiny twelfth-century window set just above the (later) porch roof. There is a good example of a fifteenth-century low side window in the south-west corner of the chancel. The pews, pulpit and tiles are typical of mid-nineteenth century restorations, yet above is the fine nave roof of the usual crownpost type. It displays nicely pierced spandrels with a quatrefoil and dagger design. In 1846 Lord Camden built a new church on the main road in the village centre. Even so the old church is extremely well maintained and much loved in the neighbourhood. The churchyard contains many good headstones including one to Sir Morton Peto, the famous nineteenth-century engineer.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Pembury+1
The first known record of Pembury, originally Pepingeberia, is to be found in the 'Textus Roffensis' (c1120). It tells of the manors of Pepenbury Magna (Hawkwell) and Pepenbury Parva (Bayhall).
The Advowson was granted by Simon de Wahull to Bayham Abbey c1239. (Advowson is the right in English Law of presenting a nominee to a vacant parish. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish).
Pembury has two churches dedicated to St Peter. The oldest, known as the Old Church, stands outside the modern village in the woods to the north of the A228 bypass. The newer building, known as the Upper Church, stands in the heart of the village on Hastings Road.
The plan of the Old Church and the little Norman window above the South door indicate that the original Church dates from 1147 at least, or even 1100AD. Most of the present Church was built in 1337 by John Colepeper of Bayhall. He also built the chantry chapel of St Mary in the churchyard in 1355 but this was pulled down at the Dissolution of the smaller Monasteries in 1547 and three windows in the body of the Church were inserted with the money gained from the sale of the lead which had covered the chapel.
The most notable feature inside the Church is the roof of the nave. It is said to be one of the best specimens of the tie-beam and kingpost type in the country.
On the north wall near the pulpit there is an interesting brass with an inscription and a figure of an Elizabethan child, Elizabeth Rowe. There are two slabs set into the Sanctuary floor in memory of Dorothy Amherst (1654) and Richard Amherst (1664). The Amherst family owned the manor of Bayhall at this time.
During the nineteenth century a number of alterations were made to the Church, including the raising of the Chancel floor. This meant that the oldest tombstone was completely covered over. The inscription round the edge of the slab, written in Norman French, tells is that it is the resting place of Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper.
Among the other memorial tablets there are several of the Woodgate family, three of whom were vicars of Pembury in the nineteenth century. Under the tower is a memorial to Lord George Spencer-Churchill.
The Organ, which has one manual and a pedal-board, dates back to 1877. It was made by Hill and Son, London, and cost £130. The organ was fully restored to its former glory in 2006. There are four bells which are now fitted with a chiming apparatus so that they can be rung by one person.
www.pemburychurch.net/pembury_old_church.htm
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Pembury is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, has a spire steeple at the west end. It was built by one of the family of Colepeper, patrons of it, and most probably by John Colepeper, esq. in the reign of king Edward III. for on the three buttresses on the south side of the chancel, there remain three shields of coat armour, each carved on an entire stone of about two feet and an half in depth, and the breadth equal with that of the buttress, which shews them to be coeval with that of the building itself. On the first is a rectangular cross; the second is the coat armour of Hardreshull, A chevron between eight martlets, viz. five and three, the above-mentioned John Colepeper having married the coheir of that family; the third is that of Colepeper, a bend engrailed. On a very antient stone on the pavement of the chancel, is an antient inscription in old French, for Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, which seems as early as the above mentioned reign. There are several monuments and memorials in it of the family of Amherst and their re latives; an inscription and figure in brass for Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Rowe, esq. of Hawkwell, anno 1607; a tomb for George Bolney, esq. who married a Wybarne; and in the porch are two antient stones with crosses on them.
¶The advowson of the church of Pembury was given with it, by Simon de Wahull, to the abbey of Begham, in Sussex, in pure and perpetual alms, as has been already mentioned.
¶Pope Gregory IX. anno 1239, granted licence to the abbot and convent to hold this church, then of their patronage, and not of greater value than ten marcs, as an appropriation upon the first vacancy of it, reserving, a competent portion for a vicar out of the profits of it. Notwithstanding which, it was not appropriated till the year 1278, when Richard Oliver, the rector, resigned it into the hands of John de Bradfield, bishop of Rochester, who granted his letters mandatory, for the induction of the abbot and convent into the corporal possession of the church, with its appurtenances, according to the tenor of the above-mentioned bull. (fn. 7)
¶The parsonage of the church of Pembury, with the advowson of the vicarage appendant to the manor, continued with the abbey of Begham till the dissolution of it in the 17th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, after which it passed in the same tract of ownership as the manor of Pembury, and appendant to it, till it became the property of William Woodgate, esq. lord of that manor, and the present patron of it.
¶It is a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of 46l. 10s. the yearly tenths of which are 12s. 8d.
¶Charles Amherst, esq. of Bayhall, by his will in 1702, gave as an augmentation to this vicarage, the sum of ten pounds to be paid yearly by such persons to whom the manor of Bayhall, with its appurtenances, should come and remain after his death.
¶In 1733 the Rev. George May, vicar, augmented it with the sum of 100l. 17s. 6d. to entitle it to the benefit of queen Anne's bounty.
¶There is an annual pension of forty shillings paid out of the parsonage to the vicar, which was settled on him and his successors, at the time of the appropriation of this church. The tithes of corn and grain of which this parsonage consists are now worth about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
¶The vicarage is now worth about one hundred and fifty pounds per annum.
St Peter Hungate sits at the southern end of the historic Elmhill which curves away forth, and the churchyard looks over it.
As before, I had noticed St Peter many times, and when visiting the city for the beer festival, I would hope to find it open. I don't think I tried hard enough, but it was made for a day like this.
I had walked past it twice already that day, but was not going to be open before time, a sandwich board was outside tempting the passerby in.
It is a redundant church, and has been thus since the first world war. Simon Knott tells it used to be a unique museum, which has sadly now closed, but now is open three days a week as a museum to the Norwich stained glass industry.
A young lady sat on watch as visitors milled around, admonishing anyone who said they remembered this being a church or even worshiping here, they would have to have been over 100 years old that to make that claim.
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At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
St Peter Hungate, Norwich
angel At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
ewg empty view out of the south door
In 2006, a small group of people came together in an attempt to get Hungate open and in use again. Their plan was to use it as an interpretation centre for Norfolk's medieval heritage, with a particular emphasis on the medieval stained glass artists of the city of Norwich. St Peter Hungate is a good place to do this, as it has the best collection outside of the cathedral in the whole city. This glass, largely of the 15th century, is partly from St Peter Hungate originally, and partly a consequence of the medievalist enthusiasms of the 19th Century, when much was collected and brought here. It includes a sequence of the Order of Angels, other angels holding scrolls, the Evangelists, the Apostles, and much else besides. Here are some highlights.
There are squints into the transepts, and image niches in the east walls of both; the south transept, which was a chapel for the guild of St John the Baptist, was the burial place of Sir John Paston. High above, the corbels to the roof are finely gilded; they depict the four evangelists, St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, and the four Latin Doctors of the Church, St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Gregory and St Jerome. This is the only known example of these eight Saints as roofpost stops. There is a central boss of Christ in Judgement.
The fixtures and fittings of the new Hungate Centre are much less intrusive than those of the old museum, allowing a sense of space and light. Display cases down the sides of the nave explain and interpret the history of Norwich's stained glass industry, and between them are the lovely benches from Tottington, which I had last seen marooned within the fences of the Battle Training Area. There are temporary exhibitions which use the transepts and chancel, and regular activities for adults and children. The Centre is currently open three days a week, and you can read more about it on its website.
If you go out through the north door, you find yourself in the former graveyard, now a pleasant garden overlooking the rooftops of Elm Hill. The 15th century building immediately to the north, now a restaurant, was once a beguinage, a retreat house for nuns. The lawn is surrounded by lavender and rosemary, and it is all very well kept. All in all, this beautiful space, now once again in safe hands, is much to be celebrated.
Simon Knott, November 2005, revised and updated February 2011
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichpeterhungate/norwichpete...
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The tower is square, and built of black flints in 1431, by Thomas Ingham. Its unusual pyramid cap was put on in 1906, when the tower had become so unsafe that the battlemented belfry stage was demolished.
The south porch was added in 1497, by Nicholas Ingham, who is buried in it. It has angle buttresses and a niche for a statue over the door. Its ceiling has four bosses –one for each Evangelist.
The nave and transepts were totally rebuilt, as ‘a neat building of black flint’, by John and Margaret Paston in 1458, after they had acquired the advowson from St Mary’s College. A stone in a buttress near the north door records this – it shows a tree trunk without branches (= decay of the old church) with a new shoot (= the new building), together with the date of completion – 1460. The windows are uniformly Perpendicular, and allow much light into the building.
The chancel had been rebuilt in 1431 by Thomas Ingham and was rebuilt again in 1604 after it had collapsed: it is of rough rubble, plastered over, contrasting with the nave and transepts. Its windows are of an older pattern and have trefoil tracery in the heads. It is covered with peg-tiles, which date from the 1604 rebuilding.
Both the north and the south doors are original – of about 1460 – and have tracery which is similar to that in the windows.
The nave has wall - arcading, to frame each window. The nave roof is of low pitch, and angels with scrolls adorn it. There is a central boss, of Christ in Judgment.
The font is fifteenth-century, and its cover, with an open-work steeple, is dated 1605.
There are two squints which give a view from the nave into the transepts. In the south transept is a niche for a statue of St John the Baptist, and John Paston was buried in front of it. The headstops on the window in the south transept are supposed to represent him and his wife
In the north transept the doors to the rood-stair can be seen. The collapse of the chancel in 1604 demolished the rood-screen, and it was never replaced.
The east window is filled with pieces of mediæval glass. Blomefield, writing in 1741, says that much of the original glass survived in the chancel, but much was later lost through neglect. What remains has been assembled in this window.
There is one monument – on the west wall, to Matthew Goss, who died in 1779.
The church was one of the earliest to be affected by the Oxford Movement. The square pews were replaced by chairs, and the services took on a very ritualistic character, with candles, incense, and banners, and was ‘one of the most fashionable places of worship in Norwich’.
By the end of the century it was again in a bad way: in 1888, the tower was so dangerous an order was served on the churchwardens. In 1897, a large hole in the chancel roof was covered only by a tarpaulin.
Although restored in 1906, the church was in bad state again by 1931, and was threatened with demolition. The Norfolk Archæological Trust raised money to repair it, and it was used as a museum of church art from 1936 until 1995
The church contains beautiful stained glass. To see magnified pictures and information on all the stained glass in this and other churches across Norfolk visit www.norfolkstainedglass.co.uk
www.norwich-churches.org/St Peter Hungate/home.shtm
Artizen HDR Natural
St Peter Mancroft is a beautiful parish church situated in the centre of Norwich adjacent to the open market place. Like the castle and market place, it was a Norman foundation, the first church being built here by Ralph de Guader, Earl of Norfolk, in 1075, and dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.
Shortly afterwards Earl Ralph lost everything by rebellion against William the Conqueror, who now bestowed the church on one of his chaplains, Wala, and he gave it to the Abbey of St Peter at Gloucester when he joined the Benedictine monks there.
It remained under the patronage of Gloucester Abbey for three hundred years, and was known as St Peter of Gloucester in Norwich. Then in 1388, after local pressure, it was handed over to the Benedictine community of St Mary-in-the-Fields, who had their own great church situated only 150 yards (140m) away on a site now covered by the Assembly House and the Theatre Royal. The Dean and Chapter of St Mary's found the old Church of St Peter and St Paul so badly out of repair that in 1390 they decided to rebuild it. But it was not until 1430 with gifts and legacies from wealthy citizens, and donations from merchant and craft guilds, that the first stone was laid. After twenty-five years, in 1455, the Church of St Peter and St Paul was re-consecrated, its proportions and furnishings as perfect as their sense of worship, their love of beauty, and their claim on the generosity and skills of Norwich citizens would allow.
At the time of the Reformation the two Saints Peter and Paul were given independent Saints' days and the Churches' name was changed to St Peter Mancroft. The Mancroft part of the name is thought to have come from the period when the Normans disrupted the Saxon market in Tombland by building their cathedral and monastery enclosure over it, forcing the citizens to set up a new market in the Magna Crofta or 'Great Meadow' adjacent to their castle, where a watchful eye could be kept on it. The name Mancroft or the 'Man' part of it is thought to have been taken from the name of the original owner of this land.
A shot of St. Peter's Chapel on the coast near Bradwell on Sea in Essex. This shot is taken just as the sun started to gain its first power of the day.
This is my first visit to this location. I scouted it using Bing maps OS view after locating it when looking for an isolated building near the east coast using the birds eye view. The OS maps view is great, as it usually gives me some detail about the location, as well as confirming that it is publically accessible. There is nothing worse than turning up to a location at 5:45 AM and finding a big fence blocking your access!
Tech info: Single exposure. I did a bracketed shot here, but the grass was moving too much between frames to allow a blending of exposures. In the end I took the -1EV shot and applied a gradient to give warmer WB from the church downwards, also boosting exposure and shadows in that area. Overall reduction in brightness and increase in contrast to really show the strong directional light. I had to sacrifice a little blown out area around the sun by using the -1EV frame, but to be honest it would have looked too unreal if the sun wasn't blown out in this case.
When I visit other people's streams, I like to leave encouraging comments or respectful critique. I never leave images, logos or text based decorations in my comments. I'd really appreciate it if you could do the same for me. Thank you!
If you like this image, please check out some of my other shots (if you have time!)
Keble Chapel
Church of St Peter, Hinton Road, Bournemouth
Grade I Listed
List Entry Number: 1153014
Listing NGR: SZ0888791218
Details
101756 768/13/1 HINTON ROAD 11-OCT-01 (East side) CHURCH OF ST PETER
GV I
13/1 HINTON ROAD 1. 5l86 (East Side) Church} of St Peter
SZ 0891 13/1 5.5.52.
I GV
2. South aisle 1851, Edmund Pearce, rest of church, 1855-79, G E Street, large, Purbeck stone with Bath stone dressings, built in stages and fitted out gradually. Dominating west tower, 1869, and spire (important landmark, 202 ft high), 1879: west door up steps with 4-light Geometrical window over, 3rd stage with steeply pointed blind arcade with encircled quatrefoils in spandrels, belfry with paired 2-light windows, elaborate foliage-carved cornice and arcaded panelled parapet, spire of Midlands type, octagonal with 3 tiers of lucarnes and flying buttresses springing from gabled pinnacles with statues (by Redfern) in niches. Western transepts with 4-light Geometrical windows, 1874. Nave, 1855-9, has clerestory of 5 pairs of 2-light plate tracery windows between broad flat buttresses, with red sandstone bands to walls and voussoirs and foliage medallions in spandrels. North aisle has narrow cinquefoiled lancets, Pearce's south aisle 2-light Geometrical windows (glass by Wailes, 1852-9); gabled south porch with foliage-carved arch of 3 order and inner arcade to lancet windows. South transept gable window 4-light plate tracery, south-east sacristy added 1906 (Sir T G Jackson). North transept gable has 5 stepped cinquefoiled lancets under hoodmould, north-east vestries, built in Street style by H E Hawker, 1914-15, have 2 east gables. Big pairs of buttresses clasp corners of chancel, with 5-light Geometrical window- south chapel. Nave arcade of 5 bays, double-chamfered arches on octagonal colunms, black marble colonnettes to clerestory. Wall surfaces painted in 1873-7 by Clayton and Bell, medallions in spandrels, Rood in big trefoil over chancel arch, roof of arched braces on hammerbeams on black marble wall shafts, kingposts high up. North aisle lancets embraced by continuous trefoil-headed arcade on marble colonnettes, excellent early glass by Clayton and Bell, War Shrine Crucifix by Comper, l917. Western arch of nave of Wells strainer type with big openwork roundels in spandrels. Tower arch on piers with unusual fluting of classical type, glass in tower windows by Clayton and Bell. South-west transept has font by Street, 1855, octagonal with grey marble inlay in trefoil panels, south window glass by Percy Bacon, 1896. Chancel arch on black shafts on corbels, low marble chancel screen with iron railing. Pulpit, by Street, carved by Earp, exhibited 1862 Exhibition: circular, pink marble and alabaster with marble-oolumned trefoil-headed arcaded over frieze of inlaid panels, on short marble columns, tall angel supporting desk. Lectern: brass eagle 1872 (made by Potter) with railings to steps by Comper, 1915. Chancel, 1863-4, has 2-bay choir has elaborate dogtooth and foliage-carved arches on foliage capitals, with clustered shafts of pink marble and stone, sculptured scenes by Earp in cusped vesica panels in spandrels, pointed boarded wagon roof with painted patterning by Booley and Garner, 1891. Choir stalls with poppyheads, 1874, by Street, also by Street (made by Leaver of Maidenhead) the ornate and excellent parclose screens of openwork iron on twisted brass colunms, pavement by Comper, l9l5. Sanctuary, also 2 bays, rib-vaulted, with clustered marble wall shafts with shaft rings and foliage capitals, painted deocrations by Sir Arthur Blomfield, 1899 (executed by Powells). First bay has sedilia on both sides (within main arcade), backed by double arcade of alternating columns of pink alabaster (twisted)and black marble. Second bay aisleless, lined by Powell mosaics. East window has fine glass by Clayton and Bell, designed by Street, 1866. Reredos by Redfern, also designed by Street has Majestas in vesica flanked by angels, under gabled canopies, flanked by purple and green twisted marble columns, flanking Powell mosaics of angels, 1899, echoing design of predecessors by Burne-Jones which disintegrated. North transept screen to aisle by Comper, 1915, Minstrel Window by Clayton and Bell, 1874, sculpture of Christ and St Peter over doorway by Earp. South transept screen to aisle and altar cross and candlesticks to chapel by Sir T G Jackson, l906, murals by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1908, windows in transept and over altar by Clayton and Bell, 1867, and to south of chapel (particularly good) by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co, 1864.
The Church of St Peter, Churchyard Cross, Lychgate, Chapel of the Resurrection, and 2 groups of gravestones form a group.
Listing NGR: SZ0888791218
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1153014
St Peter's church in the centre of Bournemouth, Dorset; one of the great Gothic Revival churches of the 19th century and now serving as the parish church of Bournemouth. On the site of a plain, slightly earlier church, this building was commissioned by the priest, Alexander Morden Bennett, who moved to the living from London in 1845.
In 1853 Bennett chose George Edmund Street, architect of the London Law Courts, to design the proposed new church. The church grew stage by stage and Street in turn commissioned work from some of the most famous names of the era, including Burne-Jones, George Frederick Bodley, Sir Ninian Comper, William Wailes and Thomas Earp. There is even one small window by William Morris.
I remembered St Peter being in the centre of the village, near the pub, not a hike along the lane to the nature reserve.
That's what nine years does to your memory, I guess.
We were last here, when we visited the marshes, and tried the church and found it open. I took a handful of shots, most not good, so as we were in the area, I thought I'd try again.
Set back from the lane, parking for one car, but as I had walked, no problems.
I walked to the small porch, and found it locked, and no details of key holder, either.
So I snap the churchyard and admire the views as I waited for Jools to come back to pick me up.
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St Peter’s Oare, a Grade I listed building, is often described as a ‘mainly 13th century church’ – which it is. However, the view that confronts the visitor entering the churchyard gate is pure Victoriana, the work of diocesan architect Joseph Clarke, an example of the sympathetic restoration of which not all Victorians were capable.
Indeed, it is this west elevation, with its louvred bell-tower and cedar-shingled spirelet, that is St Peter’s to visitors, artists and photographers.
The building could hardly be better sited. It stands where village becomes countryside, set inconspicuously back from a road that leads only to the broadening waters of the Swale and their marshland bird-life. In the churchyard, a few mature trees remain of those that once cast gloom over church and graves. They rise from among ancient headstones and ivy-clad tombs, providing summer shade for those who want to enjoy the panoramic views over Oare Creek and acre upon distant acre of marsh pastures with the North Downs as a backdrop. With binoculars or good eyesight you can rest on one of the conveniently located benches and count how many far-off churches you can pick out from this elevated point of vantage.
But how old is the church? you ask. Everyone seems to. To this there is no categorical answer. Today the building is little changed since the 1860s restoration and yet there was a church here when the Domesday Book was penned – well, half a church, but which half our Norman forebears didn’t say. A church half-finished? Or a church part-razed by the tempests of that tempestuous age?
What we do know is that the chancel was extended eastwards in the late 14th or early 15th century, and some time thereafter the old east window was taken out and replaced by a larger one in the Perpendicular style. The actual glass is more recent – the work of F.C. Eden. It was given in memory of artist Francis Forster, a casualty of WWI. Another window by this noted London artisan, on the north wall, commemorates another war victim. Below it a memorial slab set into the frame of this once tall lancet window names those who died in the great explosion of 1916, when the marshes throbbed with a wartime industry of munitions manufacture.
Back in the secluded peace of this village church is one treasured rarity, a square font of Purbeck marble from the late Norman/Early English period. Its sides were once elaborately carved, but many years ago it went missing, only to be recovered decades later from a nearby pond, somewhat the worse for its immersion. Was it concealed from Cromwell’s ravaging iconoclasts? No one knows. This hazy fact must take its place with the many mysteries hidden among the pages of time. But is it not these undocumented secrets that make a church like St Peter’s so alluring? Who can tell when the truth will emerge and another page of history can be written?
www.thekingsdownandcreeksidecluster.co.uk/?page_id=683
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A small Norman church overlooking Oare Creek with fine views to the east. Built of flint with Victorian additions by Joseph Clarke, the exterior is dominated by lively painted spirelet and south porch and muscular buttresses. Inside, a simple view with no chancel arch is enlivened by a Norman font, simple Victorian pulpit and fine stained glass windows by F C Eden. The west window – an oculus – contains the date 1867 recording the restoration of the church. A plaque commemorates those who lost their lives in one of the explosions at the nearby Gunpowder factory in 1916. The overall impression is of a lovingly cared for church, mirroring the lives of generations of Oare folk and it is highly recommended.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Oare
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ORE
LIES the next parish north westward from Davington, and is so called from the etymology of it in the Saxon language, signifying a fenny or marshy place.
This parish is a very low situation, at the very edge of the marshes, it is consequently but little known or frequented, its vicinity to the marshes, and its low and watry situation, make it very unhealthy, so that it is but very thinly inhabited, but the lands are very rich and fertile, the waters of the Swale are its northern boundaries; on its south it rises up towards Bysing-wood, from which it is distant about a mile. The village is occupied by a few fishermen and oyster dredgers, situated near the middle of the parish on a small ascent, having the church about a quarter of a mile to the north-westward of it, and Ore-court at the like distance, at the edge of the marshes. The creek, which is navigable up to the village, whence it runs north-east, and at a little more than half a mile's distance joins the Faversham creek, and flows with it about the like distance, till it meets the waters of the Swale.
Several scarce plants have been observed in this parish by Mr. Jacob, who has enumerated them among his Plantæ Favershamienses, to which book the reader is referred for a list of them.
THE MANOR of Ore was part of the vast possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, and earl of Kent, the Conqueror's half-brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the general survey of Domesday:
In Lest de Wiwarlet. In Favreshant hundered, Adam holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Ore. It was taxed at two sulings. The arable lands are four carucates. In demesne there is one, and ten villeins, with ten borderers, having two carucates. There is half a church, and one mill of twenty-two shillings, and two fisheries without tallage, and one salt-pit of twenty-eight pence. Wood for the pannage of six bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards sixty shillings, now one hundred shillings. Turgis held it of king Edward.
And a little afterwards there is another entry as follows:
Adam holds of the bishop one yoke in Ore, and it was taxed at one yoke. The arable land is one carucate. Four villeins now hold this to ferme, and pay twenty shillings, and it was worth so much separately. There is a church. Leunold held it of king Edward.
Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop of Baieux was disgraced, and all his possessions were consiscated to the crown.
Upon which the manor of Ore came to be held immediately, or in capite of the king, by the beforementioned. Adam de Port, of whose heirs it was afterwards again held by Arnulf Kade, who gave this manor, with that of Stalishfield, and their appurtenances, to the knights hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, and it was assigned by them to the jurisdiction of their preceptory, established at Swingfield.
The manor of Ore continued part of the possessions of these knights till the general dissolution of their hospital in the 32d year of Henry VIII. when this order was suppressed by an act then specially passed for that purpose. (fn. 1)
This manor seems to have remained in the hands of the crown till king Edward VI. granted it in his 5th year, to Edward, lord Clinton and Say, who next year re-conveyed it back again to the king. (fn. 2)
How it passed from the crown afterwards I have not found, but that at length it came into the possession of the family of Monins, and thence by sale to that of Short, one of which, Samuel Short, esq. owned it in 1722, and it continued down in his descendants to Philip Short, esq. who was succeeded in it by Mr. Charles Maples Short, who died a few years ago at Jamaica, on which it became vested in Mr. Humphry Munn, gent. in right of Lydia Short his wife. Hence it passed by sale to Mr. Bonnick Lipyeatt, who died in 1789, leaving two daughters his coheirs, who married Mr. Charles Brooke, of London, and Mr. Gosselin, and entitled them respectively to this estate.
A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.
There are noparochial charities. The poor constantly relieved here are not more than two; casually about six.
ORE is within the ECCLESTASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.
The church which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, of one isle and one chancel, having a pointed steeple at the west end, in which are two bells.
This church, which was antiently accounted only as a chapel to that of Stalisfield, belonged to the priory of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, perhaps part of its orignal endowment by archbishop Lanfranc, in the time of the Conqueror, and it was confirmed to it, among its other possessions, by archbishop Hubert, about the reign of king Richard I.
In the 8th year of Richard II. there was a yearly pension paid from the church of Ore, of ten shillings to the priory of Rochester, and another of eight shilling to that of Leeds. (fn. 3)
This church remained part of the possessions of the priory of St. Gregory, till the dissolution of it in the reign of Henry VIII. in the 27th year of which, an act having passed for the suppression of all such religious houses, whose revenues did not amount to the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, this priory was thereby dissolved, and the scite of it, together with all its lands, possessions, and revenues, surrendered into the king's hands, by John Symkins, prior of it.
The church of Ore remained with the other possessions of the priory in the crown but a small time, for an act passed that year to enable the king and the archbishop of Canterbury to exchange the scite of the late dissolved priory of St. Radigund near Dover, with all its possessions, lately given by the king to the archbishop, for the scite of the late dissolved priory of St. Gregory, and all the possessions belonging to it, excepting the manor of Howfield, in Chartham.
After which the parsonage of this church was demised by the archbishop, as it has been since by his successors, among the rest of the revenues of the priory of St. Gregory, from time to time, in one great lease, (in which all advowsons and nominations to churches and chapels have constantly been excepted) in which state it continues at this time. George Gipps, esq. of Harbledown, M.P. is the present lessee of then to the archbishop, and Mr. John Hope, of Ore, is the present leffee under him for the parsonage of this church, at the yearly rent of thirty-four pounds.
It pays, procurations to the archdecaon five shillings, and to the archbishop at his visitaiton two shillings. When the church of Ore was separated from that of Stalisfield, I have not found, but it has long been an independent church of itself.
It was, long before the dissolution of the priory of St. Gregory, served as a curacy by the religious of it; since which it has been esteemed as a perpetual curacy, of the patronage of the successive archbishops of Canterbury, and continues to at this time. In 1640 the communicants here were forty-seven.
The lessee of the parsonage pays the curate, by the convenants of his lease, the yearly sum of fifteen pounds.
¶Before the year 1755, it had been augmented by the governors of queen Anne's bounty with the sum of two hundred pounds, and divine service was performed here only once a fortnight; since which it has been augmented with 1000l. more, and it is now performed here once a week. Of the above sum of 1200l. in the year 1764, 260l. were laid out in the purchase of an estate, of a house, buildings, and twenty-two acres of land, in Ospringe; and in 1770, another estate was purchased, consisting of a house, buildings, and thirty-three acres of land, in Boughton under Blean. The remaining 280l. yet remain in the governors hands.
St Peter's Kirk stands south of the road leading to Gordonstoun School about a quarter of a mile east of the village of Duffus. It is sometimes referred to as St Peter's Church; as Duffus Old Parish Church; as Duffus Old Kirk; or just as Peter Kirk.
As churches go, there a bigger and more inspiring buildings around, but few as old as St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth.
The building has Saxon origins and dates from the very dawn of English Christianity.
The land upon which St Peter's was built, on the north bank of the River Wear, was gifted by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria to St Benedict Biscop in AD673.
The church is also associated with another great northern saint, namely the Venerable Bede, who is thought to have been born nearby.
Bede was educated in the monastery here and grew up to become a respected author and scholar. He was the author of 'Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum' (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People). In effect, he was the first English historian and earned the title of 'The Father of English History'.
If you've never visited St Peter's, I can thoroughly recommend you do. Never was so much history crammed into such a small patch and there are enthusiastic guides on hand to explain its importance. You can find out how the church became important in the making of glass, a tradition which continued right down the centuries and still does at the nearby National Glass Centre.
Also on site is Bede's Bakeshouse Cafe serving a range of tasty food and hot drinks.
Some churches provide no challenge to see inside, whilst others have an almost mystique about what delights might be inside, so hard are they to gain entrance.
St Peter is one of the nearest churches to home, and yet despite trying so many times to see inside, and even on the Heritage weekend or Ride and Stride, but it remains closed.
But with the internet, it is possible to arrange a meeting, and so it was that this morning I had arranged to meet the warden who would facilitate my visit.
It was the weekly church tidy up, I suppose, so I park outside, grab my camera bag, and see even from the car park, I could see the door ajar.
The first thing I see when I walk in is the altar right in front of me, in what should be the middle of the nave.
It was reorganised in the 1970s, so now the congreation sits in a semi circle around the alter which is in the middle of the north wall.
In the south wall, there were the remains of three ancient pillars, which had been allowed to be seen among the rendered walls.
Many thankls to the warden for allowing me to see inside this wonderful, modernised but ancient church, on the edge of the modern town of Whitfield.
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A picturesque church in the fields – not yet joined up to its village. In the west wall can be seen a double-splayed Saxon window which takes this church back to the 8th or 9th century. From the outside all looks pretty ordinary for a country church but on opening the door we find that in the 1970s the church was reordered so that the altar is in the north aisle! It may be unusual but it works well. The chancel is now a vestry. The original chancel arch was, unfortunately, taken down by Ewan Christian when he restored the church –it would have been a rare survivor indeed. His replacement arch, however, maintains the proportions of Saxon work.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Whitfield
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WHITFIELD, alias BEWSFIELD,
IS the next parish south-eastward from Coldred. It has been variously called by both these names, both which plainly imply its high and open situation; but the latter, written in Domesday, Bevesfel, is its proper name, that of Whitfield being much more modern, by which it is now however in general called. The manor of Norborne claims paramount over great part of this parish.
THIS PARISH is very small and narrow, it is a very unfrequented place, situated on very high ground, in a poor country of open uninclosed land, the soil of which is in general chalk and very light, though there are some few strypes of deep ground more fertile than the rest. The village, called Whitfield-street, having the church in it, is situated at the south-east bounds of it, at a small distance from which is a hamlet of houses, called Lower Whitfield, where is a farm, formerly belonging to the Denews, and then to Brett, of Spring Grove, whence it was sold to the present possessor of it, Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, and at the western bounds, in a dell, Hazling wood. At the northern bounds is the hamlet of Pinham, consisting of three small farms.—There is no fair.
OFFA, king of Mercia, in the first year of his reign, anno 757, gave to the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, land called Bewesfeld, with the privilege of feeding hogs and cattle in the royal wood, and other liberties mentioned in his charter for that purpose, one of which was that of taking one goat in Snowlyn's wood, where the king's goats went; after which this land continued in the possession of the monastery till the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which record it is thus entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine:
Oidelard holds of this manor, viz. Norborne, one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
After which, that part of the above land, which comprehended THIS MANOR OF BEWSFIELD, was held of the abbot by knight's service, by the eminent family of Badlesmere. Guncelin de Badlesmere held this manor in Hen. VIII.'s reign, and another Guncelin de Badlesmere held it in like manner in king John's reign, and was a justice itinerant. He left one son, Bartholomew, and two daughters; Joane, married to John de Northwood, and another to John de Coningsby. Before his death he gave this manor in frank marriage, with this eldest daughter Joane, to Sir John de Northwood, of Northwood, who was a man of great account in the reigns of king Edward I. and II. whose descendants continued in the possession of this manor for some length of time, and till it was at length alienated to Chelesford, alias Chelford, from which name it again passed by sale about Henry VII.'s reign, to Wm. Boys, of Fredville, whose descendant Sir E. Boys the elder, afterwards possessed it, at which time the name of this manor seems to have dropped, and to have been blended in that of the adjoining one of LINACRECOURT, by which name it has ever since been called. He gave it to his second son Roger Boys, esq. (fn. 1) whose only son and heir Edward Boys, about the year 1644, conveyed it by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. and he alienated it to John Day, who sold it to Roger Laming, of Wye, and he parted with it to Hercules Baker, esq. of Deal, whose daughter Sarah carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose third wife she was. She died s. p. as did Mr. Barrett in 1757, possessed of this manor, leaving it in jointure to his fourth wife Katherine, daughter, and at length sole heir of Humphry Pudner, esq. who died in 1785, on which it descended to their only son Thomas Barrett, esq. now of Lee, in Ickham, who is the present possessor of it.
LINACRE MANOR, or LINACRE-COURT, as it is usually called, in which the manor of Bewsfield is now merged, lies in the south-west part of this parish, adjoining to Coldred and River, and was the other part of that land given to St. Augustine's monastery, and described in Domesday as before-mentioned, being held by knight's service of the abbot, by the family of Criol, one of whom, William de Criol, as appears by the book of knights fees in the exchequer, held it as such in the reign of king Edward I. but it did not long afterwards remain with them, for John de Malmains, of Hoo, held it in the next reign of king Edward II. his son John left an only daughter and heir, who carried it in marriage to John Monyn, and he in her right held it in the 20th year of king Edward III. After this it continued but a small time in the name of Monyn, for in the 49th year of that reign, John Solley is entered in the register of the abbey, as holding this manor of the abbot by knight's service. How long it remained in his descendants I have not found, only that it was at length alianated to Chelsesford, alias Chelford, from which name it passed, with the manor of Bewsfield as before related, by sale, about Henry VII.'s reign, to William Boys, esq. of Fredville, who died possessed of both these manors in 1508; after which it descended down to Mr. Edward Boys, who about the year 1644 conveyed this manor by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. since which it has passed in the like chain of ownership as the manor of Bewsfield described before, down to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, in lckham, who is the present owner of this manor of Linacre, in which that of Bewsfield is included. A court baron is held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF WHITFIELD, with THE MANOR OF LITTLE PISING, and THE LANDS OF PIMHAM, was in the reign of king Henry III. in the hands of the crown, in the 13th year of which that eminent man, Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent and chief justice of England, had a grant of it, among others, with licence to give of assign it to whomever he would, either to a religious house or otherwise; not long after which, he appears to have settled this manor, with the estate in this parish, called Little Pising, on the hospital of St. Mary, in Dover, afterwards called the Maison Dieu, then lately founded by him; after which Edward I. granted a charter of free-warren to the master and bretheren of this hospital, for their demesne lands in Whytefeld and Coldred adjoining. After which this manor and estate continued part of the revenues of this hospital till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when on the suppression of it they came into the king's hands, where they staid till king Edward VI. in his 2d year granted the manors of Whitfield and Little Pysing, to Sir Thomas Heneage and William lord Willoughbye, to hold in capiteby knight's service. (fn. 2) They seem to have sold their joint interest in them to James Hales, whose heirs possessed them at the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, after which I find no more of the manor of Whitfield, but that the manor of Little Pysing passed by sale into the family of Monins, of Waldershare, in which it continued down to Sir Edward Monins, bart. who died in 1663, after which his heirs and trustees joined in the sale of it, together with other lands at Pinham, to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, after which his granddaughter Catherine, countess of Rockingham, became possessed of this manor of Little Pising in her own right, and of the lands at Pinham, jointly with her two sisters, as coheirs of their father, in equal shares in coparcenary in tail general, since which her interst in these estates have passed in like manner as Coldred before-mentioned, and her other estates in this county, to her eldest grand son, the present right hon. Geo-Augustus, earl of Guildford, the present possessor of them.
Charities.
THERE was given by a person unknown, for the use of the poor not having relief, land, now vested in Redman Jones, of the annual produce of 10s.
The poor constantly maintained are about ten, casually eight.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of a small nave and two chancels, having one bell in it, but there is no steeple, it is a wretched mean building. The roof is supported by a most uncouth pillar in the middle, so strangely as to prevent, I think, all description of it. There are no monuments in it, nor any thing surther worthy notice.
This church was originally appendant to the manor, and as such was given to St. Augustine's abbey in 757, by king Offa; after which the abbot and convent, in the year 1221, anno 6 Henry III. granted their right in this church to the abbot and convent of Combwell, to hold in perpetual alms, but it was at the same time agreed, that the latter should not exact the tithes of sheaves, arising from twenty-five acres of Napushurst, which the abbot and convent of St. Augustine had sometime granted to Thomas de Newesole, but that the church of Bewefield should enjoy the small tithes of the above lands for the ecclesiastical service, which it should persorm to the tenants of St. Augustine, who inhabited there, and this, by the liberal concession of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, at the time of making the grant; (fn. 3) upon which, though this church became appropriated to the abbot and convent of Combwell, yet there does not seem to have been a vicarage endowed in it till the year 1441, anno 20 king Henry VI. when a composition was made by archbishop Chicheley, between the abbot and convent, appropriators of this church, and Wm. Geddyng, vicar of it, on account of his portion, and the pensions belonging to this church. In which state this appropriation and vicarage continued till the final dissolution of the priory of Combwell, for so it was then esteemed, in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act then passed, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and came into the hands of the crown; after which the king, in his 29th year, granted the scite of the priory, with all its lands and possessions, in which this appropriation and advowson of the vicarage of Beausfield,alias Whitfield, was included, to Thomas Culpeper, esq. to hold in capite, who before the 34th of that reign passed them back again to the crown, whence they were immediately afterwards granted to Sir John Gage, comptroller of the king's household, to hold in like manner; and he next year exchanged them both, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, for the confirmation of which an act passed anno 35 Henry VIII. since which they have continued parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, his grace the archbishop being at this time entitled to them. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee of this parsonage.
This church has been for many years esteemed only as a curacy, to which the archbishop nominates; for Henry Hannington, vicar of it, at the instance of archbishop Abbot, by deed in 1613, renounced all the right and title, that he had by virtue of the endowment or composition made in the time of archbishop Chichele, between the then vicar of this church and the prior and convent of Combwell.
¶This church was valued, anno 8 king Richard II. at twelve pounds, and the vicarage at four pounds, which on account of its smallness was not taxed to the tenth; the latter is valued in the king's books at 5l. 18s. 8d. It formerly paid twelve shillings tenths to the crown receiver, but being certified to be only of the value of twenty-six pounds, it is now discharged of first fruits and tenths. In 1588 here were eighty-two communicants, and it was valued at fifteen pounds only. In 1640 it was valued at forty-five pounds. It was augmented by archbishop Juxon in 1661, with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage; and farther confirmed by indenture anno 28 Charles II. It is now a discharged living of the yearly certified value of twenty-six pounds. There was a payment to the parson of Bewsfield, payable yearly out of the lands of the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, which was granted to the archbishop anno 29 Henry VIII.
I lived in lowestoft for the first 25 years of my life, and then returned for another 5 in 2004, and yet before Saturday I had never clapped eyes on Gunton St Peter.
I knew there was a road called Gunton Church Lane, and when you come to think about it, it stands to reason that there should be a church on it at some point.
Of course even 2009 is a different place, long before I began the task of photographing Kentish churches and so my appreciation of churches had not yet begun. And like most people I have a very poor opinion about my hometown.
And yet, thanks to my photography, and looking at the work of others, Simon K in particular, whose labour of love are two wonderful websites detailing the churches of Suffolk and Norfolk. I now see that I used to walk around with my eyes closed at the glories that surrounded me in East Anglia.
St Peter is a delight, although Simon tells us the body of the church was rebuilt by the lovely Victorians it still looks wonderful, small in scale but with a fine round tower, all built of flints, as you would expect. That this appears to be a rural church, and it is now at the end of a long road through a large housing estate, makes it appear all the more remarkable.
In the porch there was a 'church open' sign, which suggests that they do unlock the doors from time to time.
And now over to Simon, and the educational bit:
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This pretty little round-towered church is tucked away in the pleasantly domestic northern suburbs of Lowestoft, and has been for years. The parish name is just a courtesy title really, and there probably never was a village centre, for this was the Hall church. The Hall itself is now a holiday village, and the former grounds the home of the Pleasurewood Hills American theme park, East Anglia's biggest single tourist attraction. To really appreciate the historic setting of this church, you could do worse than leave your car in their car park. You can then walk the quarter of a mile along the footpath through the woods to the church.
Despite the urban setting, St Peter is a truly rural church, with a pretty round tower, and magnificent Norman north and south doorways. The body of the church was pretty well completely rebuilt in the 1890s, although something of its earlier medieval integrity has been preserved. Now, however, the chancel and nave run under a single roof, and there is no chancel arch anymore. The people of the parish probably think that no one is interested in seeing inside, because ordinarily they keep this church locked, without a keyholder notice.
This is a sad reflection on the people of Lowestoft, because in a county where virtually all medieval churches are open every day, or at least accessible with a nearby key, the churches of Lowestoft still lock us all out. I have no doubt that this makes them prey to vandalism, because, as the Churchwatch charity have pointed out, churches which are kept locked all of the time are far more likely to be vandalised than those which are regularly open, they are twice as likely to be broken into, and are even slightly more likely to have something stolen from them. The irony is, of course, that if parishes like this suffer such a loss it tends to make them even less likely to keep the church open, and so the spiral of decline continues.
However, if you can, you step into a pleasantly neat and trim late 19th century interior, albeit rather gloomy from the tinted glass. The building is obviously still well-used and cared for. At the east end, the rather awkward late Victorian triple lancet window contains panels of simple 1960s glass depicting Christ and the parable figures of a fisherman, a sower and a reaper, a nice reference to the main occupations of this part of Suffolk, even if the design itself is not particularly exciting. More pleasing is the view back to the west, down the church to the tower, with good late Victorian furnishings set in a sea of shiny tiles.
Last autumn, we felt confident enough to start arranging things in the new year. One of these was a show by Chinese acrobats that Jools wanted to see. She got Jen, Sylv and a friend to go. And yesterday was the day of the show. I made it clear it wasn't for me, but I would go up to rephotograph some City churches and we would meet up afterwards for a meal before coming home.
When we arrange things, we don't know what slings and arrows fate might throw at us. In Tuesday's case, it was a Tube drivers strike, and no last minute talks fixed that. I could arrange my trip to avoind using public transport other than the train up and back home, which were unaffected. Jools thought they would be OK, as their tickets were for the Odeon, which she thought was in Leicester Square, but it turned out was the old Hammersmith Apollo. Now, usually this would not have been a problem, but on Tuesday it was.
They arranged to leave an hour earlier than planned and try to get a taxi, which they did after waiting in line for an hour, getting to the theatre just half an hour before showtime, leaving them only time to get a snack.
Their journey up was done outside rush hour, the show ened at five, and they had to get back to St Pancras. Which would prove to be an adventure.
For me, however, it was a walk in the park. And to add to the pleasure of the day, I would meet up with my good friend, Simon, owner of the Churches of East Anglia website, just about every word and picture done by his own hand. His website also covers the City of LOndon churches, so I asked if he wanted to meet up; he did, so a plan was hatched to meet and visit a few churches, one of which, King Edmund, he had not been inside. He wouldn't arrive until jsut after ten to get the offpeak ticket prices, I would get up early as a couple of the churches would be open before nine.
A plan was made, and I had a list of chuches and a rough order in which to visit them.
The alarm went off at five, and we were both up. I having a coffee after getting dressed and Jools was to drop me off at the station, and as we drove in the heavy fog that had settled, I realised there was a direct train to Cannon Street just after seven, could I make it to avoid a half hour layover at Ashford?
Yes I could.
Jools dropped me off outside Priory station, I went in and got my ticket, and was on the train settled into a forward facing seat with three whole minutes to spare.
The train rattled it's way out of the station and through the tunnel under Western Heights, outside it was still dark. So I put my mask on and rested my eyes as we went through Folkestone to Ashford, an towards Pluckley, Headcorn, Marden to Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and so onto south east London. The train filled up slowly, until we got to Tonbridge which left few seats remaining, and at Sevenoaks, it was standing room only, but by then its a twenty minute run to London Bridge.
After leaving London Bridge station, the train took the sharp turn above Borough Market and over the river into Cannon Street. I was in no hurry, so enoyed the peace and space of an empty carriage before making my way off the train then along the platform and out onto the street in front. A heavy drizzle was falling, so I decided to get some breakfast and another coffee. Just up Walbrook there was an independent sandwich place, so I went in and asked what I wanted: faced with dozens of choices, all made to order, I had no idea.
I decided on a simple sausage sandwich and a coffee and watched people hurrying to work outside. I had all the time I wanted.
I check my phone and find that opening times were a little different, but St Mary Aldermary was open from half eight, so I check the directions and head there.
It was open, mainly because there is a small cafe inside. I ask if I could go in, they say yes, so I snap it well with the 50mm lens fitted, and decide that something sweet was called for. They recommended the carrot cake, so I had a slice of that and a pot of breakfast tea sitting and admiring the details of the church. Once I had finished, I put on the wide angle lens and finished the job.
Just up the lane outside was St Mary-le-Bow, which should also be open.
It was. Also because they had a cafe. I skipped another brew, and photographed that too, and saw that the crypt was open too, so went down the steps to that. Simon tells me that the church got it's name because of the brick arched crypt: bowed roof.
A five minute walk past The Bank of England was St Mary Woolnorth and St Mary Abchurch: both open, and both recorded by my camera and keen eye.
It was now near to ten, so I texted Simon to let him know to meet me at St Edmund, and I set off in the wrong direction. I only realised this when I was the other side of The Bank, so checked my map and retraced my steps and went down Lombard Street.
The rain was still falling gently, and I was damp, so found shelter under a balcony, as the church was not unlocked. The smell of tale piss rose from the pavement, it wasn't pleasant.
Simon arrived, we shook hands and reviewed the plans, and with it being nearly half ten, thought we would give Stephen Walbrook another go. And wonder of wonders, it was open! The church has been reordered, which isn't to everyone's taste, but the doughnut in the centre can be removed if needed, and Wren's church is still there, including the wonderful painted ceiling.
We went to Cornhill, as Somon had never visited St Peer there, or rather never found it open. I had a feeling that Friends of the City Churches were watching it on Tuesday, so should be open. And it was, although a workshop was going on, we went round not getting in anyone's way getting shots, and then chatting with the watcher, who didn't quite match Simon's knowledge, but the watcher had his book for reference.
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An early foundation, probably a Saxon church set in the former forum of the Roman Londinium. The medieval church was larger than today's, an important church with charitable foundations including a library and a school by the 15th Century. As Wayland Young observes, chantries were many and rich. All were dispersed at the Reformation. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in the early 1680s. This is a church worth viewing from different aspects. From Cornhill it is a reminder of what many City churches were once like, with buildings crowding all around and shopfronts flanking the porch. Everybody loves the devil perched on an adjacent gable. The story goes that the owner was forced to pull down an earlier building because he had unwittingly encroached on church land. From Gracechurch Street the tower and spire can be seen, while from the south the aspect is much more intimate across a small garden.
As with its near neighbour St Michael Cornhill, a surprising amount of the 19th Century restoration survives here thanks to these tightly-packed buildings at the east end of Cornhill surviving the Blitz. However, the nave glass by Hugh Easton and the AK Nicholson studio is all 20th Century and variable according to taste. Most moving is a small memorial to seven children killed in a house fire in 1782. It remembers James, Mary, Charles, Harriet, George, John, Elizabeth, the whole offspring of James and Mary Woodmason, in the same awful moment on the 18 Jan 1782 translated by sudden and irresistible flames in the late mansion of their sorrowing parents from the sleep of innocence to eternal bliss. Their remains collected from the ruins are here combined. A sympathysing friend of the bereaved parents, their comanion through the night of 18 of Jan in a scene of distress beyond the powers of language, perhaps of imagination, devotes this spontaneous tribute of the feeling's of his mind to the memory of innocence. JHC. The children appear as a range of cherubs above the inscription.
Simon Knott, March 2022
St Peter's was the ancient parish church of Harborne, long before it became absorbed into Birmingham's suburbs. Unfortunately little remains of the medieval building, just the 15th century red sandstone west tower. The rest of the church is Victorian rebuilding by H.R.Yeoville Thomason (architect of Birmingham Art Gallery and Council House, but on a much tighter budget here!) and dates from 1867.
The stained glass comprises the 1860s apse windows by John Hardman Studios, two windows by J.B.Capronnier of Brussels in the transepts and a 1980s south aisle window by F.Skeat.
The church is normally kept locked outside of services but is open to visitors on Summer Thursdays 1-3pm.
St Peter Hungate sits at the southern end of the historic Elmhill which curves away forth, and the churchyard looks over it.
As before, I had noticed St Peter many times, and when visiting the city for the beer festival, I would hope to find it open. I don't think I tried hard enough, but it was made for a day like this.
I had walked past it twice already that day, but was not going to be open before time, a sandwich board was outside tempting the passerby in.
It is a redundant church, and has been thus since the first world war. Simon Knott tells it used to be a unique museum, which has sadly now closed, but now is open three days a week as a museum to the Norwich stained glass industry.
A young lady sat on watch as visitors milled around, admonishing anyone who said they remembered this being a church or even worshiping here, they would have to have been over 100 years old that to make that claim.
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At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
St Peter Hungate, Norwich
angel At the time of the 16th Century protestant Reformation, Norwich had 36 parish churches, and many of these buildings survive today. A handful are still in use for the congregational worship of the Church of England, for which they were never designed of course. Others have found uses as concert venues, artist workshops, day centres and offices. One houses the Norwich Probation Servce, another is even a Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Some stand empty, but far more are in use now than were ten years ago. It is the largest collection of urban medieval buildings in any one city north of the Alps.
Although St Peter Hungate is right in the heart of the urban area, its setting is idyllic; 16th and 17th century cottages flank the north and east sides, and then beautiful Elm Hill drops away below it. To the west is the magnificent chancel window of the Blackfriars church, while to the south are grand 19th century commercial buildings, full of Victorian confidence. Hungate itself no longer exists, but was formerly 'houndsgate', the street of dogs. In this conservation area the roads are cobbled, and it is an oasis of charm in the middle of East Anglia's biggest city. St Peter is that rare beast in Norwich: a cruciform church. It looks older than it actually is; the primitive capped tower is actually a tall 15th century one that was truncated in 1906 for safety reasons. In fact, the whole church was completely rebuilt during the middle thirty years of the 15th century. The chancel collapsed after the Reformation, and was rebuilt by the Laudians in the early 17th century. It is a blessing that they reused the 15th century windows, and in fact most of the window tracery in the church is still original.
In the 19th century, St Peter Hungate was one of the highest of Norwich's many Anglo-catholic churches; it was the first to use vestments, the first to use incense, the first to use candles on the altar. However, as with St Simon and St Jude at the other end of Elm Hill, St Peter has long been redundant, last being used as a church before the First World War. When, in the 1930s, the Norwich Society went on their pioneering crusade to save this area of the city, there was a renewal of interest in finding appropriate uses for the old churches, and in 1936 St Peter Hungate became a museum of church furnishings. The fixtures and fittings from other redundant churches were brought here for display, and the collection was augmented by items from the Norwich and Norfolk museums, as well as by other churches wanting to find a safe home for their treasures.
It was a superb museum, the only one of its kind in England. From a church explorer's point of view, it was a priceless resource; you could read about things, and then go and see them in real life, all in one place: rood screens, bench ends, reredoses, corbels, pyxes and pyx cloths, all at first hand. St Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art lasted until the late 1990s, when a reorganisation of the museum service in Norwich killed it off. All the exhibits were removed, and most went into storage under the Castle. For nearly ten years, the building was completely empty, and can be seen as it was in 2005 in these photographs.
ewg empty view out of the south door
In 2006, a small group of people came together in an attempt to get Hungate open and in use again. Their plan was to use it as an interpretation centre for Norfolk's medieval heritage, with a particular emphasis on the medieval stained glass artists of the city of Norwich. St Peter Hungate is a good place to do this, as it has the best collection outside of the cathedral in the whole city. This glass, largely of the 15th century, is partly from St Peter Hungate originally, and partly a consequence of the medievalist enthusiasms of the 19th Century, when much was collected and brought here. It includes a sequence of the Order of Angels, other angels holding scrolls, the Evangelists, the Apostles, and much else besides. Here are some highlights.
There are squints into the transepts, and image niches in the east walls of both; the south transept, which was a chapel for the guild of St John the Baptist, was the burial place of Sir John Paston. High above, the corbels to the roof are finely gilded; they depict the four evangelists, St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, and the four Latin Doctors of the Church, St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Gregory and St Jerome. This is the only known example of these eight Saints as roofpost stops. There is a central boss of Christ in Judgement.
The fixtures and fittings of the new Hungate Centre are much less intrusive than those of the old museum, allowing a sense of space and light. Display cases down the sides of the nave explain and interpret the history of Norwich's stained glass industry, and between them are the lovely benches from Tottington, which I had last seen marooned within the fences of the Battle Training Area. There are temporary exhibitions which use the transepts and chancel, and regular activities for adults and children. The Centre is currently open three days a week, and you can read more about it on its website.
If you go out through the north door, you find yourself in the former graveyard, now a pleasant garden overlooking the rooftops of Elm Hill. The 15th century building immediately to the north, now a restaurant, was once a beguinage, a retreat house for nuns. The lawn is surrounded by lavender and rosemary, and it is all very well kept. All in all, this beautiful space, now once again in safe hands, is much to be celebrated.
Simon Knott, November 2005, revised and updated February 2011
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichpeterhungate/norwichpete...
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The tower is square, and built of black flints in 1431, by Thomas Ingham. Its unusual pyramid cap was put on in 1906, when the tower had become so unsafe that the battlemented belfry stage was demolished.
The south porch was added in 1497, by Nicholas Ingham, who is buried in it. It has angle buttresses and a niche for a statue over the door. Its ceiling has four bosses –one for each Evangelist.
The nave and transepts were totally rebuilt, as ‘a neat building of black flint’, by John and Margaret Paston in 1458, after they had acquired the advowson from St Mary’s College. A stone in a buttress near the north door records this – it shows a tree trunk without branches (= decay of the old church) with a new shoot (= the new building), together with the date of completion – 1460. The windows are uniformly Perpendicular, and allow much light into the building.
The chancel had been rebuilt in 1431 by Thomas Ingham and was rebuilt again in 1604 after it had collapsed: it is of rough rubble, plastered over, contrasting with the nave and transepts. Its windows are of an older pattern and have trefoil tracery in the heads. It is covered with peg-tiles, which date from the 1604 rebuilding.
Both the north and the south doors are original – of about 1460 – and have tracery which is similar to that in the windows.
The nave has wall - arcading, to frame each window. The nave roof is of low pitch, and angels with scrolls adorn it. There is a central boss, of Christ in Judgment.
The font is fifteenth-century, and its cover, with an open-work steeple, is dated 1605.
There are two squints which give a view from the nave into the transepts. In the south transept is a niche for a statue of St John the Baptist, and John Paston was buried in front of it. The headstops on the window in the south transept are supposed to represent him and his wife
In the north transept the doors to the rood-stair can be seen. The collapse of the chancel in 1604 demolished the rood-screen, and it was never replaced.
The east window is filled with pieces of mediæval glass. Blomefield, writing in 1741, says that much of the original glass survived in the chancel, but much was later lost through neglect. What remains has been assembled in this window.
There is one monument – on the west wall, to Matthew Goss, who died in 1779.
The church was one of the earliest to be affected by the Oxford Movement. The square pews were replaced by chairs, and the services took on a very ritualistic character, with candles, incense, and banners, and was ‘one of the most fashionable places of worship in Norwich’.
By the end of the century it was again in a bad way: in 1888, the tower was so dangerous an order was served on the churchwardens. In 1897, a large hole in the chancel roof was covered only by a tarpaulin.
Although restored in 1906, the church was in bad state again by 1931, and was threatened with demolition. The Norfolk Archæological Trust raised money to repair it, and it was used as a museum of church art from 1936 until 1995
The church contains beautiful stained glass. To see magnified pictures and information on all the stained glass in this and other churches across Norfolk visit www.norfolkstainedglass.co.uk
www.norwich-churches.org/St Peter Hungate/home.shtm
After many years than three attempts to see inside this year alone, finally, the door did open for me.
But, not at first, as the loack had two settings, the first did not work, a little bit of ompf and I was in.
A pleasantly small and simple church, with remains of wall paintings a simple rood screen.
My eye was taken by the roof and support beams, very nice.
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St Peter's is in a windswept location, in open farmland, with ancient yew trees and a patina of great antiquity. Abutting the north side of the tower, and entered from the church, is a rare medieval priest's house. The nave has a distinctly unusual atmosphere. It is lofty and plain, with much light flooding in from the large south windows. While there is no chancel arch there is a horizontal beam which carries the Royal Arms of George III. The three-crownpost roof is beautifully set off by whitewashed walls which are almost devoid of monuments. After the nave the chancel is something of an anti-climax, although there are traces of medieval wall paintings on the south wall.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Molash
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MOLASH
Is the next parish westward from Chilham; it is a parish which lies very obscurely among the hills, being little known, and having very little traffic through it. The village, which is straggling, is situated near the western boundaries of it, the parish of Wye joining close up to it. The church stands close on the north side of the village; there are about fifty houses, and two hundred and sixty-five inhabitants, the whole is much covered with coppice wood, mostly beech, with some little oak interspersed among it; the country is very hilly, and the soil of it very poor, being mostly an unsertile red earth, mixed with abundance of slints.
There is a fair held here on the 16th of July yearly, formerly on the Monday after St. Peter and St. Paul.
The Honor of Chilham claims paramount over this parish, subordinate to which is The Manor Of Bower, alias Flemings, which is situated in the bo rough of Godsole, northward from the church, it took the latter of those names from the family of Fleming, who were once the possessors of it; one of whom, John de Fleming, appears by a very antient courtroll of this manor, to have been owner of it, and in his descendants it probably continued for some time; but they were extinct here in the reign of Henry VI. in the 24th year of which, as appears by another antient court-roll, it was in the possession of John Trewonnalle, in which name it continued down to the reign of King Henry VIII. and then another John Trewonnalle alienated it to Thomas Moyle, esq. afterwards Knighted, and he owned it in the 30th year of that reign; and in his descendants it remained till the reign of Kings James I. when it was alienated to Mr. Henry Chapman; at length his delcendant Mr. Edward Chapman leaving three sons, Edward, Thomas, and James Chapman, they became possessed of it as coheirs in gavelkind, and afterwards joined in the sale of it to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard, who died in 1723, leaving two sons, Gilbert, who succeeded him in the north of England; and William, who possessed his father's seat at Fairlawn, and the rest of his estates in this county, having been in his father's life-time created viscount Vane, of the Kingdom of Ireland. He died in 1734, as did his only son and heir William, viscount Vane, in 1789.s. p. (fn. 1) who devised this manor, among the rest of his estates in this county and elsewhere, to David Papillon, esq. late of Acrise, the present possessor of it.
Witherling is a manor in this parish, situated likewise in the borough of Godsole. In the antient records of Dover castle, this manor is numbered among those estates which made up the barony of Fobert, and was held of Fulbert de Dover, as of that barony, by knight's service, by a family of its own name. Robert de Witherling appears to have held it in the reign of king John, as one knight's see, by the same tenure; in whose descendants it continued down to the reign of King Henry VI. When Joane Witherling was become heir to it, and then carried it in marriage to William Keneworth, whose son, of the same name, passed it away in the reign of Henry VII. to John Moile, of Buckwell, who died possessed of it in the 15th year of that reign, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, and that it was held of Dover castle. His son John Moyle sold this manor, in the 4th year of Henry VIII. to Hamo Videan, descended of a family of good note in this county. There is mention made of them in the Parish Register, from the first year of it, 1557, to the present time; but they have been decayed a long time, and their possessions dispersed among other owners; but there is still a green in this neighbourhood, called from them Videan's, (by the common people Vidgeon's) forstal. In his descendants it continued till the reign of King Charles II. when it was conveyed, by a joint conveyance, from that name to Mr. Tho. Thatcher, whose daughter Mary carried it in marriage to Mr. Henry Bing, of Wickhambreux, whose son John Bing (fn. 2) sold it to Mr. Edward Baker, for the satisfying his sister's fortune, whom the latter had married; and on his dying intestate, this manor descended to his four sons, Thomas Baker, clerk, Edward, Henry, and Bing Baker, who joined in alienating it, about 1771, to Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, whose only son and heir of the same name died possessed of it in 1794, s. p. and by will devised this manor to Edward Austen, esq. then of Rowling, but now of Godmersham, who is the present owner of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
Chiles, alias Slow-Court, is a small manor in this parish, which some years since belonged to the family of Goatley, which had been settled here from the time of queen Mary. One of them, Laurence Goatley, died possessed of it in 1608. He then dwelt at his house in this parish, called Bedles, and was lessee of the parsonage. Searles Goatley, esq the last of this family, was brought from Maidstone a few years ago, and buried in this church. Laurence Goatley devised this manor to his third son Laurence, one of whose descendants passed it away to Moter, and in 1661 Alice Moter, alias Mother, of Bethersden, sold it to John Franklyn, gent. of this parish, whose daughter carried it in marriage to Thomas Benson, of Maidstone, and he in 1676, by fine and conveyance, passed it away to Robert Saunders, gent. of that town, as he again did in 1703 to Esther Yates, widow, of Mereworth, whose executors in 1716 conveyed it to David Fuller, gent. of Maidstone, who dying s. p. devised it in 1751 by will to his widow Mary, who at her death in 1775, gave it to her relation, William Stacy Coast, esq. now of Sevenoke, the present proprietor of it.
Charities.
Simon Ruck, gent. of Stalisfield, and Sarah his wife, by indenture in 1672, in consideration of 35l. granted to Thomas Chapman, gent. and John Thatcher, both of Molash, a piece of land containing three acres, called Stonebridge, in this parish, for the use, maintenance, and relief of the poor of this parish for ever.
Thomas Amos, yeoman, of Ospringe, by will in 1769 gave 100l. in trust, to be laid out in the public funds, and the dividends to be yearly paid, on the day of St. Thomas the Apostle, to the churchwardens, to be distributed to the most necessitous poor of Molash; which, with other money of the parish was laid out in the purchase of 125l. three per cent. reduced Bank Annuities.
The poor constantly relieved are about nine, casually twenty. five.
This Parish is within the Ecclesiastical Juris diction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small mean building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a pointed turret, shingled, at the west end, in which are three bells. There are several memorials of the Chapmans in this church, and in the isle is a stone, inscribed Pulvis Chapmannorum, under which is a vault, wherein several of them lie. In the chancel there is an antient gravestone, cossin-shaped, with an inscription round, in old French capitals, now, through time, illegible. The font is antient, having on it, Gules, three right hands couped, argent; a crescent for difference. In the Parish Register, which begins in 1558, are continual entries of the Videans, Goatleys, Franklyns, Thatchers, Chapmans, Moyles, and Wildish's, from that year almost to the present time. It is esteemed only as a chapel of ease to Chilham, and as such is not rated separately in the king's books.
¶The great tithes or parsonage of this parish were formerly a part of the rectory or parsonage of Chilham, and as such belonged to the alien priory of Throwley, on the suppression of which, anno 2 king Henry V. they were given to the monastery of Sion, which being dissolved by the act of 31 Henry VIII. they came, with the rest of the possessions of that house, into the king's hands, whence the parsonage of Chilham, which included this of Molash, was granted next year, together with the honor and castle, and other premises, to Sir Thomas Cheney, whose son Henry, lord Cheney, alienated the whole of them in the 10th year of queen Elizabeth, to Sir Thomas Kempe, of Wye, who in the 21st year of that reign alienated the parsonage or great tithes of this parish to William Walch, who held the same in capite, and he that year sold it to John Martyn, who as quickly passed it away to Richard Tooke, whose descendant Nicholas Tooke, in the 25th year of that reign, conveyed it in 1633, by the description of the manor of Molash, and all the glebes and tithes of this parish, to Sir James Hales, in which name it continued some time, till it was at length sold to Sir Dudley Diggs. who devised it to his nephew Anthony Palmer, esq. whose brother Dudley Palmer, esq. of Gray's Inn, in 1653, was become owner of it. It afterwards belonged to the Meads, and from them came to Sir Thomas Alston, bart. of Odell, in Bedfordshire, who lately died possessed of it, and his devisees are now entitled to it.
This church being a chapel of ease to that of Chilham, constitutes a part of that vicarage, the vicar of it being presented and institued to the vicarage of the church of Chilham, with the chapel of Molash annexed.
In 1585 here were communicants one hundred and twenty-six. In 1640 there were only forty communicants here.
St Peter, Billingford, Norfolk
The area between Fakenham and Dereham is a land of quiet lanes and working villages, and the churches have a sense of being at the heart of their communities. We are not far here from the main Norwich to Fakenham road, but the village of Billingford feels remote, as many do around here. I think this is because of the way the River Wensum threads and winds through the low hills, cutting off from each other villages which are otherwise quite close.
This Billingford is not to be confused with the other of the same name, with a church dedicated to St Leonard, across the county beyond Diss.
The setting of St Peter, on a bluff overlooking a valley, completes the drama. You approach the church from the east, and here the building presents itself intimately, the large east window abutting almost directly onto the road. It is a Victorian replacement, but is of more than passing interest, as we will see. The land falls away to the west, and by the time you reach the base of the tower you are several metres below the road.
The tower is one of Norfolk's half a dozen or so octagonal towers, and the church is pretty much all of a 14th century piece, with a couple of later windows. The interior is a wide, open space, cleared of clutter, the aisles empty. Tall Victorian benches fill the middle of the nave, the space around them accentuating their bulk. There is no central walkway, which gives the place a singular feeling - as does the slope eastwards. You could never mistake this interior for another.
Also singular is the curious and lovely font. A sloping octagonal bowl, its sides are carved with sets of double arches, a grand arcade of sixteen all the way around. I think it must predate the church slightly, and may have come from elsewhere, or was simply reused from an earlier building on this site.
Billingford has one of those wonderful early 16th century giant latten lecterns, an eagle standing on an orb. Norfolk has about ten of these, but this is the only one I know that isn't polished, and so it creates a quite different effect. As Mortlock is fond of observing here and elsewhere, they come from the same foundry as the one at St Mark in Venice.
The lightness in the nave is helped by the clear windows, and the east window is filled with a very good early 20th century representation of the Transfiguration, an unusual subject. But I mentioned earlier that the window itself is of interest, and this is because this church is generally accepted as the original source of the marvellous range of 15th century glass now in the church at North Tuddenham.
The window you see now replaces one that was much larger. You can see this clearly from the changes in the plasterwork, and it may have been done for structural reasons. The glass at North Tuddenham was bought from a builders yard in Dereham, and had probably been removed from the once larger window here as part of the restoration which fitted this one. If it had survived, medievalists and church explorers from all over the country would be beating a path to this church. A startling thought.
St Peter's church stands on the eastern fringe of the sprawling village of Thurston. It is a substantially sized building but upon closer inspection it is clear that this is a mainly Victorian building, rebuilt by John Henry Hakewill following the collapse of the medieval tower and much of the nave (the rest of which collapsed a mere ten days later) in 1860. The original 15th century chancel alone survives, and its Perpendicular style and vast windows contrasts with the Decorated style so favoured by Victorian architects and used for the rebuilt nave and aisles.
The loss of so much of the medieval church lowers one's expectations on entering the church and the interior thus revealed is very much a Victorian recreation, though surprisingly successful in blending the old and new parts of the building, more sympathetic than many such endeavours have been. The atmosphere of a medieval church isn't entirely lost either as ancient features and fittings remain, some striking fragments of medieval glass have been reinstated in the south aisle and further pieces can be found in the chancel traceries (where otherwise great expanses of late 19th / early 20th century glass by Ward & Hughes abounds). There are also a few intriguing late medieval carved benches and a fine 14th century font carved with foliate designs (and two Green Men) that somehow survived the collapse of the tower and nave.
St Peter's is kept open and welcoming to visitors, as a nice gentleman reassured me on my approach to the church. Do not be put off by this being a largely rebuilt church as there are good features to enjoy.
St Peter and St Paul, Uppingham, Rutland
Another bike ride in England's smallest county yesterday. Sixteen churches altogether, which sounds a lot, but churches in Rutland are refreshingly close together, and generally open, although I did find two yesterday that said they were open and weren't, and one that said it wasn't, but was.
Part four.
From Preston I headed south across the next valley on the A600, which was thankfully downhill for most of the way, but just before reaching the junction with the A47 at Uppingham I turned off down a narrow lane into the hamlet of Ayston. This sits on the northern edge of Uppingham, joined to it but separated from it by the A47, but far too tiny and rustic to be called a suburb. You can see the church, but you can't easily see how to get to it. In fact, what appears to be the front garden of some cottages is a remnant of an old village green, and as it narrows between houses it reaches the church.
St Mary is redundant, and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. A small church, but with aisles and clerestories to scale. It is full of interest. At first sight simple, rural, pleasingly light and uncluttered, with box pews and an odd birdbath font. However, the church is home to some of the best medieval glass in Rutland. Three figures are set below a rood group in the south aisle east window, all from the second half of the 15th Century and unlikely to be in their original place. The continental glass in another south aisle window came from Ayston Hall at around the time of the First World War.
The English glass, which was restored in 1973 with the addition of missing pieces by the York Glaziers Trust, something I don't think we would do now, depicts the Crowned Blessed Virgin looking down on the Christchild in her arms, and flanked by two Bishops, one of whom has a sword blade through his mitre, and is thus St Thomas of Canterbury. The other may be St Augustine. The Christ child in the central scene is entirely new. The bowed, crowned head of the Virgin above looks more as if she has come from a Coronation of the Queen of Heaven scene than from a Nativity, but in fact more is going on here than meets the eye, for if you look closely at the 15th Century glass you can see that the Virgin is offering her breast to the child to feed. This image, known as the Virgo Lactans was popular in late medieval iconography, depicting as it does not only motherhood but, because of the crown, humility, for most people of royal standing at that time would have given their children to wetnurses to bring up. It seems odd that the 1973 child is lying down rather than sitting up.
The rood group above it is tremendous, the crucified Christ flanked by six angels, most of them original, catching the Precious Blood from his various wounds, Mary and John looking on, not with the agony which they suffer at Gipping in Suffolk (that will come a few decades later) but the effect is similar. All in all a tremendous window.
Elsewhere in the church is a striking double effigy, weathered beyond recognition, as Pevsner puts it. Until the CCT came along it was outside beside the porch. Presumably a knight and his Lady who once lay within a tomb recess in the church. Barmy Arthur Mee was even barmier than usual when he visited Ayston for the King's England: Leicestershire and Rutland in the 1930s, claiming that the effigy keeps alive the story of two sisters, one-armed twins. They appear to have been industrious cripples, busying themselves in much good work and making money by their spinning so that they earned enough to buy a field. A second, perhaps more leisurely look prompts him to observe that the craftsman was moved by the story of these devoted sisters to give one of them two hands, that he might show them clasped in prayer.
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the war memorial is more moving and also grounded in an appalling reality. It lists eight names, which seems a large number for such a tiny hamlet, but with a shock you see that four of them are the Pykett brothers, two of these twins. Even worse, two of the other four are another pair of brothers, the Goodwins. They were obviously fighting together, because as the guide in the church notes, one was fatally wounded on the same day and in the same place that his brother was killed.
A sobering thought to move on with. It was less than a mile from here, and mostly downhill, into the centre of Uppingham. A small town of 5,000 people, but the second biggest settlement in Rutland after Oakham. The church sits right on the little market place, its north porch set among the run of buildings, a public house, bank and post office for company, a large 'Church Open, do come in!' sign outside.
You step into a remarkably wide nave, far wider than it is long. The aesthetic is very High Church indeed for a main town church, without overspilling into Anglo-catholic silliness. Ninian Comper was busy here, and so were many other workshops, mostly at the end of the previous century. Inevitably the large space is dark, but not without drama, as if it were a theatre awaiting a performance. Candles flicker in the north aisle before a Madonna of the Rutland fields triptych, and the vast east window is filled with the Ascension by Shrigley & Hunt, huge and effective. A church to feel a sense of the numinous, and unusual to be alone in I should think.
I cycled out to the edge of town, and at a crossroads kissed lightly the tour I had made a fortnight before. That time I arrived at the crossroads from the south and turned east, today I arrived from the west and turned north. Across a narrow valley stood the village of Bisbrooke. To be honest, I had chickened out of Bisbrooke two weeks previously on the strength of the alarming dip between me and it, but with a bit more physical and mental energy now I hurtled down, and then puffed and panted up into a delightful and intensely rural little hilltop village.
To be continued.
Rome - the city of Popes: St Peter, the first bishop of Rome, was martyred in Rome and so hallowed the city with his blood. Since then, the Popes as successors of St Peter and bishops of Rome have exercised the Petrine Ministry from that City.
This image of St Peter adorns the ceiling of the Chamber of the Popes in the Lateran Palace, the first residence of the bishops of Rome.
Some churches provide no challenge to see inside, whilst others have an almost mystique about what delights might be inside, so hard are they to gain entrance.
St Peter is one of the nearest churches to home, and yet despite trying so many times to see inside, and even on the Heritage weekend or Ride and Stride, but it remains closed.
But with the internet, it is possible to arrange a meeting, and so it was that this morning I had arranged to meet the warden who would facilitate my visit.
It was the weekly church tidy up, I suppose, so I park outside, grab my camera bag, and see even from the car park, I could see the door ajar.
The first thing I see when I walk in is the altar right in front of me, in what should be the middle of the nave.
It was reorganised in the 1970s, so now the congreation sits in a semi circle around the alter which is in the middle of the north wall.
In the south wall, there were the remains of three ancient pillars, which had been allowed to be seen among the rendered walls.
Many thankls to the warden for allowing me to see inside this wonderful, modernised but ancient church, on the edge of the modern town of Whitfield.
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A picturesque church in the fields – not yet joined up to its village. In the west wall can be seen a double-splayed Saxon window which takes this church back to the 8th or 9th century. From the outside all looks pretty ordinary for a country church but on opening the door we find that in the 1970s the church was reordered so that the altar is in the north aisle! It may be unusual but it works well. The chancel is now a vestry. The original chancel arch was, unfortunately, taken down by Ewan Christian when he restored the church –it would have been a rare survivor indeed. His replacement arch, however, maintains the proportions of Saxon work.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Whitfield
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WHITFIELD, alias BEWSFIELD,
IS the next parish south-eastward from Coldred. It has been variously called by both these names, both which plainly imply its high and open situation; but the latter, written in Domesday, Bevesfel, is its proper name, that of Whitfield being much more modern, by which it is now however in general called. The manor of Norborne claims paramount over great part of this parish.
THIS PARISH is very small and narrow, it is a very unfrequented place, situated on very high ground, in a poor country of open uninclosed land, the soil of which is in general chalk and very light, though there are some few strypes of deep ground more fertile than the rest. The village, called Whitfield-street, having the church in it, is situated at the south-east bounds of it, at a small distance from which is a hamlet of houses, called Lower Whitfield, where is a farm, formerly belonging to the Denews, and then to Brett, of Spring Grove, whence it was sold to the present possessor of it, Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, and at the western bounds, in a dell, Hazling wood. At the northern bounds is the hamlet of Pinham, consisting of three small farms.—There is no fair.
OFFA, king of Mercia, in the first year of his reign, anno 757, gave to the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, land called Bewesfeld, with the privilege of feeding hogs and cattle in the royal wood, and other liberties mentioned in his charter for that purpose, one of which was that of taking one goat in Snowlyn's wood, where the king's goats went; after which this land continued in the possession of the monastery till the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which record it is thus entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine:
Oidelard holds of this manor, viz. Norborne, one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
After which, that part of the above land, which comprehended THIS MANOR OF BEWSFIELD, was held of the abbot by knight's service, by the eminent family of Badlesmere. Guncelin de Badlesmere held this manor in Hen. VIII.'s reign, and another Guncelin de Badlesmere held it in like manner in king John's reign, and was a justice itinerant. He left one son, Bartholomew, and two daughters; Joane, married to John de Northwood, and another to John de Coningsby. Before his death he gave this manor in frank marriage, with this eldest daughter Joane, to Sir John de Northwood, of Northwood, who was a man of great account in the reigns of king Edward I. and II. whose descendants continued in the possession of this manor for some length of time, and till it was at length alienated to Chelesford, alias Chelford, from which name it again passed by sale about Henry VII.'s reign, to Wm. Boys, of Fredville, whose descendant Sir E. Boys the elder, afterwards possessed it, at which time the name of this manor seems to have dropped, and to have been blended in that of the adjoining one of LINACRECOURT, by which name it has ever since been called. He gave it to his second son Roger Boys, esq. (fn. 1) whose only son and heir Edward Boys, about the year 1644, conveyed it by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. and he alienated it to John Day, who sold it to Roger Laming, of Wye, and he parted with it to Hercules Baker, esq. of Deal, whose daughter Sarah carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose third wife she was. She died s. p. as did Mr. Barrett in 1757, possessed of this manor, leaving it in jointure to his fourth wife Katherine, daughter, and at length sole heir of Humphry Pudner, esq. who died in 1785, on which it descended to their only son Thomas Barrett, esq. now of Lee, in Ickham, who is the present possessor of it.
LINACRE MANOR, or LINACRE-COURT, as it is usually called, in which the manor of Bewsfield is now merged, lies in the south-west part of this parish, adjoining to Coldred and River, and was the other part of that land given to St. Augustine's monastery, and described in Domesday as before-mentioned, being held by knight's service of the abbot, by the family of Criol, one of whom, William de Criol, as appears by the book of knights fees in the exchequer, held it as such in the reign of king Edward I. but it did not long afterwards remain with them, for John de Malmains, of Hoo, held it in the next reign of king Edward II. his son John left an only daughter and heir, who carried it in marriage to John Monyn, and he in her right held it in the 20th year of king Edward III. After this it continued but a small time in the name of Monyn, for in the 49th year of that reign, John Solley is entered in the register of the abbey, as holding this manor of the abbot by knight's service. How long it remained in his descendants I have not found, only that it was at length alianated to Chelsesford, alias Chelford, from which name it passed, with the manor of Bewsfield as before related, by sale, about Henry VII.'s reign, to William Boys, esq. of Fredville, who died possessed of both these manors in 1508; after which it descended down to Mr. Edward Boys, who about the year 1644 conveyed this manor by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. since which it has passed in the like chain of ownership as the manor of Bewsfield described before, down to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, in lckham, who is the present owner of this manor of Linacre, in which that of Bewsfield is included. A court baron is held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF WHITFIELD, with THE MANOR OF LITTLE PISING, and THE LANDS OF PIMHAM, was in the reign of king Henry III. in the hands of the crown, in the 13th year of which that eminent man, Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent and chief justice of England, had a grant of it, among others, with licence to give of assign it to whomever he would, either to a religious house or otherwise; not long after which, he appears to have settled this manor, with the estate in this parish, called Little Pising, on the hospital of St. Mary, in Dover, afterwards called the Maison Dieu, then lately founded by him; after which Edward I. granted a charter of free-warren to the master and bretheren of this hospital, for their demesne lands in Whytefeld and Coldred adjoining. After which this manor and estate continued part of the revenues of this hospital till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when on the suppression of it they came into the king's hands, where they staid till king Edward VI. in his 2d year granted the manors of Whitfield and Little Pysing, to Sir Thomas Heneage and William lord Willoughbye, to hold in capiteby knight's service. (fn. 2) They seem to have sold their joint interest in them to James Hales, whose heirs possessed them at the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, after which I find no more of the manor of Whitfield, but that the manor of Little Pysing passed by sale into the family of Monins, of Waldershare, in which it continued down to Sir Edward Monins, bart. who died in 1663, after which his heirs and trustees joined in the sale of it, together with other lands at Pinham, to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, after which his granddaughter Catherine, countess of Rockingham, became possessed of this manor of Little Pising in her own right, and of the lands at Pinham, jointly with her two sisters, as coheirs of their father, in equal shares in coparcenary in tail general, since which her interst in these estates have passed in like manner as Coldred before-mentioned, and her other estates in this county, to her eldest grand son, the present right hon. Geo-Augustus, earl of Guildford, the present possessor of them.
Charities.
THERE was given by a person unknown, for the use of the poor not having relief, land, now vested in Redman Jones, of the annual produce of 10s.
The poor constantly maintained are about ten, casually eight.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of a small nave and two chancels, having one bell in it, but there is no steeple, it is a wretched mean building. The roof is supported by a most uncouth pillar in the middle, so strangely as to prevent, I think, all description of it. There are no monuments in it, nor any thing surther worthy notice.
This church was originally appendant to the manor, and as such was given to St. Augustine's abbey in 757, by king Offa; after which the abbot and convent, in the year 1221, anno 6 Henry III. granted their right in this church to the abbot and convent of Combwell, to hold in perpetual alms, but it was at the same time agreed, that the latter should not exact the tithes of sheaves, arising from twenty-five acres of Napushurst, which the abbot and convent of St. Augustine had sometime granted to Thomas de Newesole, but that the church of Bewefield should enjoy the small tithes of the above lands for the ecclesiastical service, which it should persorm to the tenants of St. Augustine, who inhabited there, and this, by the liberal concession of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, at the time of making the grant; (fn. 3) upon which, though this church became appropriated to the abbot and convent of Combwell, yet there does not seem to have been a vicarage endowed in it till the year 1441, anno 20 king Henry VI. when a composition was made by archbishop Chicheley, between the abbot and convent, appropriators of this church, and Wm. Geddyng, vicar of it, on account of his portion, and the pensions belonging to this church. In which state this appropriation and vicarage continued till the final dissolution of the priory of Combwell, for so it was then esteemed, in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act then passed, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and came into the hands of the crown; after which the king, in his 29th year, granted the scite of the priory, with all its lands and possessions, in which this appropriation and advowson of the vicarage of Beausfield,alias Whitfield, was included, to Thomas Culpeper, esq. to hold in capite, who before the 34th of that reign passed them back again to the crown, whence they were immediately afterwards granted to Sir John Gage, comptroller of the king's household, to hold in like manner; and he next year exchanged them both, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, for the confirmation of which an act passed anno 35 Henry VIII. since which they have continued parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, his grace the archbishop being at this time entitled to them. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee of this parsonage.
This church has been for many years esteemed only as a curacy, to which the archbishop nominates; for Henry Hannington, vicar of it, at the instance of archbishop Abbot, by deed in 1613, renounced all the right and title, that he had by virtue of the endowment or composition made in the time of archbishop Chichele, between the then vicar of this church and the prior and convent of Combwell.
¶This church was valued, anno 8 king Richard II. at twelve pounds, and the vicarage at four pounds, which on account of its smallness was not taxed to the tenth; the latter is valued in the king's books at 5l. 18s. 8d. It formerly paid twelve shillings tenths to the crown receiver, but being certified to be only of the value of twenty-six pounds, it is now discharged of first fruits and tenths. In 1588 here were eighty-two communicants, and it was valued at fifteen pounds only. In 1640 it was valued at forty-five pounds. It was augmented by archbishop Juxon in 1661, with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage; and farther confirmed by indenture anno 28 Charles II. It is now a discharged living of the yearly certified value of twenty-six pounds. There was a payment to the parson of Bewsfield, payable yearly out of the lands of the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, which was granted to the archbishop anno 29 Henry VIII.
Some churches provide no challenge to see inside, whilst others have an almost mystique about what delights might be inside, so hard are they to gain entrance.
St Peter is one of the nearest churches to home, and yet despite trying so many times to see inside, and even on the Heritage weekend or Ride and Stride, but it remains closed.
But with the internet, it is possible to arrange a meeting, and so it was that this morning I had arranged to meet the warden who would facilitate my visit.
It was the weekly church tidy up, I suppose, so I park outside, grab my camera bag, and see even from the car park, I could see the door ajar.
The first thing I see when I walk in is the altar right in front of me, in what should be the middle of the nave.
It was reorganised in the 1970s, so now the congreation sits in a semi circle around the alter which is in the middle of the north wall.
In the south wall, there were the remains of three ancient pillars, which had been allowed to be seen among the rendered walls.
Many thankls to the warden for allowing me to see inside this wonderful, modernised but ancient church, on the edge of the modern town of Whitfield.
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A picturesque church in the fields – not yet joined up to its village. In the west wall can be seen a double-splayed Saxon window which takes this church back to the 8th or 9th century. From the outside all looks pretty ordinary for a country church but on opening the door we find that in the 1970s the church was reordered so that the altar is in the north aisle! It may be unusual but it works well. The chancel is now a vestry. The original chancel arch was, unfortunately, taken down by Ewan Christian when he restored the church –it would have been a rare survivor indeed. His replacement arch, however, maintains the proportions of Saxon work.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Whitfield
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WHITFIELD, alias BEWSFIELD,
IS the next parish south-eastward from Coldred. It has been variously called by both these names, both which plainly imply its high and open situation; but the latter, written in Domesday, Bevesfel, is its proper name, that of Whitfield being much more modern, by which it is now however in general called. The manor of Norborne claims paramount over great part of this parish.
THIS PARISH is very small and narrow, it is a very unfrequented place, situated on very high ground, in a poor country of open uninclosed land, the soil of which is in general chalk and very light, though there are some few strypes of deep ground more fertile than the rest. The village, called Whitfield-street, having the church in it, is situated at the south-east bounds of it, at a small distance from which is a hamlet of houses, called Lower Whitfield, where is a farm, formerly belonging to the Denews, and then to Brett, of Spring Grove, whence it was sold to the present possessor of it, Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, and at the western bounds, in a dell, Hazling wood. At the northern bounds is the hamlet of Pinham, consisting of three small farms.—There is no fair.
OFFA, king of Mercia, in the first year of his reign, anno 757, gave to the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, land called Bewesfeld, with the privilege of feeding hogs and cattle in the royal wood, and other liberties mentioned in his charter for that purpose, one of which was that of taking one goat in Snowlyn's wood, where the king's goats went; after which this land continued in the possession of the monastery till the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which record it is thus entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine:
Oidelard holds of this manor, viz. Norborne, one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
After which, that part of the above land, which comprehended THIS MANOR OF BEWSFIELD, was held of the abbot by knight's service, by the eminent family of Badlesmere. Guncelin de Badlesmere held this manor in Hen. VIII.'s reign, and another Guncelin de Badlesmere held it in like manner in king John's reign, and was a justice itinerant. He left one son, Bartholomew, and two daughters; Joane, married to John de Northwood, and another to John de Coningsby. Before his death he gave this manor in frank marriage, with this eldest daughter Joane, to Sir John de Northwood, of Northwood, who was a man of great account in the reigns of king Edward I. and II. whose descendants continued in the possession of this manor for some length of time, and till it was at length alienated to Chelesford, alias Chelford, from which name it again passed by sale about Henry VII.'s reign, to Wm. Boys, of Fredville, whose descendant Sir E. Boys the elder, afterwards possessed it, at which time the name of this manor seems to have dropped, and to have been blended in that of the adjoining one of LINACRECOURT, by which name it has ever since been called. He gave it to his second son Roger Boys, esq. (fn. 1) whose only son and heir Edward Boys, about the year 1644, conveyed it by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. and he alienated it to John Day, who sold it to Roger Laming, of Wye, and he parted with it to Hercules Baker, esq. of Deal, whose daughter Sarah carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose third wife she was. She died s. p. as did Mr. Barrett in 1757, possessed of this manor, leaving it in jointure to his fourth wife Katherine, daughter, and at length sole heir of Humphry Pudner, esq. who died in 1785, on which it descended to their only son Thomas Barrett, esq. now of Lee, in Ickham, who is the present possessor of it.
LINACRE MANOR, or LINACRE-COURT, as it is usually called, in which the manor of Bewsfield is now merged, lies in the south-west part of this parish, adjoining to Coldred and River, and was the other part of that land given to St. Augustine's monastery, and described in Domesday as before-mentioned, being held by knight's service of the abbot, by the family of Criol, one of whom, William de Criol, as appears by the book of knights fees in the exchequer, held it as such in the reign of king Edward I. but it did not long afterwards remain with them, for John de Malmains, of Hoo, held it in the next reign of king Edward II. his son John left an only daughter and heir, who carried it in marriage to John Monyn, and he in her right held it in the 20th year of king Edward III. After this it continued but a small time in the name of Monyn, for in the 49th year of that reign, John Solley is entered in the register of the abbey, as holding this manor of the abbot by knight's service. How long it remained in his descendants I have not found, only that it was at length alianated to Chelsesford, alias Chelford, from which name it passed, with the manor of Bewsfield as before related, by sale, about Henry VII.'s reign, to William Boys, esq. of Fredville, who died possessed of both these manors in 1508; after which it descended down to Mr. Edward Boys, who about the year 1644 conveyed this manor by sale to Herbert Nowell, esq. since which it has passed in the like chain of ownership as the manor of Bewsfield described before, down to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, in lckham, who is the present owner of this manor of Linacre, in which that of Bewsfield is included. A court baron is held for this manor.
THE MANOR OF WHITFIELD, with THE MANOR OF LITTLE PISING, and THE LANDS OF PIMHAM, was in the reign of king Henry III. in the hands of the crown, in the 13th year of which that eminent man, Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent and chief justice of England, had a grant of it, among others, with licence to give of assign it to whomever he would, either to a religious house or otherwise; not long after which, he appears to have settled this manor, with the estate in this parish, called Little Pising, on the hospital of St. Mary, in Dover, afterwards called the Maison Dieu, then lately founded by him; after which Edward I. granted a charter of free-warren to the master and bretheren of this hospital, for their demesne lands in Whytefeld and Coldred adjoining. After which this manor and estate continued part of the revenues of this hospital till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when on the suppression of it they came into the king's hands, where they staid till king Edward VI. in his 2d year granted the manors of Whitfield and Little Pysing, to Sir Thomas Heneage and William lord Willoughbye, to hold in capiteby knight's service. (fn. 2) They seem to have sold their joint interest in them to James Hales, whose heirs possessed them at the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, after which I find no more of the manor of Whitfield, but that the manor of Little Pysing passed by sale into the family of Monins, of Waldershare, in which it continued down to Sir Edward Monins, bart. who died in 1663, after which his heirs and trustees joined in the sale of it, together with other lands at Pinham, to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, after which his granddaughter Catherine, countess of Rockingham, became possessed of this manor of Little Pising in her own right, and of the lands at Pinham, jointly with her two sisters, as coheirs of their father, in equal shares in coparcenary in tail general, since which her interst in these estates have passed in like manner as Coldred before-mentioned, and her other estates in this county, to her eldest grand son, the present right hon. Geo-Augustus, earl of Guildford, the present possessor of them.
Charities.
THERE was given by a person unknown, for the use of the poor not having relief, land, now vested in Redman Jones, of the annual produce of 10s.
The poor constantly maintained are about ten, casually eight.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of a small nave and two chancels, having one bell in it, but there is no steeple, it is a wretched mean building. The roof is supported by a most uncouth pillar in the middle, so strangely as to prevent, I think, all description of it. There are no monuments in it, nor any thing surther worthy notice.
This church was originally appendant to the manor, and as such was given to St. Augustine's abbey in 757, by king Offa; after which the abbot and convent, in the year 1221, anno 6 Henry III. granted their right in this church to the abbot and convent of Combwell, to hold in perpetual alms, but it was at the same time agreed, that the latter should not exact the tithes of sheaves, arising from twenty-five acres of Napushurst, which the abbot and convent of St. Augustine had sometime granted to Thomas de Newesole, but that the church of Bewefield should enjoy the small tithes of the above lands for the ecclesiastical service, which it should persorm to the tenants of St. Augustine, who inhabited there, and this, by the liberal concession of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, at the time of making the grant; (fn. 3) upon which, though this church became appropriated to the abbot and convent of Combwell, yet there does not seem to have been a vicarage endowed in it till the year 1441, anno 20 king Henry VI. when a composition was made by archbishop Chicheley, between the abbot and convent, appropriators of this church, and Wm. Geddyng, vicar of it, on account of his portion, and the pensions belonging to this church. In which state this appropriation and vicarage continued till the final dissolution of the priory of Combwell, for so it was then esteemed, in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act then passed, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and came into the hands of the crown; after which the king, in his 29th year, granted the scite of the priory, with all its lands and possessions, in which this appropriation and advowson of the vicarage of Beausfield,alias Whitfield, was included, to Thomas Culpeper, esq. to hold in capite, who before the 34th of that reign passed them back again to the crown, whence they were immediately afterwards granted to Sir John Gage, comptroller of the king's household, to hold in like manner; and he next year exchanged them both, among other premises, with the archbishop of Canterbury, for the confirmation of which an act passed anno 35 Henry VIII. since which they have continued parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, his grace the archbishop being at this time entitled to them. Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, is the present lessee of this parsonage.
This church has been for many years esteemed only as a curacy, to which the archbishop nominates; for Henry Hannington, vicar of it, at the instance of archbishop Abbot, by deed in 1613, renounced all the right and title, that he had by virtue of the endowment or composition made in the time of archbishop Chichele, between the then vicar of this church and the prior and convent of Combwell.
¶This church was valued, anno 8 king Richard II. at twelve pounds, and the vicarage at four pounds, which on account of its smallness was not taxed to the tenth; the latter is valued in the king's books at 5l. 18s. 8d. It formerly paid twelve shillings tenths to the crown receiver, but being certified to be only of the value of twenty-six pounds, it is now discharged of first fruits and tenths. In 1588 here were eighty-two communicants, and it was valued at fifteen pounds only. In 1640 it was valued at forty-five pounds. It was augmented by archbishop Juxon in 1661, with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage; and farther confirmed by indenture anno 28 Charles II. It is now a discharged living of the yearly certified value of twenty-six pounds. There was a payment to the parson of Bewsfield, payable yearly out of the lands of the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, which was granted to the archbishop anno 29 Henry VIII.
The huge early 15th century west tower of the parish church of Carbrooke dominates the flatlands north of the market town of Watton, in the middle of Norfolk.
The body of the church is equally large with both north and south aisles and neat clerestory in the tall nave, the chancel is early, dating from the 13th century and that huge tower is Perpendicular with battlements and fine west window.
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St. Peter's Collegiate Church is located on the highest and the oldest developed site in central Wolverhampton. It is Wolverhampton's Parish Church being the leading church of the Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade I listed building, much of which dates from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest; although it is not a cathedral, it has a strong choral foundation in the English Cathedral tradition.
Whilst there is a tradition that King Wulfhere of Mercia was involved in its beginnings, Charter evidence reveals that an earlier church was refounded as a Minster in AD994 by Lady Wulfrun (the Latin form is Wulfruna), who was believed to have been the grand-daughter of King Æthelred I and Queen Æthelflæd (daughter of King Alfred the Great).
St Peter's Church is built of red sandstone on an elevated site in the centre of the City of Wolverhampton. The oldest part of the building above ground is the crossing under the tower, which probably dates from the beginnings of the Abbey in 1200, followed by the Chapel of Our Lady and St George (Lady Chapel). Much of the Church was rebuilt and extended in the fourteenth century, in the Decorated Style. However, the Church was to be substantially altered in the middle of the fifteenth century at the expense of the town's Wool Merchants, with the addition of a clerestory to the nave, and reduction in height of the north and south aisles. The upper part of the tower was rebuilt around 1475 to a height of 120 feet, and the Chapel of St Catherine and St Nicholas (Memorial Chapel) was completed at the end of the fifteenth century. The chancel was reconstructed in the 1860s to replace the one which had been rebuilt following considerable damage during the Civil War, and this was followed by extensive restoration of the Church in the 1850s under architect Ewan Christian.
Unique features include the carved stone pulpit with a figure of a lion at the foot of the steps to protect the Minister delivering the sermon. The font dates from 1480 with several stone carved figures and the west gallery dates from 1610, paid for by the Merchant Taylors' Company for use by the boys of the Wolverhampton Grammar School.
Near the south porch is a 14 foot high stone column, carved in the ninth century with birds, animals and acanthus. It may have been a column pillaged from Roman Viroconium and brought to Heantune, either as part of a preaching cross or memorial. The carvings have deteriorated, but a cast made in 1877 can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Title: St. Peter's Basilica
Date: 4th century
Current location: Rome, Roma, Lazio, Italy
Description of work: ""The first church of St Peter, initially constructed in the second quarter of the 4th century, on the site of the apostle's traditional grave, was also a basilica with nave and four aisles, and again on imperial land (Old St Peter's). Constantine had large areas of an ancient (pagan) necropoly filled in so that the choir of the church, in the west, could be situated directly above the apostle's grave. While the basilican form of Old St Peter's, which survived until the church was rebuilt under Julius II, and has been well preserved in drawings, is close to that of the Lateran church, a crucial innovation are the transepts inserted between the main building and the apse. Lower than the main building, they were separated from the nave by an arch, the so-called triumphal arch, and from the aisles by inserted columns. This meant that the transepts were part of the apse in liturgical terms. A baldacchino at the point of transition between transept and apse indicated the apostle's tomb below, while the altar was placed in the semicircle of the apse. To the east of the building was a preceding courtyard, the atrium. Thus here in the basilica with nave and four aisles, in contrast to the Lateran cathedral, functioned as a tomb church above the grave of the apostle prince, thereby acquiring particular distinction."" (Grundman, Stefan. The Architecture of Rome. Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart/London. 1998. pg 67)
Description of view: Plan Showing Nero's Circus at Rome (First century), Basilica of St. Peter (Forth Century), and the present Cathedral of St. Peter (sixteenth century). These structures were built at successive epochs, on the same site.
Work type: Architecture and Landscape
Style of work: Early Christian
Culture: Roman
Source: Commercial Club of Chicago. Plan of Chicago. Chicago: The Commercial Club, 1909. (Image XII)
Resource type: Image
File format: JPEG, TIFF archived offline
Image size: 1389H X 808W pixels
Permitted uses: This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted. For additional details see: alias.libraries.psu.edu/vius/copyright/publicrightsarch.htm
Collection: Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures
Filename: WB2006-869 Basilica of St Peter 4th c Plan.jpg
Record ID: WB2006-869
Sub collection: churches
St Peter Mancroft is Norwich's largest and finest parish church, a superb example of late 15th/early 16th century Perpendicular gothic. It's elaborately panelled west tower is a major landmark in the heart of the city.
Inside the huge, elegant space is flooded with light from it's large windows and above the sweeping arcades is a fine hammerbeam roof (with unusual false vaulting at it's edges).
The focal point inside is the church's greatest treasure, the enormous 7-light east window mostly filled with original 15th century stained glass in a series of narrative panels on the subject of the life of Christ. It is one of the most significant survivals of the period. Below is a richly carved and gilded early 20th century reredos.
There are good examples of late Victorian/early 20th century glass here too, most notably Herbert Hendrie's superb Lady Chapel east window from the 1920s. There is also a fine and unusual medieval font canopy in the north west corner.
As befits Norwich's most impotrant parish church it is also one of it's most accessible ones and is generally open daily.
For more see Simon Knott's excellent Norfolk Churches website below:-
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichstpetermancroft/norwichs...
St Peter, Boughton Monchelsea, is one of a series of parish churches built on a sandstone ridge overlooking the Kentish Weald. It is one of them which was closed on my last visit to the area, so on Heritage Weekend I returned, and found it open and very friendly.
A volunteer had cleared some of the vegetation in the churchyard, and was making busy with a bonfire, whose smoke lazily crept through the boughs of ancient trees down the slope of the down.
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A church whose interior does not quite deliver all its picturesque exterior promises. The situation on the end of the sandstone ridge with far-ranging views is wonderful - and the lychgate is one of the oldest in the county, probably dating from the fifteenth century. Inside the results of a serious fire in 1832 and subsequent rebuildings are all too obvious. The plaster has been stripped from the walls and the rubble stonework disastrously repointed, whilst the poor quality mid-nineteenth-century glass installed by Hardman's studio is not typical of the usual high quality of that firm's output. However, the stone and alabaster reredos is just the right scale for the chancel, and compliments the medieval aumbry, piscina and sedilia. There is also a good range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century memorials including a large piece at the west end by Scheemakers to commemorate Sir Christopher Powell (d. 1742).
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Boughton+Monchelsea
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BOUGHTON MONCHENSIE
LIES the next parish northward from Hedcorne. It is written in Domesday, Boltone; in later records, Bocton, and sometimes West Bocton; and now usually Boughton. It has the addition of Monchensie, (commonly pronounced Monchelsea) to it from the family of that name, antiently possessors of it, and to distinguish it from the other parishes of the same name within this county; and it is sometimes called, in the neighbourhood of it, Boughton Quarry, from the large quarries of stone within it.
THIS PARISH lies upon the lower or southern ridge, commonly called the Quarry hills, which cross it, the summit of them being the northern boundary of the Weald, so much therefore of this parish as is below it is within that district. The church stands about half way down of the hill southward, and close to the churchyard is the antient mansion of Boughton-place, pleasantly situated, having an extensive prospect southward over the Weald, in a park well wooded and watered; from hence the parish extends into the Weald, towards that branch of the Medway which flows from Hedcorne towards Style-bridge and Yalding, over a low deep country, where the soil is a stiff clay like that of Hedcorne before-described. Northward from Boughtonplace, above the hill, the parish extends over Cocksheath, part of which is within its bounds, on the further side of it is a hamlet called Boughton-green, and beyond it the seat of Boughton-mount, the grounds of which are watered by the stream, which rises near Langley park, and having lost itself under ground, rises again in the quarries here, and flowing on through Lose, to which this parish joins here, joins the Medway a little above Maidstone. These large and noted quarries, usually known by the name of Boughton quarries, are of the Kentish rag-stone, of which the soil of all this part of the parish, as far as the hills above-mentioned consists, being covered over with a fertile loam, of no great depth. At the end of Cocksheath eastward is the hamlet of Cock-street, usually called, from a public-house in it, Boughton Cock, when the soil becomes a red earth, much mixed with rotten flints; a little to the southward of which, at the edge of the heath is the parsonage, with some coppice wood adjoining, and on the brow of the hill, at the eastern bounds of the parish, the seat of Wiarton, having an extensive prospect over the Weald.
THIS PARISH was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror, on his accession to the crown of England, to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, whom he likewise made earl of Kent, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the survey of Domesday, taken about the year 1080:
Hugh, grandson of Herbert, holds of the bishop of Baieux Boltone. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there is nothing. But five villeins have five carucates there, and two acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty hogs. There is a church. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, and afterwards, it was worth eight pounds, now six pounds. Alunin held it of earl Goduine.
Four years after the taking the above-mentioned survey, the bishop of Baieux was disgraced, and all his possessions were consiscated to the crown.
After which, this manor came into the possession of the family of Montchensie, called in Latin records, De Monte Canisio, the principal seat of which was at Swanscombe, in this county. (fn. 1) William, son of William de Montchensie, who died anno 6 king John, was possessed of this manor, and it appears that he survived his father but a few years, for Warine de Montchensie, probably his uncle, succeeded to his whole inheritance in the 15th year of that reign. Soon after which this manor passed into the possession of the family of Hougham, of Hougham, in this county.
OUGHTON MONCHENSIE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sutton.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small building, having a handsome square tower at the west end.
This church was given to the priory of Leeds, soon after the foundation of it by Henry de Bocton, and was afterwards appropriated to it, with the licence of the archbishop, before the reign of king Richard II. at which time the parsonage of it was valued at ten pounds, and the vicarage of it at four pounds yearly income, (fn. 4) both which remained part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of that house, into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter in his 33d year, settled both the parsonage and advowson of the church of Bocton on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose possessions they now remain.
The lessee of the parsonage is Mrs. Eliz. Smith; but the presentation to the vicarage, the dean and chapter reserve to themselves.
¶On the abolition of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was surveyed by order of the state in 1649, when it was returned, that it consisted of the scite, which, with the tithes, was worth 56l. 3s. 4d. that the glebe land of twenty-nine acres and two roods was worth 8l. 16s. 8d. per annum, both improved rents; which premises were let anno 14 Charles I. to Sir Edward Hales, knight and baronet, by the dean and chapter, for twenty one years, at the yearly rent of 13l. 10s. The lessee to repair the chancel of the parish church, and the advowson was excepted by the dean and chapter out of the lease.
The vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 13s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 4d. per annum. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds per annum. Communicants, 177. In 1649 it was surveyed, with the parsonage, by order of the state, and valued at thirty pounds per annum, clear yearly income. (fn. 5)
The vicar of this church in 1584, but his name I have not found, was deprived for non-conformity; though he was so acceptable to the parishioners, that they, to the number of fifty-seven, made a petition to the lord treasurer, to restore their minister to them.