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St Peter and St Paul Church in Fareham in the Autumn. Beautiful churchyard at this lovely church

The Castle of St. Peter the Liberator at night (Bodrum, Turkey).

 

The castle was constructed by the Knights Hospitaller in the 15th century during the crusades of the middle ages. The fortress became known as the Castle of St. Peter The Liberator because it served as the sole place of refuge for all Christians on the west coast of Asia Minor. The Knights kept a special breed of dog in the Castle, who could track down refugees and bring them to safety, much like the famous St. Bernard.

 

Occupying over 30.000 square feet at its base, construction of this castle took years to complete. The castle was built partly from the left remains of the mausoleum of Mausolus which had collapsed as the result of an earthquake. The huge exterior walls were designed in the early 15th century by the German architect Heinrich Schlegelholt and were strengthened by five towers known usually as the English tower, the Italian tower, the German tower, the French tower and the Snake tower. The French tower of the castle is thought to be the earliest one with the others being added during the following century. After the French Tower The Italian tower was built in 1436 by Italian architect Angelo Mascettola. The final parts of the castle were erected in the time of Pierre d’Abusson between 1476 and 1593, with the English tower being added at around 1480. Towers of the St. Peters Castle, Bodrum The walls of the Bodrum castle contain the nearly 250 coats of arms and armorial bearings of many of the knights that served there. Captured in 1522 by the Ottomans during the reign of Kanuni Sultan Suleyman, the church on the castle was converted into a mosque.

 

Bodrum Castle has a square-like plan. The castle’s dimensions are 590 x 606 feet (180×185 m), and it’s highest point is 155.8 feet (47.5 m) above sea level. The entrance of the castle is through the first door situated in the northwestern corner. There are 7 doors before you reach the inner castle. The northern and western sides are double-walled. The thick walled structure with a sloping roof at the west side is a cannon blockhouse. All the towers and various places in the Castle of Bodrum have been converted into exhibition halls for the Underwater Archaeology Museum.

 

Visit to Cincinnati, Ohio on October 8, 2013. The Greek Revival structure was dedicated on November 2, 1845. After significant restoration and expansion in the 1950s, the church was rededicated on November 3, 1957. St. Peter in Chains history

 

View my collections on flickr here: Collections

 

Press "L" for a larger image on black.

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

The earliest record of a church on this site is in the Domesday survey of 1085 when St Peter’s Abbey at Westminster owned the village and over 900 years ago this church was also dedicated to St Peter. The only physical evidence that the Norman church stood on the same site is the presence of part of a round-headed Norman arch, which can be seen embedded in the rough outer stone surface of the Chancel north wall.

In 1770 Lord Delaval, owner of the Doddington estate, realised that the church was in a ruinous state of disrepair, so much so that the only solution was to carry out a complete rebuild. It is also relevant that Lord Delaval had already spent a considerable fortune on modernising the Hall and its estate, and he saw the rebuilding of the church as the opportunity to make a serious architectural statement. His choice of the Gothick style certainly related to the rather sombre and romantic interior of the newly refurbished Hall, and it is a measure of his position in fashionable society that the Gothick transformation went on in parallel with Horace Walpole’s creation of his iconic Gothick masterpiece Strawberry Hill.

To create his new Gothick church Lord Delaval demolished most of the old building, except the north wall of the Chancel and nave together with the Lady Chapel from which he borrowed the style for his new church. He built a copy of the Lady Chapel on the south side of the widened nave, using the salvaged arcade. By this architectural sleight of hand he created the wide, light and airy space that is present today. A tower and spire over the church entrance completed his composition, and he integrated the whole design by running the battlements of the Lady Chapel round the whole building, and decorating its skyline with crocketed pinnacles.

The new structure was built of brick, clad in dressed Ancaster stone to match the Lincoln Limestone of the Lady Chapel. The spire was wooden, clad in elegant herringbone lead, but in 1949 it had to be dismantled because of decay in the woodwork. Lord Delaval decorated the entrance to his new church with a pair of niches and an ogee arch; all dressed in foliate stone carving. At this point the impression received if of light-hearted Strawberry Hill Gothick rather than pure Gothic revival.

800 people attended the dedication of the new church, but no one from the Delaval family. John Delaval,, Lord Delaval’s only son and heir to the whole Seaton Delaval fortune, was critically ill with consumption in Bath, and within a fortnight he was dead. For his funeral in St Peter’s, Lord Delaval in a typically Delaval gesture had the whole inside of the church painted charcoal black, a colour that was not painted out for 65 years. A fragment of this colour has been preserved in the church.

The font in the nave dates from the Early English period and is carved from a large piece of Lincolnshire Limestone. The pews date from a major period of repair work in 1911, when Lord Delaval’s box pews and a three decker pulpit were removed.

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.

 

A closer look at the carving beside this doorway in the south aisle.

St Peter and St Paul Church in Fareham in the Autumn. Beautiful churchyard at this lovely church

St Peter's at Mancetter stands close to a former Roman settlement on Watling Street. The church is a substantial medieval building with spacious nave and aisles and a long and well lit chancel, culminating in the church's best feature, an east window filled with fragments of medieval glass.

 

The ancient glass here belongs mainly to the 14th and century, though there are late 15th century canopies and other fragments as well as Victorian material mixed into the patchwork in the lower panels. Three figures in the central light belong to the Jesse Tree from Merevale Abbey (the rest of which remains in the church there). The surrounding figures in quatrefoils however appear to originate from the east window of the north aisle in this church.

 

There is a fine 17th century memorial and an impressive font at the west end, along with an usually small and amusing 18th century royal arms.

 

The church is normally kept locked without keyholder information so will likely require an appointment to see inside.

 

For more detail see it's entry on the Warwickshire Churches Site below:-

warwickshirechurches.weebly.com/mancetter---st-peter.html

  

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.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol7/pp292-297

Italy Vacation 2013 (Day 15)

Rome (Vatican City)

May 31, 2013

St Peter's Collegiate church is Wolverhampton's most important and historic place of worship, a grand crucifiorm edifice in the heart of the city dominated by it's slender central tower. Most of the present building (with the exception of the Victorian chancel) is late medieval in the Perpendicular style, though a church has stood here for far longer, as witnessed by the Saxon cross-shaft standing in the churchyard.

 

The interior is impressive, the spaces tall and narrow and crowned by fine wooden ceilings studded with bosses, that over the nave being particularly fine. The outstanding furnishing is the rare medieval stone pulpit, it's staircase guarded by an amusing carved lion. There are several noteworthy monuments and some fine stained glass throughout the building.

St Peter's, Threekingham. Grade 1 listed and dating from the C12th. The spire was originally constructed in the C13th and restored in 1872. In December 2019 the roofing lead was stripped by thieves. The colourful cassocks are notable - including the lower centre one here - of Three Kings.

 

Threekingham, Lincolnshire, England - Parish church of St Peter, Laundon Road

December 2019

I have been traveling to Leuven once a month for some 17 months now, and have not, until yesterday, visited the church of St Peter.

 

It stands in the centre of the town, opposite the ornate Town Hall, and around most of it is a wide pedestrianised area, so it doesn't feel hemmed in.

 

It is undergoing renovation, and a large plastic sheet separates the chancel from the rest of the church, and in the chancel, called the treasury, are many wonderful items of art. And maybe due to the €3 entrance fee, I had the chancel to myself, and just my colleagues with me when I photographed the rest.

 

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Saint Peter's Church (Dutch: Sint-Pieterskerk) of Leuven, Belgium, is situated on the city's Grote Markt (main market square), right across the ornate Town Hall. Built mainly in the 15th century in Brabantine Gothic style, the church has a cruciform floor plan and a low bell tower that has never been completed. It is 93 meters long.

 

The first church on the site, made of wood and presumably founded in 986, burned down in 1176.[1] It was replaced by a Romanesque church, made of stone, featuring a West End flanked by two round towers like at Our Lady's Basilica in Maastricht. Of the Romanesque building only part of the crypt remains, underneath the chancel of the actual church.

 

Construction of the present Gothic edifice, significantly larger than its predecessor, was begun approximately in 1425, and was continued for more than half a century in a remarkably uniform style, replacing the older church progressively from east (chancel) to west. Its construction period overlapped with that of the Town Hall across the Markt, and in the earlier decades of construction shared the same succession of architects as its civic neighbor: Sulpitius van Vorst to start with, followed by Jan II Keldermans and later on Matheus de Layens. In 1497 the building was practically complete,[1] although modifications, especially at the West End, continued.

 

In 1458, a fire struck the old Romanesque towers that still flanked the West End of the uncompleted building. The first arrangements for a new tower complex followed quickly, but were never realized. Then, in 1505, Joost Matsys (brother of painter Quentin Matsys) forged an ambitious plan to erect three colossal towers of freestone surmounted by openwork spires, which would have had a grand effect, as the central spire would rise up to about 170 m,[2] making it the world's tallest structure at the time. Insufficient ground stability and funds proved this plan impracticable, as the central tower reached less than a third of its intended height before the project was abandoned in 1541. After the height was further reduced by partial collapses from 1570 to 1604, the main tower now rises barely above the church roof; at its sides are mere stubs. The architect had, however, made a maquette of the original design, which is preserved in the southern transept.

 

Despite their incomplete status, the towers are mentioned on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France.

 

The church suffered severe damage in both World Wars. In 1914 a fire caused the collapse of the roof and in 1944 a bomb destroyed part of the northern side.

 

The reconstructed roof is surmounted at the crossing by a flèche, which, unlike the 18th-century cupola that preceded it, blends stylistically with the rest of the church.

 

A very late (1998) addition is the jacquemart, or golden automaton, which periodically rings a bell near the clock on the gable of the southern transept, above the main southern entrance door.

 

Despite the devastation during the World Wars, the church remains rich in works of art. The chancel and ambulatory were turned into a museum in 1998, where visitors can view a collection of sculptures, paintings and metalwork.

 

The church has two paintings by the Flemish Primitive Dirk Bouts on display, the Last Supper (1464-1468) and the Martyrdom of St Erasmus (1465). The street leading towards the West End of the church is named after the artist. The Nazis seized The Last Supper in 1942.[3] Panels from the painting had been sold legitimately to German museums in the 1800s, and Germany was forced to return all the panels as part of the required reparations of the Versailles Treaty after World War I.[3]

 

An elaborate stone tabernacle (1450), in the form of a hexagonal tower, soars amidst a bunch of crocketed pinnacles to a height of 12.5 meters. A creation of the architect de Layens (1450), it is an example of what is called in Dutch a sacramentstoren, or in German a Sakramentshaus, on which artists lavished more pains than on almost any other artwork.

 

In side chapels are the tombs of Duke Henry I of Brabant (d. 1235), his wife Matilda (d. 1211) and their daughter Marie (d. 1260). Godfrey II of Leuven is also buried in the church.

 

A large and elaborate oak pulpit, which is transferred from the abbey church of Ninove, is carved with a life-size representation of Norbert of Xanten falling from a horse.

 

One of the oldest objects in the art collection is a 12th-century wooden head, being the only remainder of a crucifix burnt in World War I.

 

There is also Nicolaas de Bruyne's 1442 sculpture of the Madonna and Child enthroned on the seat of wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae). The theme is still used today as the emblem of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church,_Leuven

Situated off the main road into the city, just inside the city marked by the nearby Westgate. St Peter sits at the end of a narrow lane, and is easily overlooked or mistaken for a small church.

 

In fact it is a tardis of a church, once you walk in, the body of the church opens up revealing, for me, a confused history.

 

Pews have been removed and replaced with modern chairs, and seems to also be a thriving cafe, judging by the people who came in asking if it was open. On this day it was just open for viewing.

 

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The earliest visible part of this church is the round-headed arch at the west end of the north arcade (see drawing in Smith (1971), 103 fig 3). This has Caenstone voussoirs and sits on plain rectangular piers with side-alternate Caenstone jambs, at the top of which are plain square imposts with a plain chamfer below. The masonry is diagonally tooled and must date from the first half of the 12th century.

A bit later in date is the small tower on the south-west. This was rebuilt and largely refaced externally in the early 14th century, but inside its east arch into the south aisle is similar to the north arcade arch, but is pointed and has some Reigate stone among its Caenstone quoins. The very large and long external quoins to the tower, which have been called 'Saxo-Norman' re surely a mixture of reused Roman blocks and new Ragstone long ties of the 14th century (compare the 'long and short' work on the north west quoin of the 14th century Lady Chapel).

Soon after the tower was built, probably in the early 13th century, the south door was built. This has jambs largely of Reigate stone, and on its east side a very worn capital and base indicate a missing shaft (no doubt a Purbeck marble column). The beginning of the moulded archway over the door (also in Reigate stone) can be seen on the east, but the rest of it has been restored with plain Caenstone voussoirs. Inside the original hooks for the double doors still survive.

There is a plain font of c.1200 with a square bowl of Bethersden marble at the west end of the nave. It has a 17th century cover and iron crane for lifting it.

During the 13th century, as is commonly found, a longer new chancel was built (confirmed by documentary evidence, which shows that in rental D (Urry, 209 and 304) of c. 1200, the eastern part of the area now occupied by the chancel was still in secular hands). The most obvious evidence for this is the wide lancet on the south-east side of the chancel, which shows that the south aisle was only extended eastwards at a later date. The two wide but plain arches on the north side of the chancel have chamfers with bar stops and comb-tooling which also suggests a 13th century date. The narrower western arch in the south arcade (opposite the south door) is also a plain 13th century arch.

In the early 14th century the tower and west wall of the church was rebuilt. The west wall was realigned, presumably to allow St Peter's Lane, which bifurcated immediately north of the church, more room. At the same time a new 3-light east window was built that has similar 'Decorated' tracery to the new west window. The tower has small single light early 14th century windows in its upper stage, and a probably comtemporary (but now restored) crenellated parapet. Inside the top stage of the tower is a (probably 14th century) timber bell-frame. It was heightened and enlarged for 3 bells in the early 17th century and restored in 1968 when 4 bells were hung there (including a treble, recast in 1903, from St Margaret's Church). There are still two medieval bells in the tower, one of which (the tenor) was cast by William le Belyetere in the early 14th century. The other by William Wodewarde is a bit later (c. 1400).

Also probably of the first half of the 14th century is the new, much wider, Lady Chapel on the north east. It has one original two light window on the north, but unfortunately the east window has its tracery removed and replaced with (c. early 19th century) timber Y-tracery. Between the Lady Chapel and Chancel a fire Easter Sepulcre (with cusped and sub-cusped arches over on both sides) was inserted. Some time perhaps later in the 14th century a new wide but irregularly shaped north aisle was created west of the Lady Chapel and a new crown-post roof was erected over the whole north aisle and Lady Chapel. There is a three light window with hexofoils over at the west end of the enlarged north aisle with a square hood mould externally. However, the Petrie view from the north-west of 1801 shows only a 2 light window without upper quatre-foiled lights.

Also perhaps of the first half of the 14th century, is the rebuilt south aisle which terminated in the Chapel of St John-the-Baptist (see will of 1505). The east window is of the reticulated variety while in the south wall are 2-light, 3-light and 2-light windows all under square hood-moulds. They have all been heavily restored externally in Bathstone. There is a piscina under the eastern 2-light window with a small shelf over the damaged bowl. Between this aisle and the chancel are two contemporary plain arches with simple chamfers and (now worn) brooch-stops at the base. At about the same time the old Romanesque piers were probably demolished at the east end of the nave and two very wide but plain arches were inserted instead. The crown-post roof over the new south aisle may also be 14th century, but that over the nave is perhaps 15th century. There is also a double piscina on the south-east side of the chancel with a Perpendicular head over it, and a small window at the extreme west end of the north aisle on the north side with a simple cinque-foiled head (now into the vestry).

The only late-15th century addition to the church are probably the rood-screen and loft. The extra tie-beam here is probably part of the rood loft (a door through the south pier between the nave and chancel still survives) and the doorway from the north chapel into the late 19th century parish hall beyond. This small doorway dates from c. 1500 and presumably lead originally into a comtemporary vestry.

The major restoration of the church was in 1882, when a new parish hall to the north was built, as we have seen. Much of the external parts of the windows were restored at this time in Bathstone.

 

BUILDING MATERIALS (Incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):

The 12th century work has only Caenstone for quoins with flint, reused Roman bricks, etc, for the rubble work. By the end of the 12th century Reigate stone was being introduced, and by the later 13th century Ragstone is used, and this is the most common quoin material for the 14th century work (though Caen is still used).

The usual 19th century restoration in Bathstone, while the east wall of the church was refaced in 19th century buff brick (also the upper part of the south-east buttress). The east window has recently been refaced externally in Lepine.

 

Bells in tower: Treble - 1903 (S B Goslin, from St Margaret's Church), 2nd 1637 (John Palmer, Canterbury) 3rd c 1400 (William Wodewarde, London), Tenor c.1325 (William Le Belyetere, Canterbury) (rehung for chiming only 1968). Some old glass also survives.

 

www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/C-PET.htm

 

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St Peter's church is the only one of six Canterbury medieval churches lying on the main city thoroughfare (Westgate to St George's gate) to have survived for parish worship. The others (Holy Cross, All Saints, St Mary Bredman, St Andrews and St George's) have all been removed to assist traffic flow, incorporated into new retail developments, converted to secular use or lost to enemy bombing in World War II. The position of St Peter's parish church (not to be confused with the nearby St Peter's Methodist church) is odd - set back from the highway and tucked away behind retail shops which stand directly on St Peter's Street (Image 1). This location lies on the line of the original Roman road leading from the Westgate, suggesting a possible religious use for the site from early times. The building includes examples of materials and styles reflecting 1000 years of worship here - specific examples are listed below. Specialists have not agreed on the dating of some elements, but in general terms the original 12th century tower and nave were enlarged first with a 13th century sanctuary, followed by the wide north aisle in the early 14th century and the narrower south aisle in the later 14th century. A major refurbishment in 1882 included addition of a parish hall. From 1660 until recent years, the church was used for the annual service to mark the appointment of a new mayor - hence the need for a mace holder (more below). St Peter's closed for parish worship in 1928 but Sunday services resumed in 1953. The City Centre parish currently comprises St Peter's, St Mildred's and St Dunstan's churches.

 

Several red Roman tiles can be spotted amongst the flint work of the slim Norman tower

Large white quoin stones mark the corners of the tower - a mix of re-used Roman blocks and added ragstone

A single round 12th century Norman arch survives under the eastern face of the tower (Image 2)

The font (Image 3) dates from around 1200, has a square bowl and is carved from Bethersden marble - the 17th century font cover is currently kept on the floor nearby but its winding mechanism (an iron crane) of a similar date remains place

The original door hooks are also in place, whilst the late 17th century mace holder currently stands, hard to spot, high on a window ledge (Image 4)

Two brass plates may be on interest. On the north wall, the memorial to William Lovelle, rector of St George's in the 1430s, provides interesting detail of ecclesiastical dress of the period (Image 5) but has had a chequered existence: rescued from St George's church after the bombing of 1942, removed to the Cathedral Library for safe keeping, remounted in St Peter's church, taken to Whitstable for a few days in January 1978 to improve its fixings, suffered minor damage in the storms and floods that month, cleaned up and returned to St Peter's. A second brass, also on the north wall, includes several French names, reminding us of Huguenot religious refugees whose descendants were buried here in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Near the high altar, note: an Easter sepulchre, a recess used to keep the host and altar crucifix during Easter time under its ogee arch (Image 6); the simple aumbry, a small cupboard used to store chalices and the sacrament (Image 7); and the less common double piscina (Image 8) used to wash hands and communion vessels

A window in the south aisle, inserted in 1904, is by Sir Ninian Comper, who incorporated a strawberry into many of his works as a tribute to his clergyman father (the latter died whist giving strawberries to poor children). Here the strawberry appears in the bottom left corner (Image 9).

The roof structures contain many examples of 14th and 15th century crown posts

The modern rood beam and figures were erected in 1922 in memory of priest-in-charge William Beam and parishioners who gave their lives in World War I

The keys of St Peter can be seen in the weather vane above the tower.

 

www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/stpeter/4590809560

 

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Early sunset in winter - St. Peter's Basilica in late daylight.

 

St. Peter's Basilica is of course part of Vatican City (officially the "State of Vatican City") a walled enclave within the city of Rome. But with an area of about 44 hectares, and a population of about 850 it is the smallest state in the world and so I merge it into Rome and Italy.

 

St. Peter's Basilica of today replaced "Old St. Peter's Basilica", that existed from the 4th to the 16th century, when the construction on the new basilica started. Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in "Old St. Peter" in 800.

 

(New) St. Peter's Basilica, designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture, completed in 1590. It is one of the largest churches worldwide .

 

Seen in the center of the "St. Peter's Square" is the Vatican Obelisk, that was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt. Next to the obelisk is a christmas tree and a large crib.

 

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.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp260-272

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

 

St Peter's, Southrop

 

Location in Gloucestershire

 

Coordinates:51.7291°N 1.7088°W

 

OS grid reference SP 20209 03420

 

Denomination Anglican

Status Parish church

Functional status Active

Heritage designation Grade I

Administration Deanery Fairford

Archdeaconry Cheltenham

Diocese Gloucester

Province Canterbury

  

St Peter's Church is an Anglican church in Southrop, a Cotswolds village in the English county of Gloucestershire.

 

It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Gloucester and the archdeaconry of Cheltenham. It has been designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage.

 

The church—on the site of an older structure—dates from the 12th century.

  

History and assessment

 

A church existed on the site in Anglo-Saxon times. The earliest part of the current structure dates from the 12th century.[1][2]

 

The Rev. John Keble was vicar of St Peter's from 1823–1825.[3] During his time at Southrop, he found a Norman-style circular baptismal font in the church wall.[4]

 

St Peter's was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage on 16 January 1961.[1] The Grade I designation—the highest of the three grades—is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".[5] In his 1982 work Cotswold Churches, David Verey described St Peter's as a "most precious" church.[2]

 

An active parish church in the Church of England, St Peter's is part of the Diocese of Gloucester, which is in the Province of Canterbury. It is in the archdeaconry of Cheltenham and the Deanery of Fairford.[6]

 

Model Kate Moss and guitarist Jamie Hince were married at the church on 2 July 2011.

  

St Peter's is built of limestone rubble and has a stone slate roof.[1]

 

The masonry has herringbone work.[2]

 

The plan consists of a nave with a south transept, a porch to the north, and a chancel to the east.[1]

 

The north entrance is Norman-style; the round arch of the porch has roll moulding.

 

The church doorway's jamb shafts have capitals with volutes. In the hood mould there is a tympanum with a diaper pattern.[2]

 

The north and south nave walls each have a window dating from the 12th century, and a later two-light window from the 19th century.

 

The nave also has a three-light Perpendicular style window with tracery.

 

The east window in the chancel contains stained glass from 1852 designed by Thomas Willement.[1]

 

Interior and fittings

 

The arch between the nave and chancel is Norman-style without moulding.[2]

 

There are two piscinae (basins) in the south wall of the chancel.[1]

 

The baptismal font discovered by Rev. John Keble in the 1820s is circular. It has eight arches and relief figures that include the Virtues (depicted as trampling the vices underfoot) and Moses.[2][4]

 

Monuments inside the church include effigies to Thomas and Elizabeth Conway, and memorials to the Keble family.[1][8]

 

See also

Grade I listed buildings in Gloucestershire

 

References

Footnotes

1.^ a b c d e f g "Church of St Peter". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 2 July 2011.

2.^ a b c d e f Verey, pp. 106–107

3.^ Moore, p. 89

4.^ a b Moore, p. 90

5.^ "Listed Buildings". National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 2 July 2011.

6.^ "St Peter, Southrop". A Church Near You. Archbishops' Council. 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2011.

7.^ "Kate Moss and Jamie Hince Wedding Shuts Roads". BBC News. BBC. 2 July 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2011.

8.^ Moore, p. 91

Bibliography

Moore, John Frewen (1867). Memorials of the Rev. J. Keble. OCLC 53703981.

Verey, David (1982). Cotswold Churches. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-3054-0.

 

[edit] External links

 

Media related to St Peter's Church, Southrop at Wikimedia Commons

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Peter's_Church,_Southrop

St Peter's Square, Vatican

It is the weekend. Again.

 

And with Jools suffering a relapse in her chesty cough, we slept late and I said I'd go to Tesco first thing, before coffee, and she could get dressed in her own time.

 

So I grabbed my coat, the shoppings bags and shopping list, put them in the car and drove to Tesco. First up was to fill the car with petrol, then drive roud to park up, get a trolley and head into the store, grabbing a scanner on the way in.

 

Apart from the weekly things, I got some stuffing mix and more blocks of butter for Christmas. Meaning that apart from the fruit and veg and milk, we are all abut done here.

 

Yay us.

 

Back home for coffee, unload the car and put shopping away, before finally having breakfast 1 of fruit then bacone butties and brews for breakfast 2.

 

That's better.

 

The plan for the day was for some local churchcrawling. After some internet research I had the name of the keyholder at Bekesbourne, I called but was told she was out but would be back "soon". OK, in which case we would visit some other nearby churches and go there last.

 

Not far to Barham from Chez Jelltex, just along the A2, overtaking lorries and slow cars until we turned off at Wootton, down past the filling station and into Barham, stopping on the road beside the church.

 

Barham is always open, I thought, no worries here. As I got out all my camera gear and lugged it over the road and through the churchyard.

 

Round on the north sade, we arrive at the porch and I find the door is locked after all. No news of a keyholder, but next week there is a coffee morning. If we feel OK after our COVID booster, we might go along.

 

Its a short drive along the Elham Valley to Bridge. And yes there is really a place called Bridge, and it does have a bridge. A bridge in Bridge, which takes the old Watling Street and high road over the bed of the Nailbourne.

 

Bridge never lets us down. And indeed it was upen, door ajar, and soon a warden came and put all the lights on so snapping was easier. I'd not missed much on previous visits, but with a new-ish lens, it was always worth in redoing shots. I did have the big lens with me, great for details of carvings and in staned glass windows, which I photograph enthuiastically.

 

From Bridge, its a five minute drive to Patrixbourne.

 

I wanted to come back here to take close up details of the Tympanum and rose window from the outside, so it wasn't too much of a loss that the door was locked after all.

 

So, I set about getting my shots and rattle off a couple of hundred.

 

Back to the car, and next village along is Bekesbourne, where I had called earlier. The keyholder lives in a "large while building opposite the church", the website said. Yes, it's a palace.

 

An actual palace.

 

So, there was scruffy me shambling up the large door, ringing the bell and asking if the church keayholder was in.

 

She wasn't.

 

And her husband wasn't too keen on letting me have it.

 

Now I know how to get it, there'll be plenty of other times.

 

I leave, but on the way back to the main road, a large Audi passes us, and pretty much the only place she could be going was the palace: should we go back?

 

No, there'll be other times.

 

I have an idea to go to Swingfield on the way. I mean its just off the main road.

 

Swingfield has very strong links with the Knights Templar, and the Cammandary in the village is somewhere I have been trying to get into for a decade.

 

More on that another time.

 

But there is also a church, now in the care of the CCT, set down a narrow lane off what counts as the main road through the village, to Swingfield Street, as the signpost says.

 

St Peter is a large church, but it has hardly any monuments, and really only one fairly new window.

 

Despite being just a few miles outside Dover, Jools has never been here, or knew the village was here.

 

We're only here because of the mania of mine for churchcrawling.

 

I get my shots and we leave for home.

 

We head home, back along the A2, but calling in at Jen's to do some admin. That done it was back home, all back by one, and ready for some more World Cup action from the sofa.

 

Lunch was pizza and beer, done in ten minutes and easy as anything, so the main task of the day was to fight my heavy eyelids that threatened to send me to sleep.

 

Argentina beat Mexico in a bad tempered game, then France beat Denmark 2-1, by which time it was nine and time for bed.

 

Phew.

 

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This church is built in flint and rubble construction and the west tower has a remarkably wide stair turret. As one enters through the south porch one can see the remains of two mass dials made redundant by the construction of the porch itself. By the pulpit is a most unusual feature - the south-east window of the nave has had its sill cut away to provide space for a wooden ladder to give access to the rood loft. This window now contains a lovely stained glass representation of the Crucifixion with a charming little sun and moon at the top. At Swingfield the nineteenth-century north aisle detracts from the thirteenth-century nave; its scale, materials and lumpy effect do nothing to complement this charming church. It is currently (2005) under threat of conversion to a house.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Swingfield

 

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SWINGFIELD.

WRITTEN in antient deeds both Swynefelde and Swinfield, lies the next adjoining parish eastward from Acrise.

 

THIS PARISH lies in a very lonely and unfrequented country, most of it is upon high ground. The church stands in the north-east part of it, having a small village near it. On the eastern side of the minnis is Foxhole, late belonging to Mr. James Hammond, of Dover; and Smersole, formerly belonging to a family of the same name, afterwards to the Simmons's then to Mr. George Rigden, of Wingham, who sold it a few years ago to the Rev. Edward Timewell Brydges, of Wotton, the present owner of it. At the west end of the minnis is the hamlet of Selsted, the principal farm in which belongs to Mr. Brydges, of Denton. There are several coppice woods in this parish, the largest of which are at the north and southern extremities of it; the former of which is called Swingfield park, consisting of 185 acres. It formerly belonged to the Strangford family, afterwards to the famous Algernon Sidney, who mortgaged it to one of the family of Rushout, who purchased and then sold their interest in it to Edw. Brydges, esq. and it now belongs to his eldest son, the Rev. Mr. Bridges, of Wotton. The soil is much better than most on these hills, especially adjoining to St. John's, where it is less covered with flints, and the fields are more level, larger, and more open. In the western part of this parish is the large common, called Swingfieldminnis, which lies, the greatest part, within it, and the remainder in Acrise and Eleham. It is about two miles and an half long, and not quite half a mile wide, consisting of about 550 acres of land. The property of this minnis was always supposed to belong to the crown, accordingly after the death of Charles I. when the royal lands were surveyed, in order to their being sold for the public use, it was returned, that this minnis contained 540 acres, of the annual improved rent of two hundred and sixteen pounds, which they finding to lie in common, imagined it to belong to the crown; but Colonel Dixwell, owner of the barony and hundred of Folkestone, claimed it as paramount, as lying within it, alledging, that the seeding and commonage thereupon was enjoyed by the inhabitants of the parishes before-mentioned, with all such other persons bordering thereto; and who had any lands adjoining, on paying to him some small acknowledgment for the same, as lord paramount, which he said had been enjoyed by him and his ancestors for many generations; and the earl of Radnor, now lord paramount, and owner of the barony and hundred of Folkestone, claims as such a like right to it.

 

In 1745 there was a large assembly of the noblemen, gentry, and commonalty of the eastern parts of this county, to the number of four thousand, who met here accoutred with arms and ammunition, to oppose any invasion which might be made on these coasts, of which there was then great apprehension in this county.

 

THIS PARISH was part of those lands which made up the barony of Averenches, or Folkestone as it was afterwards called. The manors of Folkestone and Tirlingbam claim paramount over it, subordinate to which are THE MANORS OF NORTH, alias HALL-COURT, and Boynton, alias BONNINGTON, which were the two moieties of which the manor of Swingfield once consisted; the former of which appears by antient records to have been held by a family of the name of Swynefeld, and the latter by that of Bonnington; both being held by the performance of ward to the castle of Dover.

 

John de Criol, younger son of Bertram, died possessed of the manor of Boyton anno 48 Henry III. whose descendant Nocholas Criol, in the 3d year of king Richard II. gave it to John Fineaux, esq. in gratitude for his having saved his life at the battle of Poictiers, and he seems to have been possessed of both Boynton and North-court; but whether the latter came to him by the above gift, or by descent, I am not certain, only that they both continued in his descendants till John Fineux, esq. of Herne, the grandson of Sir John Fineux, chief justice of the king's bench, who was born here and afterwards resided at Herne, (fn. 1) leaving an only daughter and heir Elizabeth. She entitled her husband Sir John Smythe, of Westenhanger, to the possession of them, whose grandson Philip, viscount Strangford, conveyed them to trustees for the payment of his debts; and they, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, alienated them to William Gomeldon, esq. of Sellindge, whose son Richard, anno 10 queen Anne, obtained an act for the sale of the manors of Northcourt and Bointon, for the discharging of his incumbrances, and immediately afterwards passed them away by sale to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, whose grand-daughter Catherine, countess of Guildford, at her death in 1767, devised them by will to her husband Francis, earl of Guildford, whose grandson the right hon. George Augustus, earl of Guildford, is the present possessor of them.

 

ST. JOHN'S, as it is now usually called, was formerly a preceptory, appertaining to the order of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, to whom it belonged in king Henry II.'s reign. A preceptory was a mansion, of which sort they had several in different places, in which some of their brethren were placed, to take care of their lands and estates in the neighbourhood of them. This preceptory appears to have had several benefactions of lands made to it. This preceptory, with the lands belonging to it, continued as such till the general dissolution of this order of knights, in the 33d year of king Henry VIII when they were suppressed by an act then specially passed for that purpose, and all their lands and revenues given to the king; this preceptory being then valued at 87l. 3s. 3½d. clear, and 111l. 12s. 8d. total annual revenue. But it did not remain long in the hands of the crown; for the king, in his 33d year, granted it to Sir Anthony Aucher, of Orterden, by the description of the late monastery of Swynfield, and the rectory of the same, to hold in capite by knight's service, and he, anno 5 Edward VI. passed it away to Sir Henry Palmer, of Wingham, whose son of the same name was created a baronet, and in his descendants it continued down to Sir Thomas Palmer, bart. who died in 1723, and by will bequeathed it to his natural son Herbert Palmer, esq. who died likewise s. p. in 1760, and by his will devised it first to trustees for the payment of his debts, and lastly to his sister Mrs. Frances Palmer, in tail. These trustees refusing to accept the trust, the court of chancery decreed, this estate among others to be sold for that purpose, for the term of ninety-nine years, to commence from his death; which it accordingly was, in 1777, to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hey, of Wickhambreux, who likewise became entitled to the fee of it by the will of Mrs. Frances Palmer abovementioned, who having suffered a recovery of it, and barred the entails, had devised it to him at her death in 1770. He sold it in 1792 to Samuel Egerton Bridges, esq. of Denton, the present possessor of it.

 

There is much remaining of this antient building of the preceptory, now made use of as the farm-house of the estate, particularly the east end, which is lofty and handsome, in which are three narrow lancet windows with pointed arches, and three circular ones above them. This remains in its original state, and seems to have been part of the chapel, which no doubt adjoined to the mansion of it.

 

Richard de Swinfield, S. T. P. a native of this parish, was bishop of Hereford. He died anno 1316, and was buried in his own cathedral. He filled all the dignities of his church with Kentish men, of which two were likewise of the name of this parish.

 

SWINGFIELD is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, consists of one isle and one chancel, having a square tower, with a beacon turret at the west end, in which is one bell. In the chancel are several memorials for the Pilchers, tenants of St. John's. In the isle are memorials for the Simmons's, of Smersall; arms, parted per fess and pale, three trefoils slipt. One of them, John Simmons, gent. obt. 1677, was great-grandfather of James Simmons, esq. alderman of Canterbury; memorials for the Pilchers; against the north wall is a monument for Mary, widow of Richard Pilcher, gent. of Barham, obt. 1775; arms, Pilcher, argent, on a fess dancette, gules, a fleur de lis, between three torteauxes. In the south-west window is this legend, Ora p aiabs Willi Smersolle & Margarete uxon is sue & paia Saundir Goldfiynch; above were formerly these arms, A cross impaling on a bend, cotized, a mullet between six martlets. Weever says, p. 274, there was an antient faire monument, whereon the portraiture of an armed knight, crosse legged, was to be seen, and only His jacet remaining of the inscription, and that there was this legend in a window: Orate p aia Willi Tonge & Johannis filii ejus qui banc fenestram fieri fecerunt; he died in 1478, and was buried here. And there was formerly in the windows, a figure of a knight of St. John's, habited in his furcoat of arms, a plain cross, and having his sword and spurs, and kneeling on a cushion, in a praying posture, and in one of the windows were these arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Azure, a square castle, sable; second and third, Or, on a chevron, vert, three bawks heads erased, argent; on a chief, gules, a cross, argent; but there is nothing of these remaining now.

 

¶The rectory of this church was early appropriated to the hospital of St. John, which continued in the possessions of all the profits of it, till the dissolution of the hospital in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. After which it was granted, with the preceptory here, to Sir Anthony Aucher, who sold it to Sir Henry Palmer, in whose descendants it continued down to Sir Thomas Palmer, bart. after whose death in 1725 it passed, in manner as before-mentioned, to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hey, of Wickham, who sold it, with St. John's, and the rectory as before-mentioned, to Mr. Brydges, of Denton, the present owner of it.

 

This church is now a perpetual curacy, of the yearly certified value of twenty pounds, which stipend is paid by the owner of the rectory, who has the nomination of the curate. In 1640 here were communicants one hundred and twenty-seven.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol8/pp120-126

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City as seen from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo.

St. Peter's Square

 

Gloucester MA, 01930

www.discovergloucester.com/venue/st-peters-square/?tribe_...

 

The HarborWalk winds through Historic Downtown Gloucester where you will find shops, art galleries, museums, historic homes and a wide range of restaurant and food establishments serving everything from authentic Italian sandwiches and pastries to casually sophisticated dining – and of course the freshest seafood you’ll ever taste. Downtown Gloucester is also home to numerous whale watches, boat excursions, theatre, art house cinema, lectures, readings, exhibitions, a monthly summer block-party and an outdoor ‘Bazaar’ in August.

 

Photo by: Holly Perry

It didn't take me long to find St Peter's church once I'd reached Spexhall after a long meandering ride from my previous destination, there isn't much in the way of a village here, all is rural and peaceful, very much like the delightful churchyard I soon encountered. First sight of the church is of the east wall with its diamond-pattern peering through the foliage, beckoning the visitor into its quiet enclosure.

 

The initial approach shows the building from its most attractive side, the textured chancel has more of a sense of antiquity than the rest of the building which is rather more restored, culminating in the slender round tower at the west end which is an early 20th century rebuilding of the original tower which collapsed in 1720. This is a small building without aisles, but despite the obvious restoration it has great charm owing to its intimate scale and idyllic setting.

 

Inside the restoration is more apparent and the church feels as much Victorian as medieval with most of the fittings being of 19th century date. There are however earlier features such as a Tudor memorial brass and some medieval heraldic glass in the traceries of a window on the north side of the nave. There are also several old benches in the chancel which feature carved poppyheads in various foliate forms.

 

This is a church to reflect in as much as explore and happily it appears to normally be open and welcoming to visitors and is a place of great charm.

 

For more see its entry below on the Suffolk Churches site:-

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/spexhall.htm

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.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol7/pp292-297

St. Peter Catholic Church - Kirkwood, MO

What is particularly remarkable about the stained glass windows in this church is that they were originally designed, created, and installed by parishoners who lived in and belonged to the parish of St. Peter, namely Francis Deck and Emil Frei & Associates, Inc.

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.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp336-345

St. Peter's Basilica, Italy at Dusk

 

Taken on a tripod at F6.3 for 5 sec, ISO 100.

 

For more info on my mobile app which shows you how to take amazing photos with your D-SLR, see Photography Trainer.

 

Visit my Facebook Page for more photography tips and tutorials.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions.

 

Best regards,

Paul

 

#StPeters #Vatican #Rome #Photography #Travel

 

© Paul Timpa Photography

All rights reserved. This image cannot be used without permission.

St Peter and St Paul Church in Fareham in the Autumn. Beautiful churchyard at this lovely church

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.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp260-272

St Peter, Barnburgh, South Yorkshire.

 

North Chapel.

 

An early C14 wooden Effigy of knight with heart in hands; now set within buttressed and canopied tomb to Sir Percival Cresacre (d.1477). with much Latin inscription.

 

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St Peter, Barnburgh, South Yorkshire.

 

Grade l listed.

 

The Church of St Peter is situated at the centre of the village of Barnburgh, near Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, and serves the communities of Barnburgh and Harlington.

 

Construction

 

St Peter's consists of a tower of four stages surmounted by a small, squat spire, a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with a north aisle or chapel, and a porch. The church is built of a mixture of sandstone and magnesium limestone.

 

Although there has been a church on this site since c. 1150 AD, nothing remains of the original church.

 

There is a private chantry chapel north of the chancel for the Cresacre family, who were Lords of Barnburgh from the 13th to the 16th century. Most of this chapel is taken up by the tomb of Sir Percival Cresacre (who died in 1477) and his wife, Alice (died 1450).

 

Cat and Man Legend

 

The Cat and Man Legend tells of events said to have occurred before the 15th century. There was formerly a hall at Barnburgh which was in the possession of the Cresacre family. According to the legend, a knight of the Cresacre family (reputedly Sir Percival Cresacre, but this is disputed) was returning home late on the heavily wooded track from Doncaster through Sprotborough and High Melton.

 

As he was approaching Barnburgh, a wildcat (or a lynx) sprang out of the branches of a tree and landed on the back of his horse. The horse threw its rider to the ground and fled. The cat then turned on the knight and there followed a long, deadly struggle between the two which continued all the way from Ludwell Hill to Barnburgh.

 

After fighting the cat the mile's distance to the village of Barnburgh, the knight made for the porch of St Peter's Church, presumably to try to get inside the church and close the door on the animal. The fight had been so fierce, however, that Sir Percival fell dying in the church porch and, in his last, dying struggle, stretched out his feet and crushed the cat against the wall of the porch.

 

Thus, the legend goes, the cat killed the man and the man killed the cat. They were found some time later by the search party that went out after the knight's horse had returned home riderless.

 

Stones in the floor of the porch of St Peter's are tainted with red. There is also a cat at the feet of the Cresacre effigy in the north aisle of the church.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Peter%27s_Church,_Barnburgh

 

See also:-

 

www.barnburghandharlington.co.uk/stpetershistory.html

 

barnburghandharlington.co.uk/historycatman.html

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/115167...

 

My friend, Simon, has 909 churches in Norfolk listed, which means that along any road or lane you might just stumble on a flint-built church, nesting at the edge of farmland or in the lea of a wood. Signposts pointing to a village or town is likely to have a church of interest.

 

So, driving down the main road, passing the sign for Smallburgh, I wonder if it might have a church, then I see it don a lane a hundred metres away, so, stop again.

 

A small and simple church, but blocked rood stairs show it is much older than it looks.

 

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Like many East Anglian towers, St Peter's was in a state of disrepair by the late 17th century; flint is a fairly high maintenance material, and lavishing money upon the buildings was frowned upon by the puritans, an attitude reflected in much of the Anglican church itself. And so, it collapsed, taking the western half of the nave with it, to be patched up with the mean-looking tower that Bloomfield saw in the early 19th century.

It was not until 1902 that Walter Tapper's west end was built; Pevsner called it ugly, but I think this is unfair. It is certainly austere, and perhaps sits a little uncomfortably in the rambling graveyard; in truth, there is an urban quality about it.

 

But if not wholly in keeping it is seemly and imparts a certain amount of gravitas not typical of the period. I rather liked it, especially the crossed keys below the bells. No doubt about the patron Saint here.

 

More curious are the windows to south and north of the nave. No aisles here, no clerestory; the walls were heightened, presumably in one campaign, but the windows are a mixture of Perpendicular and Decorated. There is a symmetry to them, the earlier style in the middle flanked by two of the later on both sides of the church. I wondered if the Decorated windows were actually a Victorian conceit, although they appear to be genuine, unlike the tracery of the great east window, which is Victorian.

 

Entering the church, there is a spartan austerity about the interior that matches the west front. This contrasts greatly with the vividly painted roof, which is contemporary with the rebuilt west end, but was painted in the 1920s under the direction of the Rector's wife. The interior is certainly unlike other Norfolk village churches. I'd guess it is something of an acquired taste.

 

Actually, I found the roof quite interesting. In the style of a traditional Norfolk hammerbeam roof (though I assume that the hammerbeams are false) it is painted with texts rather than images - the Te Deum Laudamus to south and north, and Psalm 150 forming a canopy of honour at the east end. I thought this showed that the Rector's wife must have had a good understanding of medieval liturgical dynamics, because general thinking nowadays is that the angel roofs of medieval churches were exactly this; not mere decoration, but a hymn of praise reflecting the devotional activities in the space below. Interestingly, the hammerbeam ends stick out into the air, and ache to have angels on the end of them, but there are none. I wonder if they were ever intended?

 

Despite all this modern rebuilding and redecoration, there are some interesting medieval survivals here. The rood screen dado is painted with eight Saints; they are in very poor condition, but enough survives to make identification of some of them possible. On the north side are St Anthony with his little pig, a King (possibly Henry VI), St Benedict and what must have been a fine St George. On the south side, in rather better condition, are St Giles with a fine leaping hart, St Lawrence with his grid iron and two figures that are almost entirely lost, except that they appear to be the ghosts of bishops.

 

Intriguingly, there are three more panels reset on the east wall. The panels themselves are of different sizes, but they may have come from either the rood loft or from the doors in the screen. One of the figures is certainly St Peter. The other two are Bishops, and it has been conjectured that these two, along with the two faded figures on the screen, might make up the four Latin Doctors: Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory, a popular foursome on late medieval Norfolk screens. However, it must be said that one of the figures appears to have the word 'Martin' lettered at the bottom.

I was pleased to find the church open, and the nice lady hoovering inside told me that it always is on a Saturday. She was extremely knowledgeable about the building, which is reassuring, since people who understand a building are more likely to exercise a proper duty of care towards it. And St Peter is not an easy building to love, but it is full of interest. As I said, something of an acquired taste.

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/smallburgh/smallburgh.htm

 

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The chief lordship of this town was at the survey in the abbot of Holm, and held of him by a socman, who had a carucate of free land, and gave it to that abbey in the time of King Edward, and held it after of the abbot: there belonged to it 2 villains, with a carucate and an half, and 2 acres of meadow, valued at 20s. The whole was 10 furlongs long and 12 perches broad, and the gelt was 8d. (fn. 1)

 

The abbot's temporalities in 1428 were valued at 25s. and 7s. in rent at the Dissolution.

 

The family of De Smalburgh were enfeoffed of the greatest part of it soon after the conquest, and claimed the right of patronage belonging to it. In the 12th of Henry III. John de Smalburgh granted to Peter de Brompton and Maud his wife, lands claimed as part of her dower from Henry de Smalburgh, her late husband.

 

In the 5th of Edward I. William, son of Reginald de Smalburgh, was petent, and Bartholomew de Corston and Maud his wife, deforcients, of 3 messuages, lands and rents here, and in Barton; and in the 8th of that King, Thomas de Smalburgh conveyed with Beatrice his wife, to John, son of Walter de Smalburgh, eight messuages, a mill, with several parcels of land here and in Berton.

 

Of this family was Sir William de Smalburgh, who died about the 48th of Edward III.

 

Catt's Manor

 

Was held of the abbot by fealty, and the rent of 4s. per ann. Edmund Bokenham, Esq. who died in 1479, and had lands and a tenement in Smalburgh, called Baxter's, purchased this lordship of the executors of Henry Catt.

 

John Wychingham, Esq. son of John, settled it on Ann his wife in the reign of Henry VII. and came to his daughters and ceheirs. In the 33d of Henry VIII. Christopher Coote. Esq. and Elizabeth his wife, passed it to William Arnold. In 1575, Thomas Pettus, alderman of Norwich, possessed it; and by an inquisition taken at Worsted, January 21, in the 19th of James I. Sir Francis Jones was found to be seised of it in right of his wife, with Trusbut's in this town, and of a fishery called Eale-Set, in Barton Water, and Sutton, valued at 12l. 6s. 8d. per ann.

 

Roger Bigot, ancestor of the Earls of Norfolk, had, on the conquest, the grant of a lordship of which 3 freemen were deprived, who had a carucate of land, with 12 borderers, and 3 socmen who possessed then 3 carucates of meadow, 2 of them were accounted for in Antingham, and the 3d was valued at 10s. (fn. 2) One of them was under the protection of the predecessour of Robert Malet, and the other of St. Bennet of Holm, which abbey had the soc.

 

In the 3d year of Henry III. William de Stalham granted by fine to Robert de Bosco, a carucate of land in this town, Bertham and Dilham, who regranted it to William, to be held of Robert and his heirs, by one knight's fee.

 

This came in the next reign to Sir Jeffrey Withe, by the marriage of Isabel, daughter and coheir of Sir William de Stalham; he was found to hold one fee here and in Dilham, of Sir Robert de Boys; and Sir Robert of Sir Richard de Rokele, who held it of the Earl Marshal. Sir Jeffrey lived at Hepperuth in Suffolk, and was father of Sir Olyver Wythe, who was living in the 16th of Edward I.

 

Jeffrey Wythe, the prior of Norwich, John de Smalburgh, Roger de Gyney, were returned to have lordships here, in the 9th of Edward II. and in the 9th of Edward III. John de Hederset and Elizabeth his wife, convey to Olyver Wythe and Wynesia his wife, 12s. 6d. rent, with the homage and services of Isabel Wyche, William de Felburgh, &c.

 

In 1373, Sir Jeffrey Wythe of Smalburgh gives his body to be buried in the churchyard of the brethren of Mount Carmel, (the White Friars) of Norwich; (fn. 3) his will was proved the last day of February, in the said year; and Alice his wife was executrix; and in 1361, Dame Alice Wythe was buried in that convent, as was Sir Oliver Wythe her husband.

 

Sir John Wythe, by his will, dated on Monday before the feast of St. Peter in Cathedra, (February 22,) desires to be buried in the chancel of Beeston church; names Sibilla his wife; and was proved in the said year, September 30, 1387: he left a daughter and heiress, Amy, or Anne, married to Sir John Calthorp. Sibilla her mother, was daughter and heir of Sir Edmund de Omer, and after the death of Sir John Wythe, was married to Sir William Calthorp. father of Sir John, and surviving Sir William, was buried by her first husband Withe, in the chancel of Beeston on the south side, to which church she was a benefactress, as may be seen in Calthorp.

 

In this family it continued, Sir Philip Calthorp dying lord in 1535; Elizabeth his daughter, being heir to her brother Philip, who died s. p. brought it to Sir Henry Parker by marriage, who had livery of it in the 3d of Edward VI. and was sold by Sir Philip Parker in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to Charles Cornwallis, Esq. who about the 37th of that reign, conveyed it to Thomas Gross, Esq. and Sir Charles le Gross, presented to the rectory in 1620, and Charles le Gross, Esq. in 1693, was lord: he sold it to Giles Cutling, an attorney at Norwich.

 

The heir of Cutling married James Smith, a mercer of Norwich. In 1713, Catherine Smith, widow, presented, as her right, it being an alternate presentation, and is now in Mr. Aufrere.

 

The prior and convent of Norwich had also a lordship here. Gunnora, sister of Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk gave them Elstan de Bac, a freeman, for an exchange of whom the said Earl, by deed, sans date, in the reign of King Steven, or Henry II. gave them Godwin de Smalburgh and Alfer, both freemen, (fn. 4) with their lands, to be held as freely of the prior, as they had been of him, and that they might honourably perform yearly his father's anniversary, and for his own soul and of his brothers and sisters, all his ancestors and successors. Richard de Turbeville, Robert de Reymes, Gilbert de Coleville, &c. are witnesses.

 

Pope Alexander III. in 1176, confirmed to John Bishop of Norwich, lands here and in Dilham, of the fee of Earl Hugh.

 

The Earl Warren had an interest here, his manor of Witton, probably extending into this town.

 

William de Heggs and his parceners held the 10th part of a fee of Richard de Berningham, and he of the Earl Warren, about the 20th of Henry III. and John de Hemmesby, and Adam Tucker, held it in the 20th of Edward III. of Oliver Wythe, and he of the Earl. In the 3d of Henry IV. Richard Kirope, and his parceners were in possession of it, held of the heirs of Wythe, and they of the Earl of Arundel.

 

The tenths were 5l.—Deducted 13s. 4d.—Temporalities of the prior of Hickling 11s.

 

The Church is dedicated to St. Peter and is a rectory. By an inquisition taken before the archdeacon of Norfolk, it was found that the church of Smalberge was vacant, and that the abbot of St. Bennet presented last, and that Robert de Smalbergh, Reginald, son of Hugh, Hubert, John and Theobald, sons of William de Smalberge, freemen of the said abbot, say they are the true patrons; (fn. 5) also Jeffrey son of Ralph, William son of Simon, and John son of William de Smalberge, say they are true patrons.

 

But all these by several deeds, sans date, about the time of King John, as I take it, released all their right to the abbot.—Witnesses, Sir Fulk de Baynard, Sir Bryan de Hickling, Sir Richard de Butler, &c.

 

In the reign of Edward I. the abbot was patron. The rector had a manse and 8 acres of land, valued at 13 marks. Peter-pence 10d. The prior of Norwich is said to have a portion of tithe valued at 6s.— The present valor is 10l. 14s. 2d. and is discharged.

 

The Bishop of Norwich has an alternate right of presentation.

 

Rectors.

 

In 1305, Henry Hemenburgh instituted, presented by the abbot of Holm.

 

1316, Robert de Bardelby, junior.

 

1318, Thomas de Bardelby occurs rector in 1326.

 

1346, John de Ludham.

 

1347, Robert de Morton, presented by the King, in the vacancy of an abbot.

 

1349, Roger de Barneburgh, by the King.

 

1365, Robert Druel, by the abbot.

 

1365, Thomas Rand.

 

1367, John de la Walle.

 

1371, Robert Spencer.

 

1409, Oliver Mendham.

 

1438, Richard Palmer.

 

1475, John Keving, late abbot of St. Bennet's.

 

1500, Richard Jordan, on Keving's death.

 

1525, Mr. Christopher Bland, A. M.

 

1525, Mr. William Pay, A.M.

 

1526, John Tacolneston, alias Brown.

 

William Ugge, rector.

 

1557, Mr. Robert Rugge, archdeacon of Suffolk, by the assignees of the Bishop of Norwich.

 

1559, John Rydley, by the Queen.

 

John Fenton occurs in 1596.

 

1602, Henry Woodhouse, LL.D. by the Queen, the see being void; in his return in 1603, he says that the Bishop and Sir Philip Parker, late lord, were patrons alternately.

 

1629, Thomas Hennant, A.M. by Sir Charles le Gross.

 

1659, Edmund Shilling, by Thomas Gross, Esq.

 

1681, Andrew Thexton, by Charles le Gross, Esq.

 

1713, Richard Oram, on Thexton's cession, by Catherine Smith, widow.

 

1762, Richard Humphreys, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, his option.

 

Here was the guild of Jesus, and in the church the picture of Edward the Confessor, in his regalia, and his arms, and the arms of Wythe, azure, three griffins, passant, in pale, or,—and those of Calthorp.

 

In 1677, the steeple fell down, and defaced part of the church; 2 bells were sold to build up a gable, and one left.

 

The Bishop of Norwich is said to have the patronage, on the exchange of the lands (in King Henry VIII.) of the abbot of Holm with the Bishop.

 

¶The church of Smalburgh in Edward the Fourth's time, is said to be 42 paces long and 18 broad.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol1...

St Peter and St Paul Church in Fareham in the Autumn. Beautiful churchyard at this lovely church

To hear the famous Sun organ in the church to St. Peter and Paul is a must. There are free concerts at noon several times a week.

Read more:

 

Youtube concert:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAb_hsfoio

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Die berühmte Sonnenorgel in der St. Peter und Paul Kirche muss man gehört haben. Mehrere male in der Woche gibt es im 12 Uhr ein freies Konzert .

Mehr über die Orgel:

www.sonnenorgel.de/

 

Konzert:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAb_hsfoio

 

Looking up at the facade of St. Peter's Basilica.

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

 

www.simonknott.co.uk/citychurches/057/church.htm

St. Peter's Church and its monastic order were founded in the 7th century. The cemetery includes 12th century catacombs and catacombs that probably date back to the 5th century. The "modern" cemetery includes the graves of Mozart's sister and Franz Joseph Haydn's composer brother, Michael Haydn. The cemetery is one of the Salzburg scenes featured in the move of The Sound of Music.

23 May, 2017

St Peter's church in Copt Oak is rather well hidden, invisible from the main road up a track leading from it, and thus easily missed. The building dates from 1837 with a new chancel added in 1889. It is a simple building that won't delay a visitor long, but it is obviously well loved and cared for. I believe it is normally locked outside of services an events.

St Peter's church in the pretty Wiltshire village of Milton Lilbourne.

 

Most of the present building dates from the 14th and 15th centuries with a partial rebuilding of the chancel taking place during the Victorian restoration It is a modestly proportioned church with a handsomely battlemented west tower and a single side aisle on the north side of the nave.

 

Within it is light and pleasing with a few old features, some fragments of medieval glass in the side window of the chancel and a few medieval tiles in the north aisle.

 

I visited twice earlier this year, firstly while joining a colleague doing a survey of the glass, and secondly as part of the team who cleaned the windows.

 

It is happily a well looked after church generally kept open and welcoming to visitors.

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