VANISHING OR VANISHED CHURCHES

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Knightly Bascinet (temp. Henry V) in Norwich Castle

CHAPTER VI

VANISHING OR VANISHED CHURCHES

No buildings have suffered more than our parish churches in the course of ages.

Many have vanished entirely. A few stones or ruins mark the site of others, and

iconoclasm has left such enduring marks on the fabric of many that remain that it is

difficult to read their story and history. A volume, several volumes, would be

needed to record all the vandalism that has been done to our ecclesiastical

structures in the ages that have passed. We can only be thankful that some churches

have survived to proclaim the glories of English architecture and the skill of our

masons and artificers who wrought so well and worthily in olden days.

In the chapter that relates to the erosion of our coasts we have mentioned many of

the towns and villages which have been devoured by the sea with their churches.

These now lie beneath the waves, and the bells in their towers are still said to ring

when storms rage. We need not record again the submerged Ravenspur, Dunwich,

Kilnsea, and other unfortunate towns with their churches where now only mermaids

can form the congregation.

And as the fisherman strays

When the clear cold eve's declining,

He sees the round tower of other days

In the wave beneath him shining.

In the depths of the country, far from the sea, we can find many deserted shrines,

many churches that once echoed with the songs of praise of faithful worshippers,

wherein were celebrated the divine mysteries, and organs pealed forth celestial

music, but now forsaken, desecrated, ruined, forgotten.

The altar has vanished, the rood screen flown,

Foundation and buttress are ivy-grown;

The arches are shattered, the roof has gone,

The mullions are mouldering one by one;

Foxglove and cow-grass and waving weed

Grow over the scrolls where you once could read

Benedicite.

Many of them have been used as quarries, and only a few stones remain to mark the

spot where once stood a holy house of God. Before the Reformation the land must

have teemed with churches. I know not the exact number of monastic houses once

existing in England. There must have been at least a thousand, and each had its

church. Each parish had a church. Besides these were the cathedrals, chantry

chapels, chapels attached to the mansions, castles, and manor-houses of the lords

and squires, to almshouses and hospitals, pilgrim churches by the roadside, where

bands of pilgrims would halt and pay their devotions ere they passed along to the

shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury or to Our Lady at Walsingham. When chantries

and guilds as well as monasteries were suppressed, their chapels were no longer

used for divine service; some of the monastic churches became cathedrals or parish

churches, but most of them were pillaged, desecrated, and destroyed. When

pilgrimages were declared to be "fond things vainly invented," and the pilgrim

bands ceased to travel along the pilgrim way, the wayside chapel fell into decay, or

was turned into a barn or stable.

It is all very sad and deplorable. But the roll of abandoned shrines is not complete.

At the present day many old churches are vanishing. Some have been abandoned or

pulled down because they were deemed too near to the squire's house, and a new

church erected at a more respectful distance. "Restoration" has doomed many to

destruction. Not long ago the new scheme for supplying Liverpool with water

necessitated the converting of a Welsh valley into a huge reservoir and the

consequent destruction of churches and villages. A new scheme for supplying

London with water has been mooted, and would entail the damming up of a river at

the end of a valley and the overwhelming of several prosperous old villages and

churches which have stood there for centuries. The destruction of churches in

London on account of the value of their site and the migration of the population,

westward and eastward, has been frequently deplored. With the exception of All

Hallows, Barking; St. Andrew's Undershaft; St. Catherine Cree; St. Dunstan's,

Stepney; St. Giles', Cripplegate; All Hallows, Staining; St. James's, Aldgate; St.

Sepulchre's; St. Mary Woolnoth; all the old City churches were destroyed by the

Great Fire, and some of the above were damaged and repaired. "Destroyed by the

Great Fire, rebuilt by Wren," is the story of most of the City churches of London.

To him fell the task of rebuilding the fallen edifices. Well did he accomplish his

task. He had no one to guide him; no school of artists or craftsmen to help him in

the detail of his buildings; no great principles of architecture to direct him. But he

triumphed over all obstacles and devised a style of his own that was well suitable

for the requirements of the time and climate and for the form of worship of the

English National Church. And how have we treated the buildings which his genius

devised for us? Eighteen of his beautiful buildings have already been destroyed,

and fourteen of these since the passing of the Union of City Benefices Act in 1860

have succumbed. With the utmost difficulty vehement attacks on others have been

warded off, and no one can tell how long they will remain. Here is a very sad and

deplorable instance of the vanishing of English architectural treasures. While we

deplore the destructive tendencies of our ancestors we have need to be ashamed of

our own.

We will glance at some of these deserted shrines on the sites where formerly they

stood. The Rev. Gilbert Twenlow Royds, Rector of Haughton and Rural Dean of

Stafford, records three of these in his neighbourhood, and shall describe them in his

own words:--

"On the main road to Stafford, in a field at the top of Billington Hill, a

little to the left of the road, there once stood a chapel. The field is still

known as Chapel Hill; but not a vestige of the building survives; no

doubt the foundations were grubbed up for ploughing purposes. In a

State paper, describing 'The State of the Church in Staffs, in 1586,' we

find the following entry: 'Billington Chappell; reader, a husbandman;

pension 16 groats; no preacher.' This is under the heading of Bradeley,

in which parish it stood. I have made a wide search for information as

to the dates of the building and destruction of this chapel. Only one

solitary note has come to my knowledge. In Mazzinghi's History of

Castle Church he writes: 'Mention is made of Thomas Salt the son of

Richard Salt and C(lem)ance his wife as Christened at Billington

Chapel in 1600.' Local tradition says that within the memory of the last

generation stones were carted from this site to build the churchyard

wall of Bradley Church. I have noticed several re-used stones; but

perhaps if that wall were to be more closely examined or pulled down,

some further history might disclose itself. Knowing that some of the

stones were said to be in a garden on the opposite side of the road, I

asked permission to investigate. This was most kindly granted, and I

was told that there was a stone 'with some writing on it' in a wall. No

doubt we had the fragment of a gravestone! and such it proved to be.

With some difficulty we got the stone out of the wall; and, being an

expert in palæography, I was able to decipher the inscription. It ran as

follows: 'FURy. Died Feb. 28, 1864.' A skilled antiquary would

probably pronounce it to be the headstone of a favourite dog's grave;

and I am inclined to think that we have here a not unformidable rival of

the celebrated

†

BIL ST

PS HI

S.M.

ARK

of the Pickwick Papers.

"Yet another vanished chapel, of which I have even less to tell you. On

the right-hand side of the railway line running towards Stafford, a little

beyond Stallbrook Crossing, there is a field known as Chapel Field.

But there is nothing but the name left. From ancient documents I have

learnt that a chapel once stood there, known as Derrington Chapel (I

think in the thirteenth century), in Seighford parish, but served from

Ranton Priory. In 1847 my father built a beautiful little church at

Derrington, in the Geometrical Decorated style, but not on the Chapel

Field. I cannot tell you what an immense source of satisfaction it

would be to me if I could gather some further reliable information as to

the history, style, and annihilation of these two vanished chapels. It is

unspeakably sad to be forced to realize that in so many of our country

parishes no records exist of things and events of surpassing interest in

their histories.

"I take you now to where there is something a little more tangible.

There stand in the park of Creswell Hall, near Stafford, the ruins of a

little thirteenth-century chapel. I will describe what is left. I may say

that some twenty years ago I made certain excavations, which showed

the ground plan to be still complete. So far as I remember, we found a

chamfered plinth all round the nave, with a west doorway. The chancel

and nave are of the same width, the chancel measuring about 21 ft.

long and the nave c. 33 ft. The ground now again covers much of what

we found. The remains above ground are those of the chancel only.

Large portions of the east and north walls remain, and a small part of

the south wall. The north wall is still c. 12 ft. high, and contains two

narrow lancets, quite perfect. The east wall reaches c. 15 ft., and has a

good base-mould. It contains the opening, without the head, of a three-

light window, with simply moulded jambs, and the glass-line

remaining. A string-course under the window runs round the angle

buttresses, or rather did so run, for I think the north buttress has been

rebuilt, and without the string. The south buttress is complete up to two

weatherings, and has two strings round it. It is a picturesque and

valuable ruin, and well worth a visit. It is amusing to notice that

Creswell now calls itself a rectory, and an open-air service is held

annually within its walls. It was a pre-bend of S. Mary's, Stafford, and

previously a Free Chapel, the advowson belonging to the Lord of the

Manor; and it was sometimes supplied with preachers from Ranton

Priory. Of the story of its destruction I can discover nothing. It is now

carefully preserved and, I have heard it suggested that it might some

day be rebuilt to meet the spiritual needs of its neighbourhood.

"We pass now to the most stately and beautiful object in this

neighbourhood. I mean the tower of Ranton Priory Church. It is always

known here as Ranton Abbey. But it has no right to the title. It was an

off-shoot of Haughmond Abbey, near Shrewsbury, and was a Priory of

Black Canons, founded temp. Henry II. The church has disappeared

entirely, with the exception of a bit of the south-west walling of the

nave and a Norman doorway in it. This may have connected the church

with the domestic buildings. In Cough's Collection in the Bodleian,

dated 1731, there is a sketch of the church. What is shown there is a

simple parallelogram, with the usual high walls, in Transition-Norman

style, with flat pilaster buttresses, two strings running round the walls,

the upper one forming the dripstones of lancet windows, a corbel-table

supporting the eaves-course, and a north-east priest's door. But

whatever the church may have been (and the sketch represents it as

being of severe simplicity), some one built on to it a west tower of

great magnificence. It is of early Perpendicular date, practically

uninjured, the pinnacles only being absent, though, happily, the stumps

of these remain. Its proportion appears to me to be absolutely perfect,

and its detail so good that I think you would have to travel far to find

its rival. There is a very interesting point to notice in the beautiful west

doorway. It will be seen that the masonry of the lower parts of its

jambs is quite different from that of the upper parts, and there can, I

think, be no doubt that these lower stones have been re-used from a

thirteenth-century doorway of some other part of the buildings. There

is a tradition that the bells of Gnosall Church were taken from this

tower. I can find no confirmation of this, and I cannot believe it. For

the church at Gnosall is of earlier date and greater magnificence than

that of Ranton Priory, and was, I imagine, quite capable of having bells

of its own."

It would be an advantage to archæology if every one were such a careful and

accurate observer of local antiquarian remains as the Rural Dean of Stafford.

Wherever we go we find similar deserted and abandoned shrines. In Derbyshire

alone there are over a hundred destroyed or disused churches, of which Dr. Cox,

the leading authority on the subject, has published a list. Nottinghamshire abounds

in instances of the same kind. As late as 1892 the church at Colston Bassett was

deliberately turned into a ruin. There are only mounds and a few stones to show the

site of the parish church of Thorpe-in-the-fields, which in the seventeenth century

was actually used as a beer-shop. In the fields between Elston and East Stoke is a

disused church with a south Norman doorway. The old parochial chapel of

Aslacton was long desecrated, and used in comparatively recent days as a beer-

shop. The remains of it have, happily, been reclaimed, and now serve as a mission-

room. East Anglia, famous for its grand churches, has to mourn over many which

have been lost, many that are left roofless and ivy-clad, and some ruined indeed,

though some fragment has been made secure enough for the holding of divine

service. Whitling has a roofless church with a round Norman tower. The early

Norman church of St. Mary at Kirby Bedon has been allowed to fall into decay, and

for nearly two hundred years has been ruinous. St. Saviour's Church, Surlingham,

was pulled down at the beginning of the eighteenth century on the ground that one

church in the village was sufficient for its spiritual wants, and its materials served

to mend roads.

A strange reason has been given for the destruction of several of these East Anglian

churches. In Norfolk there were many recusants, members of old Roman Catholic

families, who refused in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to obey the law

requiring them to attend their parish church. But if their church were in ruins no

service could be held, and therefore they could not be compelled to attend. Hence

in many cases the churches were deliberately reduced to a ruinous state. Bowthorpe

was one of these unfortunate churches which met its fate in the days of Queen

Elizabeth. It stands in a farm-yard, and the nave made an excellent barn and the

steeple a dovecote. The lord of the manor was ordered to restore it at the beginning

of the seventeenth century. This he did, and for a time it was used for divine

service. Now it is deserted and roofless, and sleeps placidly girt by a surrounding

wall, a lonely shrine. The church of St. Peter, Hungate, at Norwich, is of great

historical interest and contains good architectural features, including a very fine

roof. It was rebuilt in the fifteenth century by John Paston and Margaret, his wife,

whose letters form part of that extraordinary series of medieval correspondence

which throws so much light upon the social life of the period. The church has a

rudely carved record of their work outside the north door. This unhappy church has

fallen into disuse, and it has been proposed to follow the example of the London

citizens to unite the benefice with another and to destroy the building. Thanks to

the energy and zeal of His Highness Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, delay in

carrying out the work of destruction has been secured, and we trust that his efforts

to save the building will be crowned with the success they deserve.

Not far from Norwich are the churches of Keswick and Intwood. Before 1600 A.D.

the latter was deserted and desecrated, being used for a sheep-fold, and the people

attended service at Keswick. Then Intwood was restored to its sacred uses, and

poor Keswick church was compelled to furnish materials for its repair. Keswick

remained ruinous until a few years ago, when part of it was restored and used as a

cemetery chapel. Ringstead has two ruined churches, St. Andrew's and St. Peter's.

Only the tower of the latter remains. Roudham church two hundred years ago was a

grand building, as its remains plainly testify. It had a thatched roof, which was fired

by a careless thatcher, and has remained roofless to this day. Few are acquainted

with the ancient hamlet of Liscombe, situated in a beautiful Dorset valley. It now

consists of only one or two houses, a little Norman church, and an old monastic

barn. The little church is built of flint, stone, and large blocks of hard chalk, and

consists of a chancel and nave divided by a Transition-Norman arch with massive

rounded columns. There are Norman windows in the chancel, with some later work

inserted. A fine niche, eight feet high, with a crocketed canopy, stood at the north-

east corner of the chancel, but has disappeared. The windows of the nave and the

west doorway have perished. It has been for a long time desecrated. The nave is

used as a bakehouse. There is a large open grate, oven, and chimney in the centre,

and the chancel is a storehouse for logs. The upper part of the building has been

converted into an upper storey and divided into bedrooms, which have broken-

down ceilings. The roof is of thatch. Modern windows and a door have been

inserted. It is a deplorable instance of terrible desecration.

The growth of ivy unchecked has caused many a ruin. The roof of the nave and

south aisle of the venerable church of Chingford, Essex, fell a few years ago

entirely owing to the destructive ivy which was allowed to work its relentless will

on the beams, tiles, and rafters of this ancient structure.

Besides those we have mentioned there are about sixty other ruined churches in

Norfolk, and in Suffolk many others, including the magnificent ruins of Covehithe,

Flixton, Hopton, which was destroyed only forty-four years ago through the

burning of its thatched roof, and the Old Minster, South Elmham.

Attempts have been made by the National Trust and the Society for the Protection

of Ancient Buildings to save Kirkstead Chapel, near Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. It

is one of the very few surviving examples of the capella extra portas, which was a

feature of every Cistercian abbey, where women and other persons who were not

allowed within the gates could hear Mass. The abbey was founded in 1139, and the

chapel, which is private property, is one of the finest examples of Early English

architecture remaining in the country. It is in a very decaying condition. The owner

has been approached, and the officials of the above societies have tried to persuade

him to repair it himself or to allow them to do so. But these negotiations have

hitherto failed. It is very deplorable when the owners of historic buildings should

act in this "dog-in-the-manger" fashion, and surely the time has come when the

Government should have power to compulsorily acquire such historic monuments

when their natural protectors prove themselves to be incapable or unwilling to

preserve and save them from destruction.

We turn from this sorry page of wilful neglect to one that records the grand

achievement of modern antiquaries, the rescue and restoration of the beautiful

specimen of Saxon architecture, the little chapel of St. Lawrence at Bradford-on-

Avon. Until 1856 its existence was entirely unknown, and the credit of its

discovery was due to the Rev. Canon Jones, Vicar of Bradford. At the Reformation

with the dissolution of the abbey at Shaftesbury it had passed into lay hands. The

chancel was used as a cottage. Round its walls other cottages arose. Perhaps part of

the building was at one time used as a charnel-house, as in an old deed it is called

the Skull House. In 1715 the nave and porch were given to the vicar to be used as a

school. But no one suspected the presence of this exquisite gem of Anglo-Saxon

architecture, until Canon Jones when surveying the town from the height of a

neighbouring hill recognized the peculiarity of the roof and thought that it might

indicate the existence of a church. Thirty-seven years ago the Wiltshire antiquaries

succeeded in purchasing the building. They cleared away the buildings, chimney-

stacks, and outhouses that had grown up around it, and revealed the whole beauties

of this lovely shrine. Archæologists have fought many battles over it as to its date.

Some contend that it is the identical church which William of Malmesbury tells us

St. Aldhelm built at Bradford-on-Avon about 700 A.D., others assert that it cannot

be earlier than the tenth century. It was a monastic cell attached to the Abbey of

Malmesbury, but Ethelred II gave it to the Abbess of Shaftesbury in 1001 as a

secure retreat for her nuns if Shaftesbury should be threatened by the ravaging

Danes. We need not describe the building, as it is well known. Our artist has

furnished us with an admirable illustration of it. Its great height, its characteristic

narrow Saxon doorways, heavy plain imposts, the string-courses surrounding the

building, the arcades of pilasters, the carved figures of angels are some of its most

important features. It is cheering to find that amid so much that has vanished we

have here at Bradford a complete Saxon church that differs very little from what it

was when it was first erected.

Saxon Doorway in St. Lawrence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.

Other Saxon remains are not wanting. Wilfrid's Crypt at Hexham, that at Ripon,

Brixworth Church, the church within the precincts of Dover Castle, the towers of

Barnack, Barton-upon-Humber, Stow, Earl's Barton, Sompting, Stanton Lacy show

considerable evidences of Saxon work. Saxon windows with their peculiar baluster

shafts can be seen at Bolam and Billingham, Durham; St. Andrew's, Bywell,

Monkwearmouth, Ovington, Sompting, St. Mary Junior, York, Hornby, Wickham

(Berks), Waithe, Holton-le-Clay, Glentworth and Clee (Lincoln), Northleigh, Oxon,

and St. Alban's Abbey. Saxon arches exist at Worth, Corhampton, Escomb,

Deerhurst, St. Benet's, Cambridge, Brigstock, and Barnack. Triangular arches

remain at Brigstock, Barnack, Deerhurst, Aston Tirrold, Berks. We have still some

Saxon fonts at Potterne, Wilts; Little Billing, Northants; Edgmond and Bucknell,

Shropshire; Penmon, Anglesey; and South Hayling, Hants. Even Saxon sundials

exist at Winchester, Corhampton, Bishopstone, Escomb, Aldborough, Edston, and

Kirkdale. There is also one at Daglingworth, Gloucestershire. Some hours of the

Saxon's day in that village must have fled more swiftly than others, as all the radii

are placed at the same angle. Even some mural paintings by Saxon artists exist at

St. Mary's, Guildford; St. Martin's, Canterbury; and faint traces at Britford,

Headbourne, Worthing, and St. Nicholas, Ipswich, and some painted consecration

crosses are believed to belong to this period.

Recent investigations have revealed much Saxon work in our churches, the

existence of which had before been unsuspected. Many circumstances have

combined to obliterate it. The Danish wars had a disastrous effect on many

churches reared in Saxon times. The Norman Conquest caused many of them to be

replaced by more highly finished structures. But frequently, as we study the history

written in the stonework of our churches, we find beneath coatings of stucco the

actual walls built by Saxon builders, and an arch here, a column there, which link

our own times with the distant past, when England was divided into eight kingdoms

and when Danegelt was levied to buy off the marauding strangers.

It is refreshing to find these specimens of early work in our churches. Since then

what destruction has been wrought, what havoc done upon their fabric and

furniture! At the Reformation iconoclasm raged with unpitying ferocity. Everybody

from the King to the churchwardens, who sold church plate lest it should fall into

the hands of the royal commissioners, seems to have been engaged in pillaging

churches and monasteries. The plunder of chantries and guilds followed. Fuller

quaintly describes this as "the last dish of the course, and after cheese nothing is to

be expected." But the coping-stone was placed on the vast fabric of spoliation by

sending commissioners to visit all the cathedrals and parish churches, and seize the

superfluous plate and ornaments for the King's use. Even quite small churches

possessed many treasures which the piety of many generations had bestowed upon

them.

There is a little village in Berkshire called Boxford, quite a small place. Here is the

list of church goods which the commissioners found there, and which had escaped

previous ravages:--

"One challice, a cross of copper & gilt, another cross of timber covered

with brass, one cope of blue velvet embroidered with images of angles,

one vestment of the same suit with an albe of Lockeram,22 two

vestments of Dornexe,23 and three other very old, two old & coarse

albes of Lockeram, two old copes of Dornexe, iiij altar cloths of linen

cloth, two corporals with two cases whereof one is embroidered, two

surplices, & one rochet, one bible & the paraphrases of Erasmus in

English, seven banners of lockeram & one streamer all painted, three

front cloths for altars whereof one of them is with panes of white

damask & black satin, & the other two of old vestments, two towels of

linen, iiij candlesticks of latten24 & two standertes25 before the high

altar of latten, a lent vail26 before the high altar with panes blue and

white, two candlesticks of latten and five branches, a peace,27 three

great bells with one saunce bell xx, one canopy of cloth, a covering of

Dornixe for the Sepulchre, two cruets of pewter, a holy-water pot of

latten, a linen cloth to draw before the rood. And all the said parcels

safely to be kept & preserved, & all the same & every parcel thereof to

be forthcoming at all times when it shall be of them [the

churchwardens] required."

This inventory of the goods of one small church enables us to judge of the wealth

of our country churches before they were despoiled. Of private spoliators their

name was legion. The arch-spoliator was Protector Somerset, the King's uncle,

Edward Seymour, formerly Earl of Hertford and then created Duke of Somerset. He

ruled England for three years after King Henry's death. He was a glaring and

unblushing church-robber, setting an example which others were only too ready to

follow. Canon Overton28 tells how Somerset House remains as a standing memorial

of his rapacity. In order to provide materials for building it he pulled down the

church of St. Mary-le-Strand and three bishops' houses, and was proceeding also to

pull down the historical church of St. Margaret, Westminster; but public opinion

was too strong against him, the parishioners rose and beat off his workmen, and he

was forced to desist, and content himself with violating and plundering the

precincts of St. Paul's. Moreover, the steeple and most of the church of St. John of

Jerusalem, Smithfield, were mined and blown up with gunpowder that the materials

might be utilized for the ducal mansion in the Strand. He turned Glastonbury, with

all its associations dating from the earliest introduction of Christianity into our

island, into a worsted manufactory, managed by French Protestants. Under his

auspices the splendid college of St. Martin-le-Grand in London was converted into

a tavern, and St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, served the scarcely less

incongruous purpose of a Parliament House. All this he did, and when his well-

earned fall came the Church fared no better under his successor, John Dudley, Earl

of Warwick, and afterwards Duke of Northumberland.

Another wretch was Robert, Earl of Sussex, to whom the King gave the choir of

Atleburgh, in Norfolk, because it belonged to a college. "Being of a covetous

disposition, he not only pulled down and spoiled the chancel, but also pulled up

many fair marble gravestones of his ancestors with monuments of brass upon them,

and other fair good pavements, and carried them and laid them for his hall, kitchen,

and larder-house." The church of St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, has many monumental

stones, the brasses of which were in 1551 sent to London to be cast into weights

and measures for the use of the town. The shops of the artists in brass in London

were full of broken brass memorials torn from tombs. Hence arose the making of

palimpsest brasses, the carvers using an old brass and on the reverse side cutting a

memorial of a more recently deceased person.

After all this iconoclasm, spoliation, and robbery it is surprising that anything of

value should have been left in our churches. But happily some treasures escaped,

and the gifts of two or three generations added others. Thus I find from the will of a

good gentleman, Mr. Edward Ball, that after the spoliation of Barkham Church he

left the sum of five shillings for the providing of a processional cross to be borne

before the choir in that church, and I expect that he gave us our beautiful

Elizabethan chalice of the date 1561. The Church had scarcely recovered from its

spoliation before another era of devastation and robbery ensued. During the

Cromwellian period much destruction was wrought by mad zealots of the Puritan

faction. One of these men and his doings are mentioned by Dr. Berwick in his

Querela Cantabrigiensis:--

"One who calls himself John [it should be William] Dowsing and by

Virtue of a pretended Commission, goes about ye country like a

Bedlam, breaking glasse windows, having battered and beaten downe

all our painted glasses, not only in our Chappels, but (contrary to

order) in our Publique Schools, Colledge Halls, Libraries, and

Chambers, mistaking, perhaps, ye liberall Artes for Saints (which they

intend in time to pull down too) and having (against an order) defaced

and digged up ye floors of our Chappels, many of which had lien so for

two or three hundred years together, not regarding ye dust of our

founders and predecessors who likely were buried there; compelled us

by armed Souldiers to pay forty shillings a Colledge for not mending

what he had spoyled and defaced, or forth with to goe to prison."

We meet with the sad doings of this wretch Dowsing in various places in East

Anglia. He left his hideous mark on many a fair church. Thus the churchwardens of

Walberswick, in Suffolk, record in their accounts:--

"1644, April 8th, paid to Martin Dowson, that came with the troopers

0 6 0."

to our church, about the taking down of Images and Brasses off Stones

"1644 paid that day to others for taking up the brasses of grave stones

0 1 0."

before the officer Dowson came

St. George's Church, Great Yarmouth

The record of the ecclesiastical exploits of William Dowsing has been preserved by

the wretch himself in a diary which he kept. It was published in 1786, and the

volume provides much curious reading. With reference to the church of Toffe he

says:--

"Will: Disborugh Church Warden Richard Basly and John Newman

Cunstable, 27 Superstitious pictures in glass and ten other in stone,

three brass inscriptions, Pray for ye Soules, and a Cross to be taken of

the Steeple (6s. 8d.) and there was divers Orate pro Animabus in ye

windows, and on a Bell, Ora pro Anima Sanctæ Catharinæ."

"Trinity Parish, Cambridge, M. Frog, Churchwarden, December 25,

we brake down 80 Popish pictures, and one of Christ and God ye

Father above."

"At Clare we brake down 1000 pictures superstitious."

"Cochie, there were divers pictures in the Windows which we could

not reach, neither would they help us to raise the ladders."

"1643, Jany 1, Edwards parish, we digged up the steps, and brake down

40 pictures, and took off ten superstitious inscriptions."

It is terrible to read these records, and to imagine all the beautiful works of art that

this ignorant wretch ruthlessly destroyed. To all the inscriptions on tombs

containing the pious petition Orate pro anima--his ignorance is palpably displayed

by his Orate pro animabus--he paid special attention. Well did Mr. Cole observe

concerning the last entry in Dowsing's diary:--

"From this last Entry we may clearly see to whom we are obliged for

the dismantling of almost all the gravestones that had brasses on them,

both in town and country: a sacrilegious sanctified rascal that was

afraid, or too proud, to call it St. Edward's Church, but not ashamed to

rob the dead of their honours and the Church of its ornaments. W.C."

He tells also of the dreadful deeds that were being done at Lowestoft in 1644:--

"In the same year, also, on the 12th of June, there came one Jessop,

with a commission from the Earl of Manchester, to take away from

gravestones all inscriptions on which he found Orate pro anima--a

wretched Commissioner not able to read or find out that which his

commission enjoyned him to remove--he took up in our Church so

much brasse, as he sold to Mr. Josiah Wild for five shillings, which

was afterwards (contrary to my knowledge) runn into the little bell that

hangs in the Town-house. There were taken up in the Middle Ayl

twelve pieces belonging to twelve generations of the Jettours."

The same scenes were being enacted in many parts of England. Everywhere

ignorant commissioners were rampaging about the country imitating the ignorant

ferocity of this Dowsing and Jessop. No wonder our churches were bare, pillaged,

and ruinated. Moreover, the conception of art and the taste for architecture were

dead or dying, and there was no one who could replace the beautiful objects which

these wretches destroyed or repair the desolation they had caused.

Another era of spoliation set in in more recent times, when the restorers came with

vitiated taste and the worst ideals to reconstruct and renovate our churches which

time, spoliation, and carelessness had left somewhat the worse for wear. The

Oxford Movement taught men to bestow more care upon the houses of God in the

land, to promote His honour by more reverent worship, and to restore the beauty of

His sanctuary. A rector found his church in a dilapidated state and talked over the

matter with the squire. Although the building was in a sorry condition, with a

cracked ceiling, hideous galleries, and high pews like cattle-pens, it had a Norman

doorway, some Early English carved work in the chancel, a good Perpendicular

tower, and fine Decorated windows. These two well-meaning but ignorant men

decided that a brand-new church would be a great improvement on this old tumble-

down building. An architect was called in, or a local builder; the plan of a new

church was speedily drawn, and ere long the hammers and axes were let loose on

the old church and every vestige of antiquity destroyed. The old Norman font was

turned out of the church, and either used as a cattle-trough or to hold a flower-pot

in the rectory garden. Some of the beautifully carved stones made an excellent

rockery in the squire's garden, and old woodwork, perchance a fourteenth-century

rood-screen, encaustic tiles bearing the arms of the abbey with which in former

days the church was connected, monuments and stained glass, are all carted away

and destroyed, and the triumph of vandalism is complete.

That is an oft-told tale which finds its counterpart in many towns and villages, the

entire and absolute destruction of the old church by ignorant vandals who work

endless mischief and know not what they do. There is the village of Little

Wittenham, in our county of Berks, not far from Sinodun Hill, an ancient earthwork

covered with trees, that forms so conspicuous an object to the travellers by the

Great Western Railway from Didcot to Oxford. About forty years ago terrible

things were done in the church of that village. The vicar was a Goth. There was a

very beautiful chantry chapel on the south side of the choir, full of magnificent

marble monuments to the memory of various members of the Dunce family. This

family, once great and powerful, whose great house stood hard by on the north of

the church--only the terraces of which remain--is now, it is believed, extinct. The

vicar thought that he might be held responsible for the dilapidations of this old

chantry; so he pulled it down, and broke all the marble tombs with axes and

hammers. You can see the shattered remains that still show signs of beauty in one

of the adjoining barns. Some few were set up in the tower, the old font became a

pig-trough, the body of the church was entirely renewed, and vandalism reigned

supreme. In our county of Berks there were at the beginning of the last century 170

ancient parish churches. Of these, thirty have been pulled down and entirely rebuilt,

six of them on entirely new sites; one has been burnt down, one disused; before

1890 one hundred were restored, some of them most drastically, and several others

have been restored since, but with greater respect to old work.

A favourite method of "restoration" was adopted in many instances. A church had a

Norman doorway and pillars in the nave; sundry additions and alterations had been

made in subsequent periods, and examples of Early English, Decorated, and

Perpendicular styles of architecture were observable, with, perhaps, a Renaissance

porch or other later feature. What did the early restorers do? They said, "This is a

Norman church; all its details should be Norman too." So they proceeded to take

away these later additions and imitate Norman work as much as they could by

breaking down the Perpendicular or Decorated tracery in the windows and putting

in large round-headed windows--their conception of Norman work, but far

different from what any Norman builder would have contrived. Thus these good

people entirely destroyed the history of the building, and caused to vanish much

that was interesting and important. Such is the deplorable story of the "restoration"

of many a parish church.

An amusing book, entitled Hints to Some Churchwardens, with a few Illustrations

Relative to the Repair and Improvement of Parish Churches, was published in

1825. The author, with much satire, depicts the "very many splendid, curious, and

convenient ideas which have emanated from those churchwardens who have

attained perfection as planners and architects." He apologises for not giving the

names of these superior men and the dates of the improvements they have achieved,

but is sure that such works as theirs must immortalize them, not only in their

parishes, but in their counties, and, he trusts, in the kingdom at large. The following

are some of the "hints":--

"How to affix a porch to an old church.

"If the church is of stone, let the porch be of brick, the roof slated, and

the entrance to it of the improved Gothic called modern, being an arch

formed by an acute angle. The porch should be placed so as to stop up

what might be called a useless window; and as it sometimes happens

that there is an ancient Saxon29 entrance, let it be carefully bricked up,

and perhaps plastered, so as to conceal as much as possible of the

zigzag ornament used in buildings of this kind. Such improvements

cannot fail to ensure celebrity to churchwardens of future ages.

"How to add a vestry to an old church.

"The building here proposed is to be of bright brick, with a slated roof

and sash windows, with a small door on one side; and it is, moreover,

to be adorned with a most tasty and ornamental brick chimney, which

terminates at the chancel end. The position of the building should be

against two old Gothic windows; which, having the advantage of

hiding them nearly altogether, when contrasted with the dull and

uniform surface of an old stone church, has a lively and most imposing

effect.

"How to ornament the top or battlements of a tower belonging to an

ancient church.

"Place on each battlement, vases, candlesticks, and pineapples

alternately, and the effect will be striking. Vases have many votaries

amongst those worthy members of society, the churchwardens.

Candlesticks are of ancient origin, and represent, from the highest

authority, the light of the churches: but as in most churches

weathercocks are used, I would here recommend the admirers of

novelty and improvement to adopt a pair of snuffers, which might also

be considered as a useful emblem for reinvigorating the lights from the

candlesticks. The pineapple ornament having in so many churches

been judiciously substituted for Gothic, cannot fail to please. Some

such ornament should also be placed at the top of the church, and at the

chancel end. But as this publication does not restrict any churchwarden

of real taste, and as the ornaments here recommended are in a common

way made of stone, if any would wish to distinguish his year of office,

perhaps he would do it brilliantly by painting them all bright red...."

Other valuable suggestions are made in this curious and amusing work, such as

"how to repair Quartre-feuille windows" by cutting out all the partitions and

making them quite round; "how to adapt a new church to an old tower with most

taste and effect," the most attractive features being light iron partitions instead of

stone mullions for the windows, with shutters painted yellow, bright brick walls

and slate roof, and a door painted sky-blue. You can best ornament a chancel by

placing colossal figures of Moses and Aaron supporting the altar, huge tables of the

commandments, and clusters of grapes and pomegranates in festoons and clusters

of monuments. Vases upon pillars, the commandments in sky-blue, clouds carved

out of wood supporting angels, are some of the ideas recommended. Instead of a

Norman font you can substitute one resembling a punch-bowl,30 with the pedestal

and legs of a round claw table; and it would be well to rear a massive pulpit in the

centre of the chancel arch, hung with crimson and gold lace, with gilt chandeliers,

large sounding-board with a vase at the top. A stove is always necessary. It can be

placed in the centre of the chancel, and the stove-pipe can be carried through the

upper part of the east window, and then by an elbow conveyed to the crest of the

roof over the window, the cross being taken down to make room for the chimney.

Such are some of the recommendations of this ingenious writer, which are ably

illustrated by effective drawings. They are not all imaginative. Many old churches

tell the tragic story of their mutilation at the hands of a rector who has discovered

Parker's Glossary, knows nothing about art, but "does know what he likes," advised

by his wife who has visited some of the cathedrals, and by an architect who has

been elaborately educated in the principles of Roman Renaissance, but who knows

no more of Lombard, Byzantine, or Gothic art than he does of the dynasties of

ancient Egypt. When a church has fallen into the hands of such renovators and been

heavily "restored," if the ghost of one of its medieval builders came to view his

work he would scarcely recognize it. Well says Mr. Thomas Hardy: "To restore the

great carcases of mediævalism in the remote nooks of western England seems a not

less incongruous act than to set about renovating the adjoining crags themselves,"

and well might he sigh over the destruction of the grand old tower of Endelstow

Church and the erection of what the vicar called "a splendid tower, designed by a

first-rate London man--in the newest style of Gothic art and full of Christian

feeling."

The novelist's remarks on "restoration" are most valuable:--

"Entire destruction under the saving name has been effected on so

gigantic a scale that the protection of structures, their being kept wind

and weather-proof, counts as nothing in the balance. Its enormous

magnitude is realized by few who have not gone personally from

parish to parish through a considerable district, and compared existing

churches there with records, traditions, and memories of what they

formerly were. The shifting of old windows and other details

irregularly spaced, and spacing them at exact distances, has been one

process. The deportation of the original chancel arch to an obscure

nook and the insertion of a wider new one, to throw open the view of

the choir, is a practice by no means extinct. Next in turn to the re-

designing of old buildings and parts of them comes the devastation

caused by letting restorations by contract, with a clause in the

specification requesting the builder to give a price for 'old materials,'

such as the lead of the roofs, to be replaced by tiles or slates, and the

oak of the pews, pulpit, altar-rails, etc., to be replaced by deal. Apart

from these irregularities it has been a principle that anything later than

Henry VIII is anathema and to be cast out. At Wimborne Minster fine

Jacobean canopies have been removed from Tudor stalls for the

offence only of being Jacobean. At a hotel in Cornwall a tea-garden

was, and probably is still, ornamented with seats constructed of the

carved oak from a neighbouring church--no doubt the restorer's

perquisite.

"Poor places which cannot afford to pay a clerk of the works suffer

much in these ecclesiastical convulsions. In one case I visited, as a

youth, the careful repair of an interesting Early English window had

been specified, but it was gone. The contractor, who had met me on the

spot, replied genially to my gaze of concern: 'Well, now, I said to

myself when I looked at the old thing, I won't stand upon a pound or

two. I'll give 'em a new winder now I am about it, and make a good job

of it, howsomever.' A caricature in new stone of the old window had

taken its place. In the same church was an old oak rood-screen in the

Perpendicular style with some gilding and colouring still remaining.

Some repairs had been specified, but I beheld in its place a new screen

of varnished deal. 'Well,' replied the builder, more genial than ever,

'please God, now I am about it, I'll do the thing well, cost what it will.'

The old screen had been used up to boil the work-men's kettles, though

'a were not much at that.'"

Such is the terrible report of this amazing iconoclasm.

Some wiseacres, the vicar and churchwardens, once determined to pull down their

old church and build a new one. So they met in solemn conclave and passed the

following sagacious resolutions:--

1. That a new church should be built.

2. That the materials of the old church should be used in the

construction of the new.

3. That the old church should not be pulled down until the new one be

built.

How they contrived to combine the second and third resolutions history recordeth

not.

Even when the church was spared the "restorers" were guilty of strange enormities

in the embellishment and decoration of the sacred building. Whitewash was

vigorously applied to the walls and pews, carvings, pulpit, and font. If curious

mural paintings adorned the walls, the hideous whitewash soon obliterated every

trace and produced "those modest hues which the native appearance of the stone so

pleasingly bestows." But whitewash has one redeeming virtue, it preserves and

saves for future generations treasures which otherwise might have been destroyed.

Happily all decoration of churches has not been carried out in the reckless fashion

thus described by a friend of the writer. An old Cambridgeshire incumbent, who

had done nothing to his church for many years, was bidden by the archdeacon to

"brighten matters up a little." The whole of the woodwork wanted repainting and

varnishing, a serious matter for a poor man. His wife, a very capable lady, took the

matter in hand. She went to the local carpenter and wheelwright and bought up the

whole of his stock of that particular paint with which farm carts and wagons are

painted, coarse but serviceable, and of the brightest possible red, blue, green, and

yellow hues. With her own hands she painted the whole of the interior--pulpit,

pews, doors, etc., and probably the wooden altar, using the colours as her fancy

dictated, or as the various colours held out. The effect was remarkable. A

succeeding rector began at once the work of restoration, scraping off the paint and

substituting oak varnish; but when my friend took a morning service for him the

work had not been completed, and he preached from a bright green pulpit.

Carving on Rood-screen, Alcester Church, Warwick

The contents of our parish churches, furniture and plate, are rapidly vanishing.

England has ever been remarkable for the number and beauty of its rood-screens.

At the Reformation the roods were destroyed and many screens with them, but

many of the latter were retained, and although through neglect or wanton

destruction they have ever since been disappearing, yet hundreds still exist.31 Their

number is, however, sadly decreased. In Cheshire "restoration" has removed nearly

all examples, except Ashbury, Mobberley, Malpas, and a few others. The churches

of Bunbury and Danbury have lost some good screen-work since 1860. In

Derbyshire screens suffered severely in the nineteenth century, and the records of

each county show the disappearance of many notable examples, though happily

Devonshire, Somerset, and several other shires still possess some beautiful

specimens of medieval woodwork. A large number of Jacobean pulpits with their

curious carvings have vanished. A pious donor wishes to give a new pulpit to a

church in memory of a relative, and the old pulpit is carted away to make room for

its modern and often inferior substitute. Old stalls and misericordes, seats and

benches with poppy-head terminations have often been made to vanish, and the

pillaging of our churches at the Reformation and during the Commonwealth period

and at the hands of the "restorers" has done much to deprive our churches of their

ancient furniture.

Most churches had two or three chests or coffers for the storing of valuable

ornaments and vestments. Each chantry had its chest or ark, as it was sometimes

called, e.g. the collegiate church of St. Mary, Warwick, had in 1464, "ij old

irebound coofres," "j gret olde arke to put in vestments," "j olde arke at the autere

ende, j old coofre irebonde having a long lok of the olde facion, and j lasse new

coofre having iij loks called the tresory cofre and certain almaries." "In the inner

house j new hie almarie with ij dores to kepe in the evidence of the Churche and j

great old arke and certain olde Almaries, and in the house afore the Chapter house j

old irebounde cofre having hie feet and rings of iron in the endes thereof to heve it

bye."

"It is almost exceptional to find any parish of five hundred inhabitants

which does not possess a parish chest. The parish chest of the parish in

which I am writing is now in the vestry of the church here. It has been

used for generations as a coal box. It is exceptional to find anything so

useful as wholesome fuel inside these parish chests; their contents have

in the great majority of instances utterly perished, and the miserable

destruction of those interesting parish records testifies to the almost

universal neglect which they have suffered at the hands, not of the

parsons, who as a rule have kept with remarkable care the register

books for which they have always been responsible, but of the

churchwardens and overseers, who have let them perish without a

thought of their value.

"As a rule the old parish chests have fallen to pieces, or worse, and

their contents have been used to light the church stove, except in those

very few cases where the chests were furnished with two or more keys,

each key being of different wards from the other, and each being

handed over to a different functionary when the time of the parish

meeting came round."32

When the ornaments and vestments were carted away from the church in the time

of Edward VI, many of the church chests lost their use, and were sold or destroyed,

the poorest only being kept for registers and documents. Very magnificent were

some of these chests which have survived, such as that at Icklington, Suffolk,

Church Brampton, Northants, Rugby, Westminster Abbey, and Chichester. The old

chest at Heckfield may have been one of those ordered in the reign of King John for

the collection of the alms of the faithful for the fifth crusade. The artist, Mr. Fred

Roe, has written a valuable work on chests, to which those who desire to know

about these interesting objects can refer.

Another much diminishing store of treasure belonging to our churches is the church

plate. Many churches possess some old plate--perhaps a pre-Reformation chalice.

It is worn by age, and the clergyman, ignorant of its value, takes it to a jeweller to

be repaired. He is told that it is old and thin and cannot easily be repaired, and is

offered very kindly by the jeweller in return for this old chalice a brand-new one

with a paten added. He is delighted, and the old chalice finds its way to Christie's,

realizes a large sum, and goes into the collection of some millionaire. Not long ago

the Council of the Society of Antiquaries issued a memorandum to the bishops and

archdeacons of the Anglican Church calling attention to the increasing frequency of

the sale of old or obsolete church plate. This is of two kinds: (1) pieces of plate or

other articles of a domestic character not especially made, nor perhaps well fitted

for the service of the Church; (2) chalices, patens, flagons, or plate generally, made

especially for ecclesiastical use, but now, for reasons of change of fashion or from

the articles themselves being worn out, no longer desired to be used. A church

possibly is in need of funds for restoration, and an effort is naturally made to turn

such articles into money. The officials decide to sell any objects the church may

have of the first kind. Thus the property of the Church of England finds its way

abroad, and is thus lost to the nation. With regard to the sacred vessels of the

second class, it is undignified, if not a desecration, that vessels of such a sacred

character should be subjected to a sale by auction and afterwards used as table

ornaments by collectors to whom their religious significance makes no appeal. We

are reminded of the profanity of Belshazzar's feast.33 It would be far better to place

such objects for safe custody and preservation in some local museum. Not long ago

a church in Knightsbridge was removed and rebuilt on another site. It had a

communion cup presented by Archbishop Laud. Some addition was required for the

new church, and it was proposed to sell the chalice to help in defraying the cost of

this addition. A London dealer offered five hundred guineas for it, and doubtless by

this time it has passed into private hands and left the country. This is only one

instance out of many of the depletion of the Church of its treasures. It must not be

forgotten that although the vicar and churchwardens are for the time being trustees

of the church plate and furniture, yet the property really is vested in the

parishioners. It ought not to be sold without a faculty, and the chancellors of

dioceses ought to be extremely careful ere they allow such sales to take place. The

learned Chancellor of Exeter very wisely recently refused to allow the rector of

Churchstanton to sell a chalice of the date 1660 A.D., stating that it was painfully

repugnant to the feelings of many Churchmen that it should be possible that a

vessel dedicated to the most sacred service of the Church should figure upon the

dinner-table of a collector. He quoted a case of a chalice which had disappeared

from a church and been found afterwards with an inscription showing that it had

been awarded as a prize at athletic sports. Such desecration is too deplorable for

words suitable to describe it. If other chancellors took the same firm stand as Mr.

Chadwyck-Healey, of Exeter, we should hear less of such alienation of

ecclesiastical treasure.

Fourteenth-century Coffer in Faversham Church, Kent From Old Oak Furniture, by

Fred Roe

Flanders Chest in East Dereham Church, Norfolk, temp. Henry VIII From Old Oak

Furniture

Another cause of mutilation and the vanishing of objects of interest and beauty is

the iconoclasm of visitors, especially of American visitors, who love our English

shrines so much that they like to chip off bits of statuary or wood-carving to

preserve as mementoes of their visit. The fine monuments in our churches and

cathedrals are especially convenient to them for prey. Not long ago the best

portions of some fine carving were ruthlessly cut and hacked away by a party of

American visitors. The verger explained that six of the party held him in

conversation at one end of the building while the rest did their deadly and nefarious

work at the other. One of the most beautiful monuments in the country, that of the

tomb of Lady Maud FitzAlan at Chichester, has recently been cut and chipped by

these unscrupulous visitors. It may be difficult to prevent them from damaging such

works of art, but it is hoped that feelings of greater reverence may grow which

would render such vandalism impossible. All civilized persons would be ashamed

to mutilate the statues of Greece and Rome in our museums. Let them realize that

these monuments in our cathedrals and churches are just as valuable, as they are the

best of English art, and then no sacrilegious hand would dare to injure them or

deface them by scratching names upon them or by carrying away broken chips as

souvenirs. Playful boys in churchyards sometimes do much mischief. In

Shrivenham churchyard there is an ancient full-sized effigy, and two village urchins

were recently seen amusing themselves by sliding the whole length of the figure.

This must be a common practice of the boys of the village, as the effigy is worn

almost to an inclined plane. A tradition exists that the figure represents a man who

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