Part 8

The only other object of interest in the chapel is an effigy of Purbeck marble of a knight, now set up against the south wall. This is thought to represent Robert, the second Lord Tattershall, who died _c._ 1212. He is in a hauberk of banded mail, the earliest of the five known examples, and wears the cylindrical helmet, with convex top, having two bands crossing in front.

For many of these particulars I am indebted to drawings by Mr. J. Nixon and Mr. A. Hartshorne in the _Spring Garden Sketch Book_.

SOME SOUTH LINCOLNSHIRE CHURCHES

BY W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A.

In no part of Lincolnshire—a county famous for its ecclesiastical buildings—can so interesting a group of churches be found as that between Pinchbeck and Sutton St. Mary—a distance of about fifteen miles.

First we have the village church of Pinchbeck, next the Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Spalding—always the church of the town; then the interesting village church of St. Mary’s, Weston; then within a mile the village church of All Saints, Moulton; then within another mile the village church of St. Mary’s, Whaplode; then we have the beautiful Church of All Saints, Holbeach, always a town church; then we have the two village churches of Fleet and St. Mary’s, Gedney; and lastly, the interesting town church of Sutton St. Mary.

Any stranger visiting the district must be struck with the size and magnificence of the village churches of Pinchbeck, Moulton, Whaplode, and Gedney, which have always been out of all proportion to the requirements of the inhabitants of those various places. It was not the needs of the people that prompted the erecting of these four beautiful village shrines; but the church-building rivalry that existed between the two wealthy abbeys of Croyland and Spalding.

These four village churches, all within twelve miles, as the crow flies, are probably unequalled in the kingdom, and are lasting monuments of the energy and zeal of the two local abbeys in providing places of worship in the villages over which they had sway.

SPALDING

The first church to which we will direct our attention is that of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Spalding.

This church owes its origin to a dispute between the prior and monks of Spalding and the town’s people, about the year 1280. The history of the foundation of this edifice is supplied by the records of the priory.

It appears that about the dawn of the fourteenth century there were two parish churches for the town of Spalding, which were on the west side of the river Welland. One, the Holy Rood, stood on the south side of the present market place—on the priory walls, about the spot where the Stamford and Spalding Bank premises are erected; the other St. Mary, Stokes, which also stood on the priory wall, but nearer the river Welland and to the High Bridge, that crosses that river. The bells of these churches not only disturbed the prior and his monks, but the two buildings being in such a dilapidated condition, the parishioners flocked to the abbey church, near by, to the great inconvenience of the inmates of the monastery. William Littleport, who was then the prior, came to an agreement with the townsmen about the year 1283, and obtained leave to pull down the two churches, which were probably small buildings with Norman style of architecture. With contributions from the townsmen, he agreed to erect a new church for the parish on the east side of the river Welland, and in the year 1284 he laid the foundation-stone of the present church. The land on which it stands was then the burial ground for the town, and part of the mortuary chapel that was then standing was worked into the new building, and forms part of the south and east walls of the chancel of the present church.

When the church was restored in the year 1866, foundations of an earlier building than the present one were discovered beneath the level of the floor of the nave—extending westward from the chancel to midway of the great arches of the transepts. The lines of these foundations were at right angles with the east wall of the chancel, which is not square with the present chancel walls, and is of much ruder worked masonry.

Most of the churches in the district, when restored, have revealed the carved stone work of earlier edifices, which had been freely used by the builders when either enlarging or rebuilding the churches. This is not to be wondered at, considering the difficulty the builders had in getting the stone from the district of Stamford—for from that neighbourhood nearly the whole of the stone came that was used in erecting the churches the subject of this article. It must have been costly even in those days, when labour was cheap. It had to be quarried in the “Uplands,” and floated on small flat-bottomed boats during the winter months down the shallow rivers to the various churches—for the roads were well nigh impassable for such traffic—dressed by the masons on the spot in the dark season of the year—and built into its place in the summer months, when the stone would be dry and so able to resist the winter frosts. Their work was slow, but it was good and sure.

The present church, of which the abbey and prior were the patrons, was dedicated to the same saints as the abbey, and was erected in the Geometrical style of architecture of a severe character, considering the date it was built—for at that time that style of architecture was dying out, and was not so severe in its character—but in this district, styles of architecture did not give place to the new till much later than elsewhere in England and on the Continent.

The dimensions of this early church are easily defined in the present building externally by the original buttresses on the west end of the nave, the north and south ends of the transepts, the south-east buttresses of the nave, and the south wall of the chancel, which had been built upon the earlier chapel foundations as previously mentioned, and the angle buttresses at the east end of the chancel; and visitors should notice that in building on the old foundations, the east wall of the chancel is not at right angles to the two other walls of the building—the northern wall is upwards of two feet longer than that on the southern side.

Such was the early church at Spalding, with probably a campanile or small tower at the west end of the north aisle. At the restoration in 1866 the foundations at that corner of the building were on examination found to be more solid and capable of bearing a much greater weight than the rest of the building. That a campanile or tower formed part of the early church—and in the Early English style of architecture—is confirmed by the fact that Early English base mouldings and windows are worked into the present tower, as well as ledger stones of Perpendicular date and some whole stone coffins.

In relation to this tower it is interesting to record that in 1401 there was another dispute between the townsmen and the prior in relation to the bells, and it was probably in consequence of that dispute the present tower was erected and the bells hung in the same.

During the Curvilinear Period the south aisle, the south outer aisle, and the present tower were added, with Thomas à Becket’s Chapel at the east end of the south outer aisle. This chapel was used for a great number of years as the Grammar School.

This Curvilinear tower was not originally intended to carry a spire, but one was at a subsequent period added, which so severely tried the strength of the tower that at the time of the Restoration it was in so dangerous a condition that the bells could not be rung.

In the Rectilinear Period the church was further enlarged, and the following were added:—

The present North Aisle. Outer North Aisle. North Porch. One Buttress on the South Outer Aisle. Two Buttresses on south side of Chancel. South Porch. North-east Buttress of North Transept. Stairs to Rood-loft.

The Parish Church of Spalding presents an excellent example of how the architects of the period transformed an Early Geometrical church into a Rectilinear one.

Originally the nave and transepts were of one uniform height throughout, as were also the roofs, plates, clerestory-range, arches, capitals, and bases respectively. The pillars of the nave were heightened about 6 feet about the year 1450, when the arches were reset and the clerestory rebuilt and the present windows inserted.

The tower (Perpendicular) should be compared with that of All Saints’, Moulton, another church built by the Spalding monks. It is surmounted by lofty pinnacles and flying buttresses connecting them with a crocketed spire rising to the height of 153 feet. It is placed at the west end of the south outer aisle.

Mr. Sharpe, in his _Lincoln Excursion_, 1871, says: “The tower and spire rank among the finest in the country.” And writing on the church, he says: “Although its separate features have no great merit, it presents one of the most striking interiors to be seen in any parish church; due in a great measure to the variety and irregularity of its different parts, and the many singularities of designs, to which the various alterations of form have given rise, as well as to the excellent restoration it has received.

“The Chapel of St. Thomas à Becket is a curious building, the windows of which have tracery of an unusual kind, in which both right and flowing lines are introduced.

“The north porch is an important structure of somewhat late in the Rectilineal Period, with a groined fan-tracery roof and parvise over it.”

Owing to the proximity of the priory, the rich and influential persons who had died before the demolition of monasteries were buried in the convent church. The parish church was most ably restored by the late Sir Gilbert Scott in 1866. The high pews and galleries were removed. The organ was erected in a new chapel built on the north side of the chancel. The west window of the nave was filled with new tracery, and the whole of the windows filled with stained glass. The roofs were thoroughly overhauled, and new pews erected.

WESTON ST. MARY

The next church of which we have to treat is the village church of St. Mary’s, Weston, another of the Spalding Priory churches. The parish of Weston formed part of the at one time large Manor of Spalding and its members, of which the Priors of Spalding were lords; and all records point to the able and philanthropic way the monks treated the places within their jurisdiction. With respect to the mode in which they treated Pinchbeck, and the means by which they built that fine village church, the existing records of the monastery give a most interesting account. That Weston Church was restored under the able direction of the then vicar, the late Rev. Canon Edward Moore, F.S.A., is sufficient guarantee that it was a thorough, though conservative, restoration, and those who visit the church will be ready to testify that as a model of a village church Weston St. Mary would hold a very high place.

That the present is not the first church at Weston we have proof, for about the year 1135 Thomas de Multon, who was the chief tenant of the Prior of Spalding, and resided at his castle at Moulton, whilst attending the funeral of his father in the Abbey Church of Spalding, gave to the monks, in the presence of his family, the Abbot of Croyland, and many others, the church at Weston. Weston was in his manor of Moulton. The gift was confirmed in the presence of the Chapter of the Priory of Spalding, and also by Thomas de Multon depositing his clasped knife on the high altar of the Abbey Church. This Thomas was the father of Lambert de Multon, who, with his wife Matilda, was buried in Weston Church; and there is still in the north-west corner of the north transept his sepulchral slab which formerly had two effigies. Lambert doubtless was a benefactor to the church, and so acquired the honour of sepulture within its walls.

In the early part of the thirteenth century (during the reign of King John), and whilst John, a Spaniard, was the Prior of Spalding, a fine was levied between him and Lord Thomas de Multon for the advowson of the Church of Weston, and, judging by the architecture, it was about this time the monks began the building of the present church.

With the exception of the transepts and tower, the whole of this pretty church belongs to the earliest part of the Lancet Period. The two transepts belong to the Geometrical Period, and the tower to the Rectilinear Period of architecture. The student may compare the nave of this church with advantage with the earlier nave of Moulton, another of the Spalding Priory churches—it seems as if the same workmen had been engaged on both buildings. The nave has five compartments of pointed pier arches of two orders, of which the first only is moulded, resting on light clustered piers consisting of circular and polygonal shafts surrounded by four light detached shafts. The piers are low and the shafts not banded. The pier capitals present a series of carved work of the earliest Lancet foliage, and are very stiff, but are more free and of far more advanced character than those at Moulton. The chancel arch of two orders is an excellent example of the early work of the Lancet Period. The clerestories should be compared with those at Whaplode, Long Sutton, and Moulton, which show the gradual change from the Norman to the Transitional and the Transitional to the Lancet styles of architecture. This church illustrates how the Transitional ideas in regard to moulding, &c., show themselves in this early example of Lancet work.

The chancel has single lancet windows and slender buttresses of the early part of the period, and should be compared with the two buttresses at the east end of the south aisle of Moulton Church.

The font is an interesting one, and is of the same date as the nave. The tower, which is the lowest in the district, does not call for observation. The south porch is a very good specimen of the period, and will repay careful inspection.

ALL SAINTS’, MOULTON

Old though this splendid village church is, it is not the first church the parish possessed, for there was an earlier one which it is believed stood on the north side of the main road leading from Spalding to Holbeach, in the same manner as the Church of Weston now does. The site of this early church was near the present “Bell Inn.” When the turnpike was made in 1761, a great number of human bones were dug up and the foundations of buildings were discovered. The impression then was that the site of an ancient church and burial ground had been disclosed. This church was probably a small Saxon building. Domesday Survey does not record any church at Moulton. That need not cause any surprise, as it was no part of the commissioners’ duty to make a return of churches. It is true some are mentioned, but in the majority of cases, even where churches were known to have existed, there is no mention of them in the Survey.

The Priory of Spalding was founded a few years previously to the Norman Conquest (_cir._ 1051) by Thorold the Sheriff, and was liberally endowed by him and Lady Lucy, who married Ivo Tail-bois, nephew to the Conqueror. Through her family Spalding Priory became possessed of the manor of Spalding, and the owners of the advowson of Moulton Church.

Cole, in his priceless MSS. now in the British Museum, states:—

“Be it known that the right of advowson of the Church of Moulton was acquired by the Prior and Convent with the manor of Spalding ... and they always held it without strife or controversy.”

The Priory supplied priests to officiate in the early church at Moulton.

The following charter of Robert, Bishop of Lincoln (1094-1123), is interesting:—

“To all the faithful in Christ and to the sons of the Holy Mother Church Robert, by the grace of God Bishop of Lincoln, greeting. We provide for the Church of God usefully when we assign its benefices to fitting persons for pious uses. Therefore, for religion’s sake, and fully trusting to the honesty of our beloved sons H⸺ [Cole states it was Herbert] the Prior and the monks of Spalding, we concede and confirm to them for a perpetual alms the churches of Spalding, Pinchbeck, Multon, and Hautebarge with all their appendages, viz. to the Church of St. Nicholas and the monks serving God there to hold for their own use, for the support of the Poor, of guests, and the infirm; and we corroborate the same by the attestation of our seal; save and excepting in all things the right and dignity of the Church of Lincoln. Witness: Henry of Huntingdon, archdeacon, &c.”

Cole, speaking of this charter, says: “The Prior and Convent appointed the vicars temporal in the said churches according to their will for seven or eight years, or for any other time at their pleasure.”

By the 4th and 5th parts of the Register of Spalding Priory, now in the British Museum, we learn the great sway the monastery had over “their vill of Multon”:—

“The tenants of the Prior in Multone on account of their contracts and misdemeanors struck and committed in the fee of the Prior assemble at the Court of the Prior in Spalding. Likewise the Prior in his said Court of Spalding has control over the bakers and brewers and the vendors of bread and ale in his fee in Multone. Likewise the residents in the fee of the Prior at Multone are in frankpledge to the Prior in the same Court of Spalding, and came there for the purpose of making view of frankpledge and their amendation. Likewise the gallows of the Prior of Spalding in Spalding serve for those condemned in his Court of Spalding, taken in his fee of Multone and convicted of felony in his Court of Spalding. Likewise the right of patronage of the Church of Multone belongs to the manor of the Prior of Spalding in Spalding.”

Such was the position of affairs at Moulton when the monks at Spalding in the twelfth century began building the present Parish Church of All Saints.

During Prior John’s time (_circa_ 1175-1190) we next learn something concerning the church at Moulton. Coles in his MSS. gives some curious articles offered by the rector and patrons of the Church of Moulton against Thomas de Multon, “a great man in these parts,” and head tenant of the monastery, “showing the ill-feeling and jealousy which had sprung up between the ecclesiastical and lay lords as well as the anxiety of the monastery to secure the aid of the parishioners in building the present church, and pointing out their duties to their ‘Mother Church.’”

“Articles offered against Thomas de Multon by the Prior and Convent of Spalding, Rectors, and Patrons of Multon, and by the Vicar of the same.

“In the first place, it is offered against the said Sir Thomas that he has a certain chapel unlawfully erected in his manor, and causes divine service to be there celebrated without the consent and will of the said prior and convent and of the vicar, and without the authority of any superior person, to the danger of his soul, and to the no small prejudice and injury of the said prior and convent and the vicar of the parish church of Multon. Likewise, that the chaplains celebrating in the same, by the power and authority of the said Sir Thomas, receive the parishioners of Multon, not only at the Sacraments, but also at the Sacraments of the Church, contrary to the injunction of the holy canons, to the danger of his soul, &c. (as above). Likewise, that his chaplains aforesaid, by the power and authority of the said Sir Thomas, unjustly appropriate to themselves, and carry away for their own use, to convert to their own pleasure, the oblations made in the said chapel, and also other offerings which by right belong to the parish church aforesaid. On which account the said chaplains are also _ipso facto_ suspended from the celebration of the divine offices, and are irregular in like manner when celebrating the divine offices, yea, rather profaning them. Which said chaplains the said Sir Thomas, contrary to the law of God and justice, sustains and defends in the wickedness of such iniquity and manifest error, to the prejudice and subversion of the rights of the parish church of Multon, to the danger of his soul, &c. (as above). Likewise, since it pertains to parish rights, that all the parishioners ought, at least on Sundays and Feast-days, to attend their parish church devoutly, there to attend to the prayers diligently, to listen to the divine offices and other salutary admonitions which are wholesomely made for the information of the people; nevertheless the same Sir Thomas has hitherto refused, with contempt, to attend his parish church at Multon aforesaid, whilst he remains there, or in any way to acknowledge it by his personal presence, and still unduly, to the danger of his soul, &c. (as above). Likewise, that since the parishioners, according to ecclesiastical discipline, ought on Sundays and Feast-days, as aforesaid, to come to the parish church not alone to pray there, and hear the divine offices, but also that they might be present together, anxious and attentive to the Declaration of the Feasts and of the Bans, to the mandates of the Church and their superiors, and to the executions and injunctions there made by the ministers of the church as the custom is, for the information of the people and the salvation of their souls, and that they might reverently and devoutly fulfil such injunctions and instructions to the utmost of their power; nevertheless the said Sir Thomas and others of the parish of Multon, by the authority only of the said Sir Thomas, and by occasion of the said chapel, under-estimating and despising their own parish church, assemble in the aforesaid chapel on the said Sundays and Feast-days to hear mass there only, entirely regardless of the salutary admonitions of their mother church, and all injunctions and informations of the same, like sons degenerate towards their mother, which is horrible, to the manifest danger of his soul, and of the souls of many others, and to the prejudice of the parish church, &c. Likewise, that by his own authority, and by occasion of the said chapel, he differs from the community of the parishioners of Multon, and strives to avoid parochial law and subjection, in that although he is a parishioner there he will not receive the holy bread, like as others his parishioners devoutly and thankfully receive it, chiefly because he is not the patron of the said church, neither does he admit the clerk bearer of the holy water, which is disgraceful in such a lord, since even the poor villeins of the parish, and the miserable women likewise, cherishing their household-god, receive it gratefully and kindly; the duty of which said clerk was first of all devised for the common convenience of the parishioners, and thus far laudably approved, and, from time immemorial, has been generally observed.