Part 9
“Likewise that, since all the parishioners are bound by parochial law to contribute to the building of the parish church, and to acknowledge and sustain it, like as sons a mother, the same Sir Thomas, although a parishioner of the church of Multon, and a son of the same, among others greater and more powerful, has refused to contribute any part of his goods towards the building of the church, and refuses unlawfully, because by no special law is he free from this kind of duty, to the danger of his soul, &c. (as above).
“Likewise, since it belongs to the church of Multon and to its ministers to make citations through the parish, and corrections, for the most part enjoined by the mandate and authority of superiors, the said Sir Thomas, wishing to exempt his chapel aforesaid, and by reason of the said chapel the whole of his manor of Multon, does not permit any one of his family, by reason of any compact or contract, to be cited within the boundaries of the said manor, nor otherwise justified according to the form of the Church, but as well he as others of his family, under his authority and power, waywardly resist and intolerably rebel, lest they should be cited and corrected, as well for the cruel injuries oftentimes brought upon the ministers of the said church, as also for mortal threats, so that the ministers of the said church dare not approach the manor of Multon aforesaid for the purpose of making any citation or execution on the part of the church, neither can they do so without danger of death, or pain of body; on which account many sins committed by the said family are left unpunished, and ample opportunity for sinning is afforded by the said Thomas, whilst he cherishes and defends such persons in sin and error, contrary to the state of the Church, and the reverence of God and the Church, and likewise to the notorious detriment of his soul and of the souls of many others, and to the prejudice and injury of the church of Multon, and of the said prior and convent and of the vicar.
“But the said prior and convent and the vicar protest that, if the said Sir Thomas has, for himself, any special right, by reason of which he can duly claim such rights, or defend himself in the premises, and be in any way exempt from parochial right, that such right and judgment being shown in due form, or inasmuch as he shall show that he is lawfully protected by special privilege with regard to any article in the premises, they will be so far ready to yield to these oppositions, and to cease from their pursuit in this matter, and to dismiss him in peace commended to the Lord.”
The Prior of Spalding, powerful though he was, had formidable opponents in the Multon family, who not only had the Pope, who had given Sir Thomas licence for his chapel, on their side, but also the temporal power of the State. So great was the Multon influence, that the Prior was glad to come to terms with the “head tenant,” and a composition was signed by the parties in the Church of Weston, on Wednesday next before the Circumcision of our Lord in the year 1259.
“Composition between the Prior of Spalding and Sir Thomas de Multon, in a suit moved between them, regarding the minor tenths and an annual rent.
“Memorandum, that in the presence of Sir (dominus) John Prior of Spalding, on the one part, and Thomas de Multon, on the other part, in the Church of Weston, on Wednesday next before the Circumcision of our Lord, in the year MCCLIX., to treat of peace between the parties aforesaid, conceded and agreed upon by the will of both, in a suit moved in the Court of Christianity, regarding the minor tenths, namely, hunting in the park of Multon, herbage of the garden, cut wood, dovecots, butter, domestic geese, fisheries; and in a suit moved in the Court of our lord the King, regarding an annual rent of 60s., peace was renewed in the manner following, the mediators being Master Alexander, Rector of the Church of Swineshead, at that time Official of the Lord Archdeacon of Lincoln, Sir James de Bussi, parson of Skirbeck, Master William de Walpol, Sir John de Grethford, Vicar of Multon, Gilbert de Cheile, and others, namely, that the said Thomas shall pay the tenth of milk at the tenth day, or cheese, with all the collected cream (cum tota pinquedine coagulatim) at the will of the Lord Prior, and the right shoulder of venison (bestiæ suæ venationis). In like manner he shall pay the tenth of domestic fowl, and of his dovecot, fully and wholly without contradiction. But the Lord Prior has remitted to the said Thomas the tenths of the fish-ponds. Moreover the petition regarding the tenths of garden herbage and of cut wood shall cease between the aforesaid parties, until the tenths of this nature shall be generally paid. Moreover the said Thomas has agreed to the payment of the said annual rent of 60s. to the Lord Prior at the proper terms, and with his glove has invested the same in the hands of the said Prior, and has mortgaged the arrears of three years, namely nine pounds; nevertheless the said Lord Prior, at the instance of common friends, has remitted to the said Thomas the half of those nine pounds. And the said mediators are witnesses of this peace.
“Robert, Sub-prior of Spalding; John de Tid; John, monk of Spalding; Master Henry de Edinham, clerk; William de Cletham, clerk; officials, &c., and many others being present, seeing and hearing. In testimony whereof the seal of the office aforesaid is affixed.”
Cole gives an interesting composition between the Prior of Spalding and the vicar of Moulton regarding a pension; likewise regarding portion of the vicarage.
One cannot but think with the erection of All Saints’, Moulton, began the church-building rivalry between the two neighbouring monasteries of Croyland and Spalding, which lasted until the dissolution of the greater abbeys. Croyland had built the Norman portion of the present church of Whaplode. Then Spalding Priory, about 1175, began the present Church of Moulton, the nave of which would be considerably larger than the Norman nave of Whaplode, and though Moulton nave is built in the Transitional Period, in a great number of its details it resembles Whaplode; for you have at Whaplode four shafted compound piers, while at Moulton you have the four shafts arranged round a central column forming part of the solid masonry, still all engaged and forming a solid pier of coursed masonry; next you have a further development of the idea—four larger and four smaller shafts placed alternately, but still engaged, almost immediately followed by the disengaged shafts of the Lancet Period, as at St. Mary’s, Weston.
The pier bases are similar to those at Whaplode, though they show the slight advance art had made, but at Moulton you will find a circular bench round the base. The Croyland monks, when they saw the church at Moulton was finer than theirs at Whaplode, not to be outdone by the younger monastery, lengthened the nave of Whaplode; and though Spalding long afterwards added a bay to the nave at Moulton, that at Whaplode is still the longest and narrowest nave in the district.
The capitals of Transitional work at Moulton are interesting—the stiff engaged leaves are all inclined one way, and follow one another round the necks of the capitals.
Mr. Sharpe says—
“In the pier capitals of the eastern part of the nave of Whaplode and the nave of Moulton churches we see the early efforts of the artists of the period to produce relief and to disengage the flowers and the leaf from the surface to which it was attached. The strong resemblance of the ornamentation of the capitals in these two churches leaves no doubt that the Transitional portion of the nave at Whaplode and the nave at Moulton are contemporaneous work, the same artists having probably been employed on the carved work of the naves.”
At Moulton an arch at one time apparently sprung from the westernmost pair of pillars, across the nave, from the engaged pillar rising through the capital of the nave pillar. There is a strong buttress at the back of each of these pillars, which are continued to the clerestory, and can be seen from the outside. There probably was a tower or campanile standing between the two pillars, which was pulled down probably in the Rectilinear Period, when the present tower was erected—one bay further to the west. The northern clerestory, which is Transitional and earlier than that of the south side, may be compared with that of Whaplode. The south clerestory is Late Transitional. In the Rectilinear Period, in 1400, the windows of the clerestories were altered and the present roof was built.
The aisles, originally only 10 feet wide, were in about 1310 widened to 17 feet, the south aisle being first done. Some of the original Transitional buttresses were re-used (the eastern and smaller ones), as was also the fine south Transitional doorway. The north aisle was done about 1320-25, and the original Transitional doorway was re-used. When the tower and spire were built about 1380, the aisles were lengthened, like the nave. Sharpe writes on the tower and spire: “Their relative proportions may be pronounced faultless.... The tower and spire may be taken as the most perfect realisation of the Rectilinear form of this noble addition to the English parish church to be found anywhere.”
The walls of the tower appear to have settled as the work progressed, but the architects of those days were equal to the emergency, and so rectified the work as the building progressed, and so well was it done that the tower has kept its perpendicular for five centuries. The spire is 6 feet 8 inches at base, and the stone 6 inches thick.
The chancel was rebuilt late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century, but the chancel arch is post-Reformation work. The east window and the organ chamber are new. The sedilia were reset in the fourteenth century. In the north wall is a mutilated sepulchre or founder’s tomb; also there is a blocked-up vestry door of the same period. The vestry and room over it have long since disappeared. The rood-screen, which has been recently very well restored, is of the same date as the chancel, and is by far the best specimen of a rood-screen in the district.
The church was restored in 1867-8, when (_inter alia_) the organ was removed from the gallery at the west end and placed in the new organ chamber. There were also placed in the church a new font, pulpit, reading desk, and seating, mullions placed in the aisles’ windows, roofs repaired, gallery at west end of nave removed, and new windows in the chancel. There were formerly several chapels with altars in the church, the last vestiges of which were removed at the restoration in 1867-8.
Members of the Multon, Welby, Wigtoft, and Kyme families rest in the church, as well as the body of John Horrox, the founder of the Moulton Grammar Schools. Unfortunately at the restoration the sepulchral slabs were removed to “fit in better,” and at the present time are not over the bodies of those whose memory they perpetuate.
ST. MARY’S, WHAPLODE
This church is not only the oldest in the district, but, in spite of the lamentable condition to which it has been reduced by the ill-usage and neglect in bygone days, it is one of the most instructive and interesting to the architectural student in South Lincolnshire.
“The Parish of Whaplode, prior to the Conquest, was under the jurisdiction of the convent of Croyland, the abbot of which, from the earliest times, was lord of the principal manor. It was proved at a trial before the Bishop of Lincoln in 1447, the abbot “held the principal demesne rights in Whaplode, and had there besides the fee of the church markets, fairs, wastes and warren, right of pillory, as also the assize of bread and beer,” though it is recorded that the abbot’s rights were disputed, and that Ralph Mershe (abbot from 1253-1281), at great expense, and after long suits at law, gained the manor of Gedney and the _church_ at Whaplode. This seems strange, as every record from the earliest times connects the abbot of Croyland with the patronage of Whaplode Church, and that the convent used to supply chaplains to do duty. In addition to the Croyland records, there are the public records, for we find that the abbot, in Henry III.’s reign, in 1245, had a grant of a weekly market on Saturday, and a fair on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and six days afterwards, and that this grant was confirmed by Edward I.; besides which we have the ecclesiastical documents in the Bishop’s Register at Lincoln, showing that the abbot presented to the church in 1239, 1246, 1250, 1251. The abbot won the day, and Croyland abbots held the presentation to the living until the Dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII.”
The monks of Croyland were the builders of Whaplode’s two churches, though doubtless largely aided by the laity, as we have seen was the case at Moulton. Unfortunately the records of Croyland do not give the same amount of information in reference to the building of their churches as do those of Spalding Priory in reference to theirs.
There is no trace of the building of any earlier church at Whaplode than the present one, and we are unaware of any remains of earlier work being found when the church was restored, about the middle of last century.
The earliest part of the present church is the chancel arch and the four eastmost compartments of the nave, which were built about 1125, in the Norman style of architecture. It is greatly to the credit of King William I. and the invaders and their descendants, that no sooner had they got this island into a settled state than they began building cathedrals, monasteries, and parish churches all over the kingdom. Croyland was the first to inaugurate the church-building move in this district, and if they had completed the church as evidently originally designed by the Norman architect, it would have been a very fine specimen of the period.
Before the work was resumed at Whaplode, in the Transitional Period, the masons had been busy at work on the present churches of Moulton and Sutton St. Mary. The monks of Croyland, about forty or fifty years after they had built the Norman portion of the nave, erected the westernmost portion in the Transitional style (1145-1190), and which made the nave 110 feet long and 19 feet wide, the longest and narrowest nave in the Elloc division of Lincolnshire.
The Norman chancel arch is only 13 feet wide and very low, which gives the east end of the nave a very heavy appearance.
The smallness of the Norman arch seems to have claimed the attention of the architects at a very early date. They cut away the large semicircular shafts which carried the soffit of the arch and worked in a Transitional corbel to make the opening wider.
One cannot but think that the Norman columns of the nave were intended to carry a far heavier structure than was ever placed on them, and that the architects altered their plans even before the arches had been erected. The clerestory is partly Norman, and the rest, with the west front, Transitional.
The west front has been terribly mutilated, but happily sufficient remains to guide the architect to its perfect restoration; fortunately it has not been so badly ill-treated as the chancel, which is a standing disgrace, and is as bad a form of Churchwarden’s style as can well be conceived. There is even here, however, enough of the original work left to guide the architect in its restoration, if only funds were forthcoming from the rectors, who are trustees of a public school.
One regrets it is not possible in an article of this nature to enter into the details of the Norman-Transitional work at Whaplode, or compare it with the work of the same period in the churches at Sutton St. Mary and Moulton. To the student a visit to the three churches is very instructive.
As at Moulton Church, where the tower with its spire wins the admiration of all visitors, so does the tower of Whaplode. It is curiously placed, and with what object one is at a loss to understand.
Mr. Sharpe, writing on the tower, states—
“The very striking south-west tower, standing in an unusual position on the south side of the eastmost compartment of the south aisle, must have been commenced immediately after the completion of the nave. In its four stages in height, of which the three lowest belong to the original design, though carried out in a manner which leads us to conclude that the first stage, which carries a zigzag in its pointed arcade, was the only one completed before the close of the Transitional Period, the arcades of the two upper stages exhibiting an almost pure Lancet treatment in their details.
“The fourth stage, with its embattled parapet, added in the Curvilinear Period, gives an appropriate finish to this elegant design.”
Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of Lincoln, gave the following charter to Croyland in the year 1268:—
“To all faithful Christians by whom this writing may be read, Richard, by Divine permission Bishop of Lincoln, sendeth health in the Lord. We will that you should by this present writing know; that, whereas our beloved children in Christ, the religious persons, the Abbot and Convent of Croyland, have long since obtained the grateful consent and assent of our predecessor, the blessed Hugh, of famous and revered memory, as also of his Holiness Honorius, some time chief bishop of the Roman Church, likewise confirming the same of the church of Whaplode, whereof they were and are the patrons, to have it to their own proper use in manner as in this instrument is more fully contained.
“We, at their devout and frequent petitions that we would favourably, more graciously in the premises, grant them our assent and consent to the permission and favour done them by our said predecessor, the consideration of their order inducing thereto, having due regard to the special devotion of the said religious persons, and their sincere love in the Lord towards our venerable church at Lincoln, and the Bishop thereof, being more readily inclined to grant their petitions and requests, as therefore in the monastery of Croyland the weightiness of religion and observance of their order for the sake of sanctity and principally in favour of hospitality, which are known to flourish in that monastery, and which do and ought to render it esteemed by all men, remembering that favour should not be denied to such requesting it, of the assent and grateful consent concerning of our beloved children in Christ of William Lessington, in respect of Divine Piety, and especially for enlarging the duty of Divine worship therein, have given, granted, and by this our present Charter have confirmed, to the monastery of Croyland, and to the monks there together serving God, the church of Quaplode (Whaplode), in which they obtain the right of patronage, to be possessed to and for their own proper uses for ever, the rent and profits of which church they may indeed convert to their use, and without any impediment; for the future have power lawfully so to convert the same, a competent portion thereof being still reserved for the vicar perpetually serving the same church, wherein we likewise ordain and establish the Vicarage out of the profits of the said church for the support of him and his ministers, and the charges thereof as we have thought fit by our episcopal authority, thus to distinguish the portions of the said abbot and convent and the vicar before mentioned by them to us and our successors to be presented whenever the said vicarage shall happen to be vacant, that they, the said abbot and convent, may have the whole tithe of sheaves of the said church of Whaplode, with all demesne lands, and its rights and appendants to the said church any way belonging, and all the tithe of flax and hemp purely and absolutely. Moreover, that they may have and quietly take or receive the whole tithe of wool and lambs arising from the whole parish (to wit) as consisting in fleeces of wool and bodies of lambs, but that the vicar for the time being successively to us and our successor to be presented by the said abbot and convent to the vicarage aforesaid shall, by reason thereof, by this our ordinances for ever hereafter take and have the whole altarage absolutely and indisputably, in whatever name conceived, and in whatsoever it doth and may consist. The tithes of sheaves, flax, hemp, wool, and lambs, and also the whole demesne land with its rights and appendants, as is before said (only excepted), the said vicar shall have and take the whole tithe of hay of the whole parish entirely and without any diminution, and without impediments of the said abbot and convent. He shall, moreover, have the redemption of wool and of lambs wheresoever in the parish from the number of five and so counting downwards, to wit where according to the custom of the place to the tenth of the fleeces and of the lambs it cannot by any means amount to every kind of tithe as well as of wool as of lambs beyond the number of five, arising by counting upwards to the aforesaid custom, remaining wholly in the power of the before-named abbot and convent, as is before mentioned.
“Whereupon we strictly forbid any deceit or fraud to be by any one done under pain of the greater sentence; but we ordain that the before-named abbot and convent do provide for the Vicars for the place and time successively to be instituted a competent mansion in a convenient place at first by them the said abbot and convent, to be erected and competently built for the first Vicar who shall be instituted next after the cession or decease of Simon, now Vicar of the church of Whaplode, thenceforward to be repaired or new built on the same spot as by accidental cause, necessity, or age requiring it ought to be.
“We moreover ordain that the first and every Vicar by the bishop to be instituted after the cession or decease of the said Simon for the time being do sustain and allow ordinary episcopal and archidiaconal charges due and accustomed, and that they take care of and keep in repair and find books, vestments, and other necessary ecclesiastical ornaments, and repair the chancel of the church when it wants repairs at their costs, and also provide and sustain all ministers necessary for serving the vicarage before treated.
“Now we will and ordain that this our ordinance have force for ever in all and singular the above said articles, saving in all things the episcopal customs and dignity of the church of Lincoln, that therefore full credit may be given to this our present ordinance, and that a perpetual security may be provided for the said abbot and convent and the vicars for the time to come. We have caused this instrument to be corroborated with the sanction of our seal. Done in the month of January in the year of our Lord Christ’s incarnation 1268, and the eleventh year of our consecration.”