Visiting two former Methodist chapels in Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger in Northamptonshire

The former Methodist Chapel on Chapel Lane in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, close to the Canal Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my walks through the villages of Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger and through the Northamptonshire countryside last week and the week before, I also visited the former Wesleyan Methodist in both Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger.

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Shutlanger in 1844 and a chapel was built in Stoke Bruerne two years later in 1846. Both chapels were registered in 1854.

The chapel in Shutlanger had seating for 130 people in 1873, but the chapel in Stoke Bruerne could only accommodate 80 people.

The smaller chapel in Stoke Bruerne was replaced in 1879 by a new chapel, built at a cost of £250 on land given by George Savage, whose nearby brickyard supplied the bricks. It was built by local labour, mainly by men who worked on the land during the daytime.

The foundation stone for the chapel in Chapel Lane was laid on 13 August 1879, and it opened for worship on New Year's Day 1880. The new chapel in Stoke Bruerne which could hold 150 people. The façade displays the date 1879 carved in stone, although any other words that might have been around it have been obscured. The earlier chapel, built in 1846, was later used as a schoolroom.

The trustees of the Stoke Bruerne chapel in 1922 were drawn from Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger, and from neighbouring communities, including Blakesley, Greens Norton, Bradden, Hartwell, Silverstone, Alderton, Caldecote and Towcester.

Major repairs were carried out on the chapel and the schoolrooms in 1947-1952, including the installation of electricity. However, it was agreed in 1961 to sell the schoolroom and use the proceeds to improve the chapel.

The Methodist Chapel in Stoke Bruerne opened for worship in 1880 and closed in 1975 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The closure of the chapel in Stoke Bruerne and the transfer of members to Roade or Shutlanger was first suggested by the circuit quarterly meeting in May 1974. This was opposed by people who wished to keep a free church presence in what was an expanding village. But the decision to sell the building was carried by a majority of one, with two abstentions, at a meeting of seven trustees in November 1974.

The chapel closed as a place of worship in 1975 and was sold for £4,550 early in 1976. By then, the remaining members had moved to Shutlanger.

The former chapel was converted to a Farm Museum, displaying old farm equipment and live demonstrations of its uses. The Farm Museum was closed in 1993 and was converted into tea rooms and a café, expanding later into the fully licensed restaurant.

It is now called ‘The Old Chapel’ and offers boutique bed and breakfast accommodation. The property has been restored by the owners Elaine and Nadia Pieris and offers three individual suites. It boasts a garden and is next to the Canal Museum, and the Grand Union Canal provides a backdrop for exploring the local countryside and the local pubs and restaurants.

‘The Old Chapel’ in Stoke Bruerne offers boutique bed and breakfast accommodation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The chapel in Shutlanger was enlarged in 1889, with seating for 160 people.

The trustees of the Shutlanger chapel in 1917 included trustees were from Shutlanger and Stoke Bruerne, as well trustees from Ashton, Roade, Silverstone, Towcester, Wood Burcote and Greens Norton.

The congregation moved for a time in 1922 to the school-chapel belonging to the Church of England while the chapel was closed for major repairs, costing nearly £100.

Further work on the chapel ceiling began in 1933 and was completed five years later. By 1938, all the trustees were from Shutlanger and none from neighbouring communities.

The roof continued to cause problems and in 1948 the congregation agreed to take down the 1889 extension, then used as a schoolroom, and to restore the chapel to its original size and shape. The interior was redecorated and electricity was installed. During these works, the congregation once again worshipped in the Anglican church room. The chapel reopened in June 1949, with seating for 100 people.

The chapel in Shutlanger continued in use over the following 30 years. It was joined by members of the former Stoke Bruerne chapel when it closed in 1975. A decade later, however, Shutlanger also closed. The carved communion table was presented to the Methodist Church in Roade.

The former Methodist chapel in Shutlanger was later used as a book repository, and is now a private house.

The former Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Shutlanger (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 121, Sunday 8 September 2024, Trinity XV

‘If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food … (James 2: 15) … ‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 8 September 2024). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship also makes provision ‘for pastoral reasons’ for celebrating the Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 September.

Later this morning, I am reading one of the lessons at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘But you have dishonoured the poor’ (James 2: 6) … a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz on the steps of Santo Spirito Hospital near the Vatican in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 24-37 (NRSVA):

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28 But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29 Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.’ 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’ (Mark 7: 28) … part of Rowan Gillespie’s ‘Famine’ memorial on Custom House Quay, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today is the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading in Orthodox churches today is Luke 1: 39-49, 56, which includes the words of the canticle Magnificat:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed

In the traditional icon, Saint Anna and Saint Joachim are depicted embracing to indicate the joy of all humanity at this blessed event. The icon and the feast acknowledge a transition from barrenness to life. This foreshadows what is offered through Christ – the transformation from death to eternal life.

The icon and this feast prefigure the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. But there is a stark contrast between her Nativity and his Nativity: he will be born in a cold and hostile setting, while she is born in a safe and comfortable place. Saint Andrew of Crete writes: ‘This day is for us the beginning of all holy days. It is the door to kindness and truth.’

At the Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Startford, this morning, the Gospel reading (Mark 7: 24-37) includes two healing stories: the story of the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre who demands healing for her daughter; and the deaf man who is healed in Sidon.

The story of the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre and her daughter is one of my favourite stories in the Gospels, alongside those of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42) and the Resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene (see Mark 16: 9 and John 20).

I have reflected often on the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and I have compared their story with the women in one of the great Greek tragedies, The Phoenician Woman by Euripides.

The version of this episode in Saint Matthew’s was the weekday Lectionary Gospel reading for Holy Communion once again just a month ago (7 August 2024).

However, this morning I have been asked to read the Epistle reading (James 2: 1-10 [11-13] 14-17) at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. It has such a powerful and compelling message that I feel it needs no comment or explication:

James 2: 1-10 [11-13] 14-17:

1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [11 For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.]

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

‘So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead’ (James 2: 17) … water at a well at Myli restaurant in Platanias, near Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 8 September 2024, Trinity XV):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘What does the holy cross mean to you?’ This theme is introduced today with a reflection by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG:

Each year, on 14 September, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Cross. Known as ‘Holy Cross Day’ throughout the majority of the Anglican Communion, this major feast of the Church reminds us to boast in nothing ‘except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Galatians 6: 14).

The cross holds very significant importance for all Christians. It is upon the cross that Jesus was crucified and sacrificed himself for us and as such it is an important symbol – we regularly make the sign of the cross, and many of us bow to the cross in our liturgy.

When you reflect or look at the cross what is it that you think about? I always think about how powerful it is that Jesus died for me, to take away all my sin, and my pain, and in him I am made anew. He made the ultimate sacrifice for me, for you, for all of mankind. God has taken what could be a terrible symbol of death and made it a symbol of love and hope.

Whatever you think about when you look at the cross, it serves as a reminder of the kind of live we are to live as Christians. Christ commands each of his disciples to ‘take up his cross and follow [him]’ (Matthew 16: 24), freeing us to participate in God’s mission in the world, doing the good works he has prepared for us (Ephesians 2: 10).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 8 September 2024, Trinity XV) invites us to pray in the words of an Arabic hymn:

Oh, God of peace and safety
Pour your peace on us
Oh, God of peace,
Grant peace in our heart.

The Collect:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Syro-Phoenician Woman … this morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 7: 24-37 (Icon: Brother Robert Lentz, OFM)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A traditional Greek icon of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary … celebrated in the Church Calendar on 8 September

Saint John the Baptist Church in Blisworth and the absentee rector who fled his debtors to Paris

The Church of Saint John the Baptist in Blisworth was built in the late 13th century but dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my stroll through the Northamptonshire countryside earlier this week, I visited a number of pretty villages and small towns, including Blisworth, Shutlanger, Stoke Bruerne and Roade.

My journey began by taking the bus from Northampton to Blisworth, a picturesque village on the Grand Union Canal, about half-way between Northampton (8 km, 5 miles) and Stony Stratford (11 km, 7 miles).

Blisworth is known for the Blisworth Tunnel, one of the longest tunnels on the English canal system, for the annual Canal Festival every August, and for the Blisworth Arch, a railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson in 1837-1838 for the London and Birmingham Railway.

Blisworth has many traditional local stone cottages, often thatched and some dating back to the 18th or even the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Blisworth has a population of 1,800 to 2,000 people, with a few small businesses. There are many traditional local stone cottages, often thatched and some dating back to the 18th or even the 17th century.

The Walnut Tree Inn was once the Blisworth Station Hotel. The Royal Oak is the village pub; a second pub, the Sun, Moon and Stars, closed over 50 years ago, and a third pub, the Grafton Arms, is now a private house. The only shop is a small supermarket, post office and newsagent.

Iron ore and limestone were quarried at Blisworth in the 19th and 20th centuries. The iron ore was sent by canal or railway to ironworks in Staffordshire. The limestone quarry near Rectory Farm is now a nature reserve.

Inside the Church of Saint John the Baptist, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The main building of note in Blisworth is, of course, the parish church, the Church of Saint John the Baptist. It was built in the late 13th century but dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, although there may have been an earlier church on the site.

The 13th century church consisted of the chancel, with the nave extending to only three bays, with both north and south aisles. Between 1320 and 1340, the nave was extended to the present length of 61 ft 6 in. The north aisle was also extended, but the three bays of the south side remained as original.

Both the north and south doorways date from the 13th century with characteristic edge rolls. The tower followed later in the 14th century. The chapel at the east end of the south aisle dates from the 14th century, and now contains the table tomb of Roger Wake and his wife Elisabeth Catesby.

There may have been a mediaeval stone sedilia in the south wall of the chancel, but this has not survived.

The chancel, high altar and east window in the Church of Saint John the Baptist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The five-light East Window with unusual tracery may have been added in the 14th century when the east and north walls of the chancel were rebuilt or refaced. Three large windows were inserted in the chancel in the 15th century, but two of the small original 13th century windows in the south side were left untouched.

There are two large windows In the north wall of the chancel, one with some panels of mediaeval stained glass that have survived since the Reformation.

The first stained-glass window in the chancel dates from 1872, and is a memorial to the late squire and his wife, George and Mary Stone. The East Window contains a memorial to Revd William Barry and his wife Frances and may date from 1885.

The large window on the south wall is a memorial stained glass in memory of a son of the rector, who died at the age of nine.

The blocked north doorway in the chancel is known as the ‘priest’s doorway’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A blocked north doorway in the chancel is often referred to as the ‘priest’s doorway.’ It is not known when this was blocked. This door was only used it by the rector and members of his family, who has a private pew in the chancel. The ‘priest’s doorway’ was blocked up when the organ was installed in 1889, and the choir was moved into the chancel.

There are blocked low side windows on both north and south sides of the chancel. These so-called ‘Low Side Windows’ are a common feature of local parish churches but are now mostly blocked up.

A wooden rood screen was built in the 15th century, but all that remains of the rood loft is a rood loft stairway on the north side of the chancel arch.

All that remains of the rood loft is a rood loft stairway on the north side of the chancel arch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church also has two squints. The north squint was obscured by the 1888 organ until it was moved in the 1970s. A carved wooden architectural boss was found in the 1970s hidden in the south squint when it was opened up. Both squints are angled so that a priest in each side aisle might see all that was happening at the altar.

The tower was added at the end of the 14th century and terminates in a battlemented parapet without pinnacles. The earliest mention of bells is in 1552.

The present porch was built in 1607.

Among the tombs and monuments in the church is the tomb of Margaret Blackey, wife of Lyonel Blackey, sergeant at arms to Elizabeth I and James I. It reads: ‘She lived a maid eighteen yeares, a wife twenty, and widow sixty-one and dyed the 20th January 1683 in the 99th yeare of her age.’

The table tomb of Roger Wake and his wife Elisabeth Catesby at the east end of the south aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Major changes took place in the 19th century, when the church was restored in 1856 by the Northampton architect Edmund Francis Law. He arranged the pews, replaced the roof and covered the floor with encaustic tiles.

The Elmhirst family of Blisworth House gave the carved reredos and the raised oak floor in 1910. The Victorian altar or communion table was then encased within an oak super-structure made to carry new needlework. The 1855 Communion Table was later moved from the case to the south door.

The south aisle was rebuilt in 1926.

The oldest pieces of church plate in Blisworth include a silver Communion Cup made ca 1570, and a paten made about 1636.

Inside the Church of Saint John the Baptist, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The most notorious and mysterious person associated with the parish is the notorious Revd John Ambrose (1768-1839). He was the Rector of Blisworth for over 40 years from 1797 to 1839, but was often absent during that time. It was said of him that he ‘disgraced a profession which he ought to have adorned, for he was clever and had a remarkably fine delivery … He passed as the natural son of an Irish peer, whose loose morals had descended to him.’

The student records at Oxford say John Ambrose was born in 1768, the son of John Ambrose of London. But later he claimed he was the illegitimate son of an Irish peer, John Blaquiere (1732-1812), 1st Baron de Blaquiere, and the singer and actress Caroline Ambrosse or Ambrose.

Another illegitimate child of John Blaquiere and Caroline Ambrosse was Henrietta Ambrose Whatley (1766-1852), who was born in Killarney, Co Kerry and was the great-grandmother of the composer Gustav Holst. Could John Ambrose have been born in Killarney too two years later?

Blaquiere was a senior diplomat at the British Embassy in Paris when he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland (1772-1776). He was an MP in the Irish House of Commons for Old Leighlin (1773-1783), Enniskillen (1783), Carlingford (1783-1790), Charleville (1790-1798) and Newtownards (1798-1801). He was made a baronet in 1784, and was given an Irish peerage as Baron de Blaquiere in 1800 for his support for the Act of Union. Later he was MP for Rye (1801-1802) and Downton (1802-1806). He died in Bray, Co Wicklow, in 1812.

Meanwhile, John Ambrose entered University College, Oxford, in 1784, aged 16, and received the degree BA in January 1791 and MA in June 1791, when his name was spelled Ambrosse. In the intervening years, he married Mary Mahon a soprano of Irish parentage, at Saint James’s Church, Piccadilly, on 3 April 1787, and they were the parents of at least five children.

But questions have been asked about why it took Ambrose seven years to complete his first degree, and whether he spent time in revolutionary France during this time.

The stained glass window on the north side of the chancel includes an image of Saint John the Baptist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John Ambrose was ordained deacon by the Bishop John Douglas of Salisbury on 25 September 1791 and priest by Bishop Beilby Porteus of London at Saint James’s Chapel Royal on 22 April 1792. He was a curate in Swindon, Wiltshire (1791-1797), until was presented to the Parish of Blisworth on 19 April 1797 by the patron, George Finch Hatton, whose family owned the Hatton Garden Estate in London and held the title of Earl of Winchelsea.

The Irish-born actor and dramatist Charles Macklin (1699-1797) often acted often on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. When he died on 11 July 1797, he left £50 to Ambrose as a former pupil to preach at his funeral.

Ambrose was known for his interests in hunting and boxing. His last signature in the Blisworth parish registers was for a baptism in 1807. Soon after he fled his creditors, and was said to have ‘died abroad in obscurity and want’, perhaps in Paris. In fact, he spent some time in the debtors’ prisons, firstly in Horsham from 1813 and then in the Fleet Prison in London. By 1825, he had fled to Nantes and he was still there in 1833.

Ambrose was 66 when he married again. His second wife was the much younger Juliana Catherine Colyear and they were married in the British Embassy in Paris on 15 July 1834. She was said to be an illegitimate daughter of Thomas Charles Colyear (1772-1835), 4th Earl of Portmore. They were the parents of at least four more children, including two daughters, Emma and Juliana, who were born in France.

However, Ambrose remained Rector of Blisworth throughout all those years and he returned to Blisworth in 1836 two years after his second marriage to baptise his daughters. He remained in the parish until he died at Blisworth Rectory on 6 June 1839, aged 71, and he was buried in the churchyard.

A memorial tablet in Blisworth church recalls Joseph Ambrose Lawson (1806-1864), who was born in Waterford. Why is this tablet in Blisworth church? Could there be a connection with John Ambrose, perhaps through the Irish peer he claimed was his father?

The Revd William Barry built a new rectory west of the church in 1841 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Ambrose was followed in Blisworth by the Revd William Barry. He seems to have been unhappy with the old Rectory and in 1841 he built a new rectory west of the church with stables and a coach house. During Barry’s 45 years as Rector, he oversaw many alterations and made many gifts to the church, including three pieces of plate and silver.

The four steps and socket stone of a churchyard cross are on the north side of the church, by the path leading to the porch.

To the north of the cross, on the other side of the High Street, is the site of the supposed Manor. The farm there was called ‘The Manor’ in the 18th century, but the seat of the Manor, where the Wake family lived, seems to have been the site of Blisworth House, to the south-east of the church.

The five-light East Window has unusual tracery and depicts the Resurrection (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

• Canon Richard Stainer has been the Rector of Blisworth, Alderton, Grafton Regis, Milton Malsor and Stoke Bruerne with Shutlanger (the Grand Union Benefice) in the Diocese of Peterborough since 2019. The Family Eucharist (Common Worship) is celebrated at 11 am on the First, Second and Fourth Sundays.

The Royal Oak is the village pub in Bilsworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 120, Saturday 7 September 2024

‘While Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain’ (Luke 6: 1, NRSVA) … cornfields near Lismore, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 8 September 2024).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The 12 loaves of shewbread or Bread of the Presence depicted in a fresco in the 17th century Kupa Synagogue in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 1-5 (NRSVA):

6 One sabbath while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?’ 5 Then he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

‘While Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain’ (Luke 6: 1, NRSVA) … cornfields near Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, with the tower of Saint Mary’s Church in the background (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

There are two minor details that continue to puzzle me about this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 1-5).

On this Saturday morning, I am slightly puzzled about the timing or the day when this event takes place. The NRSV and NIV translations refer to ‘one sabbath’, although footnotes explain that other ancient authorities read ‘on the second first sabbath.’ The KJV and similar translations refer to ‘the second sabbath after the first’.

But the KJV is based on the Textus Receptus, and the phrase in question, ἐν σαββάτῳ δευτεροπρώτῳ (en sabbáto deuteropróto) only exists in the Textus Receptus, a later text, and not in the earlier manuscripts or the critical versions. The phrase is omitted by many manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus.

In any case, what day did this event occur on?

When was ‘the second first sabbath’ or ‘the second sabbath after the first’?

Is the second sabbath after the first not the third sabbath?

Because the Greek word δευτερόπρωτος (deuteróprotos) is limited to Luke 6: 1, it is not found in all the manuscripts – or in other, contemporary Greek texts – and it is difficult to define and impossible to agree on.

One suggestion is that it refers to the Sabbath following the first day of Passover or Pascha, the Festival of Unleavened Bread festival. Some of the other efforts to provide explanations include:

• the first Sabbath in the second year of a seven-year cycle comprising the period from one Sabbatical year to the other;
• the first Sabbath after the second day of Passover;
• the second Sabbath after the Passover has taken place;
• the first of the seven Sabbaths the people were to ‘count unto’ themselves from ‘the morrow after the sabbath’ until Pentecost (see Leviticus 23: 15);
• the first Sabbath in the Jewish religious calendar of the time – about the middle of March;
• the Sabbath during Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks;
• the first Sabbath in the civil year – about the middle of September;
• the Sabbath for the presentation of the second offering of the first fruits;
• or, simply, some ‘technical expression of the Jewish calendar’ – without asking or explaining what that may be.

Indeed, the term deuteroprotos is an awkward, clunky combination of the words δεύτερος (deuteros, ‘second’) and πρω̑τος (protos, ‘first’). Its use may point to unskilful work and textual emendation on the part of copyists. If so, then it is not necessary to try unravel this conundrum.

The phrase has confounded scholars from as early as the fourth century CE, when Jerome, in a letter to Nepotianus, confesses that he consulted Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, and was unable to determine what the phrase meant:

‘My teacher, Gregory of Nazianzus, when I once asked him to explain Luke’s phrase σάββατον δευτερόπρωτον, that is ‘the second-first Sabbath,’ playfully evaded my request saying: ‘I will tell you about it in church, and there, when all the people applaud me, you will be forced against your will to know what you do not know at all. For, if you alone remain silent, everyone will put you down for a fool’ (Jerome, Letter LII, 2).

I suppose I may simply accept it is not essential that we know the precise meaning of this calendar term. It is more important to get to heart of what this story is about.

The second minor detail that continue to puzzle me about this morning’s Gospel reading is why Luke’s account does not include a peculiar detail in Saint Mark’s version of this event (Mark 2: 23-30).

In Saint Mark’s account, Jesus and his disciples are criticised for ‘harvesting grain’ on the Sabbath. They are simply plucking some heads of grain to munch on as they walk through a grainfield (verse 23). When the disciples are challenged about what they are doing on the Sabbath, Jesus cites an event in I Samuel 21: 1-6, and refers to a time when ‘Abiathar was high priest’.

In that event, David and his men ate the 12 loaves of shewbread from the tabernacle in Nob. David approaches Ahimelech the priest in Nob and asks for food for his men They were on the run from King Saul, but David keeps that fact from Ahimelech. Ahimelech gives David some of the ‘bread of the Presence’ (verse 6) and then, at David’s request, gives him Goliath’s sword, which was being kept in Nob (verses 8-9).

Later, when Saul summons the priests to Gibeah to question them, Ahimelech is the priests’ spokesman (I Samuel 22: 6-14). The passage implies that Ahimelech is the chief priest during the time David fled from Saul. Abiathar fled to join David and served as his priest all through David’s years of wandering and exile. He was appointed high priest after David became king, and he shared the high priesthood with Zadok, Saul’s appointee, until David’s death.

Neither Matthew (Matthew 12: 1-8) nor Luke mention Abiathar. Did Matthew and Luke eliminate the reference to Abiathar, realising there was an error in the original source?

To explain why in Saint Mark’s account Jesus refers Abiathar as the high, several theories are put forward, although each one is equally tortuous and difficult. They include:

• Since Abiathar was the son of Ahimelech, it is possible that both men took part in high priestly duties.
• Abiathar was more closely associated with David than Ahimelech and was a long-time high priest during David’s reign.
• Abiathar, being present in Nob when David visited the tabernacle, is called the ‘high priest’ in anticipation of his future title.

Each explanation is eager to avoid accepting a literal reading of the conflicting or irreconcilable texts. To accept that there is a conflict between the passages means accepting that I Samuel are wrong, that Mark’s text is wrong, or that Jesus has made an historical error.

In addition, this event took place not in ‘the house of God’ (verse 4), for the Temple in Jerusalem had not yet been built, but in ‘the Tent of Meeting’.

It is interesting that the people who are most likely to refuse a literal exegesis of one or both passages are those most likely, in a very contradictory way to demand a very literal exegesis of their own concoction when it comes to their interpretation of passages on, for example, on sexuality. Is it any coincidence that these self-styled ‘conservative evangelicals’ are also those most likely to reject a literal exegesis of the Eucharistic passages in the New Testament.

Both Jesus and the Pharisees regard the decision to provide the show bread as righteous by both Jesus and the Pharisees.

The important points in this morning’s reading are not in the debate over the day on which the events took place, nor are they to be found in debating who knew who was once the high priest and when.

The important points in this morning’s reading are that the Sabbath is most sacred when it is about God and about people rather than about the minutiae of interpreting rules and regulations. And one of the most important emphases in Jesus’ ministry is to meet feed the hungry, the physically hungry with bread, and the spiritually hungry with him as the true Bread of Presence, the Bread of Life.

‘While Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain’ (Luke 6: 1, NRSV) … walking through the fields in Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 September 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘To Hope and Act with Creation.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with a reflection on Creationtide.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 7 September 2024) invites us to pray, reflecting on these words:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Romans 8: 19).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XV:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘While Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain’ (Luke 6: 1, NRSV) … walking through the fields along Cross in Hand Lane near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘While Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain’ (Luke 6: 1, NRSV) … following a public footpath through the fields in Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Abendana brothers and the early years of Jewish studies in both Cambridge and Oxford

The site of Creechurch Lane Synagogue, the first synagogue in England since the expulsion of Jews in 1290 … Jacob Abendana was the haham or rabbi in 1680-1695 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Isaac Abendana (ca 1640-1699) has been described as ‘the first notable Jew of the modern period.’ He and his older brother Jacob Abendana (1630-1695) served successively as the haham or rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London at the end of the 17th century.

Both brothers were early pioneers in the dialogue between Jewish and Christian theologians in the 17th century in England and across Europe. They were also influential figures in Jewish and Hebrew studies in both Cambridge and Oxford, and for 37 years Isaac Abendana had a virtual monopoly on Hebrew studies at the two universities.

Their stories are part of the early story of the Sephardic communities in Amsterdam and London, including the beginnings of Bevis Marks Synagogue. But they also provide direct links to the sufferings of secret Jews or Maranos in Spain in the immediate aftermath of the Inquisition.

Abendana or Abendanan (Ibn Danan, ן׳דנא, אבן – דנא) is a Sephardi Jewish surname of Arabic origin associated with a number of Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardic Jewish families in Amsterdam and London. The first person to assume the name was Francisco Nuñez Pereira or Francisco Nunes Homem, the descendant of a ‘Marano’ who had been forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity.

He was born in Funchal, Madeira, and later fled Spain and the Spanish Inquisition at the beginning of the 17th century. He settled in Amsterdam, where he married his cousin Justa Pereira (1588- ) in 1605. He returned to Judaism in Amsterdam, took the name David Abendana, and became one of the founders of the first synagogue in Amsterdam. He died on 14 February 1625.

His eldest son, Manuel Abendana, was the ḥaham or rabbi of the Amsterdam congregation and died on 15 June 1667.

The brothers Jacob and Isaac Abendana were the sons of Joseph Abendana. Although their family originally lived in Hamburg, Jacob was born in Spain or Morocco and Isaac was born in Spain. They were still young when the family moved to Hamburg and then to Amsterdam.

Jacob studied at the rabbinical academy in Rotterdam and was appointed haham or rabbi of Rotterdam in 1655. On 3 May 1655 he delivered a memorial sermon on a Marrano named Nunez and Abraham Nuñez Bernal who was burned alive in Córdoba by the Spanish Inquisition the previous year. The Irish-born scientist John Desmond Bernal believed Abraham Nuñez Bernal was his ancestor.

The women’s balcony above the entrance to the synagogue in Córdoba (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The brothers Jacob and Isaac and Abendana worked together in producing Hebrew books for the Christian market and got to know some of the eminent Christian Hebraists of the day.

They published a Bible commentary by Solomon ben Melekh in Amsterdam in 1660. This includes Jacob’s own commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Book of Joshua, and part of the Book of Judges. A second edition was published in 1685.

Jacob Abendana went to Leiden seeking subscribers for his books. There he met the German Calvinist theologian Antonius Hulsius (1615-1685) and helped in his studies. Hulsius tried to convert Abendana to Christianity, initiating a lifelong correspondence that Hulsius later published. The Abendana brothers also engaged with other Christian scholars, including Johannes Buxtorf of Basel, Johann Coccejus of Leyden, and Jacob Golius of Leyden.

Bevis Marks Synagogue in London … the successor of the Creechurch Lane synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Jacob Abendana spoke at the dedication of the new synagogue in Amsterdam in 1675. Five years later, in 1680, he moved to London as haham or rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardi synagogue in Creechurch Lane.

The synagogue was the first synagogue founded in England since the expulsion of Jews in 1290. It was founded in 1657 by a group of ‘Marrano’ merchants who had been living in London, openly professing to be Spanish Catholics but secretly continuing to practise Judaism. They acquired a house in Creechurch Lane for use as a synagogue, and continued to worship there 1701, when the Bevis Marks Synagogue was built.

Jacob Abendana was the haham in London for 15 years. During those years, he completed a Spanish translation of the Mishnah, along with the commentaries of Maimonides and Obadiah of Bertinoro. Although his work was never published, it was frequently cited by Christian theologians. Jacob died in London on 12 September 1685 and was buried in the Portuguese cemetery at Mile End.

Trinity College Cambridge, where Isaac Abendana taught Hebrew and translated the Hebrew into Latin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, Jacob’s younger brother Isaac Abendana, who was born in Spain ca 1640, had already moved to England in 1662. He had lived at Hamburg and Leyden, where he studied medicine, and like Isaac he had an extensive correspondence with leading Christian theologians of the day, including Ralph Cudworth, a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists and master of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Isaac Abendana was approached by Adam Boreel who, with John Durie and Samuel Hartlib, who wanted to persuade a learned Jew to come to England to translate the Mishnah into Latin. Isaac arrived in Oxford on 3 June 1662 and soon introduced himself to Edward Pococke and other prominent Hebraists there.

John Lightfoot (1602-1675), a Christian Hebraist at Cambridge, secured an academic position for Abendana in Cambridge, and from 1663 until 1667, he was paid by Trinity College while he worked on his Latin translation of the Mishnah.

He seems to have left Trinity in less than friendly circumstances, but by 1669 he had a proper position in Cambridge, paid by the university. He taught Hebrew and rabbinical studies at Cambridge and completed his unpublished Latin translation of the Mishnah for the university in 1671. His manuscript translation of the Mishnah is in six large quarto volumes and is in the Cambridge Library.

While he was at Cambridge, Abendana also sold Hebrew books to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He spent much of the period between 1681 and 1685 in London, where his brother Jacob was the haham of the Sephardi community.

Isaac took a teaching position in Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1689, and continued to teach there until he died in 1699. In Oxford, he compiled a series of Jewish almanacs for Christians in 1695, 1696, and later, which he dedicated to the president of Hertford College. His calendars and other works were posthumously published in an elaborated edition as the Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews (1706).

Some sources suggest that after his brother Jacob died in London in 1685, Isaac became haham of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London.

Isaac Abendana died on 17 July 1699 while he was visiting his friend Arthur Charlett, master of University College, Oxford. Charlett told the antiquarian Thomas Tanner that ‘Old Abendana rising at 4 to see me, having lighted his Pipe, fell down dead’.

A merchant Jew passing through Oxford brought Abendana’s body to London for burial. His death brought to an end to his 37-year Oxbridge career, when he had a virtual monopoly on Hebrew studies at the two universities.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

Founder’s Tower in Magdalen College, Oxford, where Isaac Abendana taught from 1689 until he died in 1699 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 119, Friday 6 September 2024

The banquet with Levi included the questions and answers – and the drinking – associated with a Greek symposium … pottery in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 1 September 2024). Sunday was also the first day of Autumn, when the Season of Creation began, and it continues until 4 October.

The Church of England, in the calendar in Common Worship, today remembers Allen Gardiner (1851), missionary and founder of the South American Mission Society. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

After the symposium … an end-of-term dinner with the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 33-39 (NRSVA):

33 Then they said to him, ‘John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.’ 34 Jesus said to them, ‘You cannot make wedding-guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’ 36 He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, “The old is good”.’

‘You cannot make wedding-guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?’ (Luke 5: 34) … preparing for a wedding meal in Southwark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Jesus has called the tax-collector Levi, and then dines with him in his house that evening (Luke 5: 27-31). Levi celebrates not just with dinner, or even a lavish dinner, but a ‘great banquet’ in his house that is attended by a large crowd.

Banquets were not merely lavish meals but also a setting for teaching and instruction, and the word for banquet here δοχή (dochē) suggests a formal Greek banquet known as a symposium (συμπόσιον, sympósion, from συμπίνειν, sympínein, ‘to drink together’).

In classical Greece, the symposium was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, or conversation. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato’s Symposium and Xenophon’s Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems.

If we read Levi’s banquet as a symposium, then, of course, it is going to be associated, culturally, in those days with drinking, and with questions and answers.

Some people ask why Jesus eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners. Now, in this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 5: 33-39), the same people ask why, unlike John’s disciples or the disciples of the Pharisees, who frequently fast and pray, the disciples of Jesus eat and drink.

Similar complaints were made about Socrates, In Plato’s Symposium, Alcibiades claims that Socrates, despite allegedly drinking heavily just like the others, never got drunk and that alcohol never has any effect on Socrates: ‘Observe, my friends, said Alcibiades, that this ingenious trick of mine will have no effect on Socrates, for he can drink any quantity of wine and not be at all nearer being drunk.’

Christ responds to his detractors by comparing the invitation into the Kingdom with an invitation to a wedding, and speaks of his followers as guests at a wedding banquet. The feast is in progress, so this is a time for joy, while after his death it will be a time for fasting.

He insists that the old way of being and the new way he brings are separate, even if both are to be valued. New material stretches more than old. When wine ferments, it expands. Soft new wineskins expand with the wine, but old ones do not.

And so, in a way, I find myself thinking this morning of two other banquets where the wine must have been flowing freely.

The first of these is the Wedding at Cana, the banquet before Christ’s ministry begins. There the wine runs out, and then the wine runs freely.

The second banquet is at the end of Christ’s ministry, the meal at the Last Supper. Not only must the wine have been flowing freely at that meal, it is the meal of the New Covenant, in which bread and wine are freely given, just as Christ gives himself freely, body and blood.

In this in-between time, this Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, ordinary meals offer a promise of what the heavenly banquet is like. And constantly, as in this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus uses the image of the wedding banquet to convey how sacred, how loving, how caring, how beautiful, how full of promise, is the heavenly banquet.

Just as the wedding banquet is not the wedding itself, but a celebration of the wedding and the promise of the wedding, the meals in the Gospel in the in-between times are foretastes of, promises of, the great heavenly banquet.

And, at those banquets, Christ dines with tax-collectors like tax-collectors like Levi, Pharisees like Simon, those who are rejected by polite society like Zacchaeus, just as he is going to dine at the Last Supper with those who are going to betray him like Judas, those who are going to deny him like Peter, just as he is going to insist on dining with those who fail to recognise him after the Resurrection, like the disciples at Emmaus.

No matter how wayward others may think we are, no matter how wayward we may think we have been, Christ calls us back to dine with him, to have a new and intimate relationship with, wants to dine with us, so that, as we say in the Prayer of Humble Access, so that ‘that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.’

Levi’s banquet has parallels with the symposia associated with Socrates, including the drinking and the questions … Socrates bar in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 6 September 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘To Hope and Act with Creation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection on Creationtide.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 6 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for countries in the Global South that are disproportionally affected by the visible consequences of the climate crisis.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment’ … colourful new fabrics in a shop in Seville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Socrates is regarded as the founder of western philosophy … a street name in Koutouloufári in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A ‘Victorian Whimsy’ in the churchyard in Stoke Bruerne is a clue to curious tales

The gates at Saint Mary’s Churchyard in Stoke Bruerne with the enigmatic Vernon inscrtion from 1893 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Shutlanger and Stoke Bruerne earlier this week, exploring the links of the Parles and Comberford families with the area in the 15th and 16th centuries. I was photographing the house they once owned that is known as the Monastery.

I spent much of Tuesday walking around this part of rural Northamptonshire, traipsing through the villages and small towns of Blisworth, Shutlanger, Stoke Bruerne and Roade, enjoying the fields and trees and the pathways along the banks of the Grand Union Canal as summer colours started to autumn.

From Shutlanger, I walked onto Stoke Bruerne, but was disappointed once again that Saint Mary’s Church was not open as I hoped to see inside the church building.

Out in the churchyard, however, I was curious about the unusual Victorian gate piers at the entrance to the churchyard from Wenworth Way, with a puzzling inscription that reads:

A 1893 D
PN ── GE
WN ── DE
CK ── ME
SE ── PD
GSTQ
TOOG

At first, the inscription appears indecipherable, and it has been described as ‘a Victorian Whimsy’ by a well-known local historian, the late George Freeston of Blisworth, and by the late John Grace of Stoke Park, who wrote about it in Grass Magazine in 2018.

Grass Magazine is the newsletter for the Grand Union Benefice or parochial union of Blisworth, Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger, with Grafton Regis, Alderton, and Milton Malsor. A transcription of John Grace’s short explanation is available on the noticeboard in the church porch in Stoke Bruerne.

John Grace relies on George Freeston’s interpretation of what they describe as a ‘Victorian whimsy’ in Stoke Bruerne churchyard. Grace and Freeston recall that the owner of Stoke Park, Wentworth Vernon, walked on Sundays to church in Stoke Bruerne on Sundays from Stoke Park along a well-maintained footpath.

On his way, he entered the churchyard through the gateway that now leads from Wentworth Way. The gate is flanked by two stone pillars, one of which bears this inscription. Freeston, who described this as a ‘Victorian whimsy’, offers this interpretation of the inscription:

Anno Domini 1893
ParsoN ── GavE
(permission for)
WardeN ── DravE
(carried the materials by horse and cart)
ClerK ── MadE
SquirE ── PaiD
God Save The Queen
To Our One God

The whimsical inscription at the gates in Saint Mary’s Churchyard in Stoke Bruerne dates from 1893 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

FWT Vernon Wentworth, who was the Squire of Stoke Park in the 1870s and 1880s, gave his name to Wentworth Way. He was one of the benefactors of Stoke Bruerne and gave the Village Hall to the villagers as the Reading Room in 1878. When he died in 1885, the Stoke and Hartwell estates passed for life to his kinsman, William Frederick Vernon of Harefield Park, Middlesex.

A year later, the mansion at Stoke Park was largely destroyed by fire in 1886. At the time Stoke Park was let for the hunting season each year to Valentine Lawless (1840-1928), 4th Baron Cloncurry, an Irish peer who also had large estates in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Lyons Castle, Co Kildare, and Abington, Co Limerick.

After the fire, Vernon announced he did not intend to rebuild the house but that he would offer the estate for sale to Lord Cloncurry. In the event, however, Stoke Park was not sold and when WF Vernon died in 1889, the estate passed to Vernon’s brother, George Augustus Vernon.

Then in 1889, GA Vernon assigned his life interest in Stoke Park to his eldest surviving son, Bertie Wentworth Vernon, who later succeeded to the Harefield estate in 1896.

Bertie Wh Vernon and his wife Isabella made Stoke Park their principal home until both died in 1916. They played the role of a resident squire and his lady in a village that had previously generally lacked such figures. He appears to be the squire responsible for the gate in the churchyard with its whimsical inscription.

During the Vernons’ later years, however, the estate became increasingly encumbered with mortgages. This may explain why their generosity to the parish declined and why they sold off their Hartwell estate sold in 1912.

What remained of the estate was inherited in 1916 by BW Vernon’s nephew, Henry Albermarle Vernon. He took up residence at Stoke Park, Vernon cleared the mortgages accumulated by his uncle, and then in 1928 sold Stoke Park to Captain Edward Brabazon Meade, a younger son of an Irish aristocrat, the 4th Earl of Clanwilliam. The contents of Stoke Park were sold separately later that year.

Meade borrowed heavily in his attempts to revive the estate. During World War II, the mansion and grounds were requisitioned by the army, and Meade moved to the Bahamas before selling off the estate in 1946.

The ‘Victorian Whimsy’ in Stoke Bruerne churchyard is a reminder of the Vernon family and their role in village life.

Cornfields between Stoke Park and Stoke Bruerne, with the tower of Saint Mary’s Church in the distance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)