Patrick Comerford
‘50 Years: Take A Step Back In Time’ is an exhibition in Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire, celebrating 50 years of the Lamport Hall Preservation Trust, set up by Sir Gyles Isham in 1974.
This specially curated exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of Lamport Hall Preservation, and tells the story of the trust. The exhibition on the ground floor of the house is open from April to October.
I was invited to opening of the exhibition last Saturday evening (27 April 2024). As part of the exhibition, Catriona Finlayson and Nathan Carter Smith have produced a 100-page catalogue, for which I was invited to write this contribution on the Lamport Crucifix:
The Lamport Crucifix
Patrick Comerford
A processional cross or crucifix which is carried in Christian processions, both in church and in outdoor processions. For Christians, the Cross is the symbol of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Most churches are expected to own a processional cross, and the style and use depends on the denomination of the church, for example, with Roman Catholics and High Church Anglicans the processional cross will usually be a crucifix, whereas in Nonconformist Protestant parishes, it is likely to be an empty cross.
In some churches the processional cross is brought to the Communion Table or Chancel by a crucifer at the beginning of the service and placed on the Communion Table where it acts as an Altar cross, whereas in other churches the processional cross and the Altar cross are two separate crosses.
It is believed the cross was buried during the Dissolution of the Monasteries which saw the mass destruction of Catholic iconography. The Cross dates from circa 1475 and was found when alterations were made to the dairy [at Lamport Hall] in 1674.
It was preserved by the [Isham] family until 1905, when Sir Vere [Isham] presented it to the parish of Lamport in thanksgiving for his recovery from illness earlier that year.
At some point the cross was moved to Peterborough Cathedral for safekeeping. The exact note is not known, but it has been on display there for several decades.
The Lamport Crucifix measures 609 mm x 515 mm and is quite similar in design and size to the Bosworth Crucifix. The Bosworth Crucifix was first discovered in 1778 and was said to have been found on the field of Bosworth – the famous site of the battle between Richard III and Henry VII that decided the Wars of the Roses. The cross was carried by Richard’s supporters but was lost during the fierce battle.
The Lamport Crucifix bears some resemblance to the famous piece. However, it is more complete, with its two lower branches still intact, preserving the side figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John. Jesus on the Cross has his head inclined towards the right shoulder. The Lamport Crucifix has enamelled strips forming the body of the cross and its Corpus may have been silver rather than gilded.
The rare 15th century cross is very reminiscent of the Bosworth Crucifix, once owned by the Comerford family and now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries in London and a processional cross now in the Hunt Museum in Limerick.
The third cross is a similar 15th century English processional cross. It bears a remarkable resemblance to the Bosworth Crucifix and the Lamport Crucifix. This processional crucifix is dated ca 1450, is made of bronze, and is mounted on a modern wooden base.
Processional crosses of this type were made in large numbers and were exported from England. There are numerous examples from Ireland, and the finest example is said to be the Ballylongford Cross, made in 1479. The processional cross in the Hunt Museum was bought at auction in Christies in 1961 by John Hunt for £130.
It gives us great pleasure to be able to display this cross at Lamport again and it felt fitting to present it in the room which Sir Gyles [Isham] used as his chapel after his conversion to Catholicism.
Reverend Patrick Comerford is a priest in the Church of Ireland and has been a Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin). He writes an excellent blog on travel, local history and architecture
• ‘The Lamport Crucifix’, in: Catriona Finlayson (ed), 50 Years of the Lamport Hall Preservation Trust (Lamport, Northamptonshire, 2024, 100 pp), pp 54-57
