Patrick Comerford
I had a charming and engaging stroll around the north Buckinghamshire village of Castlethorpe, near Stony Stratford, two days ago, visiting the earthworks, the site of the mediaeval motte-and-bailey castle, and many of the pretty thatched cottages and listed buildings in the village.
But the real reason I hopped off the bus from Wolverton to Northampton at Castlethorpe was to see the parish church, the Church of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, in advance of the Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, the patronal festival, on Tuesday (28 October 2025).
The church in Castlethorpe was once dedicated to Our Lady, and that name continued in records in the 16th century and even into the 19th century, the change of dedication to Saint Simon and Saint Jude may have only taken place in the late 19th century.
The church has Anglo-Saxon beginnings, and traces of an Anglo-Saxon church were found almost 50 years ago when the floor was being replaced in 1976. The church has a chancel measuring 34 ft 6 in by 14 ft inside, a nave measuring 30 ft by 21 ft, the north aisle is 10 ft wide, the south aisle 8 ft 6 in wide, and a 9 ft square west tower. The west tower is built of ashlar, and the rest of the church of rubble with stone dressings, the roofs of the nave and aisles are covered with lead and the chancel roof is covered with slate.
The present church dates from the late 11th century, when it was built inside the motte-and-bailey castle built by Winemar the Fleming after the Norman Conquest. The church served both Castlethorpe and the neighbouring village of Hanslope until 1160, when a new church was built in neighbouring Hanslope. The church in Castlethorpe then became a chapel of the Earls of Warwick.
The churchwarden Nick Fearn went out of his way to facilitate my visit to Saint Simon and Saint Jude on Friday morning. The church is entered through the west tower, which stands on the site of an earlier porch, and the original tower may have been to the west of this.
The oldest surviving part of the church is a circular column with a square foliated capital and a moulded base in the north aisle and the pointed Gothic arches of the north arcade, which are from the late 12th century. They indicate the addition of a north aisle to an already existing church at that period, but no detail of an earlier date survives.
The nave, which appears to be square in shape, was widened ca 1350 towards the south and what is now the Lady Chapel.
To the left on entering the church, the font at the west end of the nave has a plain octagonal stem and an octagonal bowl dating from the late 14th century, and originally had a more central position in the nave. Hidden from view, the carved heads of a man and a woman with an elaborate head-dress at the west side of the font are believed to be a father and mother, and they would have originally faced into the nave.
The pointed chancel arch is of three orders, all of which die into the north and south walls. Below the chancel arch is a low panelled screen from the early 17th century with round-headed carved panels, carved strapwork uprights and moulded rails. This Jacobean screen may have been made from the Tyrrell memorial pew.
Nearby, a rood-loft stairway at the north-east is entered through a pointed doorway in the north aisle. It is all that remains of the rood screen that once separated the chancel from the nave. The oak pulpit below the stairway dates from the late 18th century.
The chancel was enlarged when the church was being rebuilt in the mid-14th century on a larger scale. It is long and comparatively narrow, in contrast to the nave. The current stone altar, dating from 1890, replaced an earlier altar described as ‘small, of oak inlaid.’ Because of its Catholic connotations, the stone altar was regarded as illegal, and an application was made, though unsuccessful, to erect wooden tables to cover the altar completely.
The reredos panels above the high altar were brought to Castlethorpe by villagers from Saint John’s, Aylesbury.
The three-light pointed east window dates from ca 1350, although part of its fine tracery has been lost.
Below the south-east window is an original piscina with an octagonal bowl for rinsing the sacred vessels. Beside it, divided by an attached shaft, are two sedilia – these are original: the eastern seat has a low pointed head and the other one has a segmental head.
But the chancel is dominated in more ways than one by a large marble monument on the north wall that commemorates Sir Thomas Tyrrell, a lord of the manor, prominent judge and parliamentarian colonel who died in 1671. The monument was erected by his widow Bridget (née Harrington).
The alabaster effigies show the knight in the robes of a judge, resting on a pedestal under a canopy supported by Ionic columns with alabaster curtains drawn back on the columns on either side. The monument is said to depict how Tyrrell was as he died.
With my sense of humour, I could not help but think that to a 21st century eye it looks as though Lady Tyrrell is holding a mobile ’phone to her right ear – and once I saw this, I could not unsee it.
In the chancel floor is a slab to Eyre Tyrell. The date of his death was first inscribed 1701, but was later altered to read 1698.
The Tyrrell monument was restored extensively in recent years, and the work included replacing the deteriorating iron framework with stainless steel.
More alterations were made to the church in the 18th century, when the present tower was built and the segmental plastered ceiling was put in place over the chancel.
The prayer boards at the west end of the north aisle were originally placed above or at the sides of the High Altar. They show the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer and are a fine example of a Georgian altar piece.
A gallery at the west end was removed during the 19th century Victorian restoration. In the late 19th century, it was know with humour as the ‘Fishes Gallery’ because the leading families who sat there had the names Pike, Whiting and Eel.
In the west wall a plain arch, filled by a wooden partition, opens to the ground stage of the tower. The tower fell down in 1729, and was replaced by the present tower later in the 18th century. The tower is of three stages with a straight parapet and angle pinnacles and has no buttresses.
In the west wall of the ground stage of the tower is a plain round-headed doorway with a round-headed window above. The carved head of a woman with a horned head-dress has been built into the west wall. The tower has one early 15th-century bell, without an inscription but stamped with the cross marks of Joan, widow of Richard Hille.
The four stained glass windows I noted in the church on Friday morning are:
• The East Window: a three-light window by Arthur Louis Moore (1849-1939) of Bloomsbury, showing the Prophet Isaiah, Christ as the Light of the World, and Saint John the Baptist. It is in memory of Caroline Walpole, who died in 1899.
• The two-light east window in the south aisle, above the altar in the Lady Chapel: it depicts the apostles Saint Simon and Saint Jude and commemorates Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1867. It is the work of JW Brown (1842-1928), a stained glass designer who worked at Morris & Co before joining James Powell & Sons, where he succeeded Henry Holiday as the senior designer in 1891.
• The three-light window in the south wall of the south aisle: the Cannon Memorial Window was given in 1970 as a memorial to John James Cannon (1886-1967) by his widow. It displays many aspects of local history, including the coats of arms of successive lords of the manor and local landlords. There are humorous references to the local economy, including farming and employment and the railway works in Wolverton. It is the work of Michael Charles Farrar Bell (1911-1993), who ran Clayton and Bell from 1950. He lived in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, where Saint Mary’s Church has four of his windows.
• The three-light window in the north wall of the north aisle: it depicts Saint Dorothy (left), the Virgin Mary and Christ Child (centre) and Saint Agnes (right), and commemorates nine-year-old Alice Trower, daughter of Henry Snaith and Charlotte Trower, who died in 1859. It is the work of Percy Charles Haydon Bacon, who founded the firm of Percy Bacon & Brothers in 1892 and who made three windows in Saint James the Great Church in Hanslope.
By the beginning of the 21st century, the Church of Saint Simon and Saint Jude was beginning to show its age, and was cold and dark.
The updating in the 2020s included running water, a disability-friendly toilet, modern electric fittings, a baby-changing area and kitchen facilities, as well as sensitive and specialised work on the Tyrrell monument.
The churchyard has graves dating from the 17th century, if not earlier, including one for Castlethorpe’s oldest resident, Sarah Harris who was 107 when she died in 1887. There is also a Commonwealth War Grave.
• Father Gary Ecclestone is the parish priest and Father Robin Carter is the honorary assistant priest. The Parish Mass on Sundays is at 9:30 (with Sunday School at 9:15), and there is Evening Prayer every second and fourth Sunday at 5 pm. There is a midweek Mass at 5 pm on Wednesdays, all major feast days are celebrated throughout the year. Castlethorpe’s Festival Mass on the Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude is at 7:30 pm on Tuesday 28 June.
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