Patrick Comerford
I was writing yesterday about my stroll around the village of Hanslope in Buckinghamshire, about 6.4 km (4 miles) north of Stony Stratford. I particularly wanted to see the parish church in Hanslope, Saint James the Great, with its tall church spire. The spire is the most prominent feature of the village and the tallest in Buckinghamshire, and it can be seen for many miles across the surrounding countryside.
Saint James the Great is an unusual building, with external arcading. It is a Grade I listed building and is very large for a village church, probably because of the area’s links with the Earls of Warwick.
The tower at the west end has a crocketed spire, pinnacles and flying buttresses. It was built with a bequest from Thomas Knight, Rector of Hanslope in 1395-1414 and was originally 61 metres (200 ft) high. But it was destroyed by lightning in 1804 and was rebuilt to the slightly lesser height of 57 metres (186 ft). The spire is topped by a weather vane of a hound with an arrow through its foot, recalling an incident when William Watts was saved from an attacking dog when he was India.
Hanslope may have had an earlier church, and one sources suggests the Saxon church was to the south of the village, east of the present Park Road, near Ivy Farm. The present church dates from 1160 when William Maudit, lord of the manor of Hanslope and a royal treasury official, applied to the Bishop of Lincoln for permission to pull down an earlier church and build a new one.
Through marriage, the manor continued to be held by the Earls of Warwick until the last earl, ‘Warwick the Kingmaker,’ was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. During those years, the church was added to and rebuilt, including the aisles, tower and spire, making it exceptionally large for a mediaeval village church. But there is little evidence of further building after the manor reverted to the Crown.
The church is dedicated to Saint James the Great, one of the 12 apostles, who was reputedly buried at Santiago de Compostela. By the 12th century, Santiago ranked alongside Rome and Jerusalem as one of the great destinations of mediaeval pilgrimage, and many of the churches dedicated to Saint James the Great and may have been along the pilgrim routes or the Camino.
A mark in the stonework over the entrance at the north porch is said to be a symbol indicating the church was connected with these mediaeval pilgrimages.
The parishes of Castlethorpe and Hanslope were combined in the 14th century, when Castlethorpe was no longer able to support its own priest.
Henry VIII sold the advowson or the right to appoint the rector or vicar, along with the glebe lands and tithes in 1546 to the mayor, sheriffs, citizens and commonality of Lincoln.
The main body of the church in Hanslope, from the east window to the west door, is 41.5 metres (136 ft) long, and it is 18.5 m (61 ft) wide, and the spire is 57 m (186 ft) high. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner says that both aisles are remarkably wide for their date, as was the Norman nave before the aisles existed.
The 12th century church was probably about the same size as the present chancel and nave, from the east window to the tower, without the aisles. The rounded Norman arch between the chancel and nave suggests that the original building included the nave. However, the only remaining parts of a Norman building are in the chancel, and it too has seen much rebuilding.
There is evidence of rebuilding the east and north walls of the chancel as early as the 13th century. The north and south aisles were added in the 13th century, along with the chapel dedicated to Our Lady and Saint Benedict, the east wall was rebuilt, and the north aisle was extended to meet the chapel.
An extra bay was added to the west end of the south aisle in the 14th century.
The tower and spire were built in the 15th century, the north aisle and nave were rebuilt, and the nave arcades and clerestory and the north and south porches were added.
After lightning destroyed the spire in 1804, it was rebuilt, though some 6 metres shorter. The west end of the south aisle may have been rebuilt at that time, and other changes introduced at then included an organ and candle-light in the brass chandeliers. New pews were introduced in 1810-1811 and the Watts gallery and vault were built at that time.
The church was in poor repair by the 19th century when it was heavily restored by the architect George Edmund Street (1824-1881) in 1864-1865.
More repairs and rebuilding were carried out by John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913) in 1904-1905. The floors were lifted, and wall paintings, believed to date from the 15th to 17th centuries, were removed from the north and south aisles and over the chancel arch. The finds during this work included the holy water stoup by the north entrance, which was unblocked, and the piscina near the altar in the south aisle.
The internal walls were once covered with mediaeval biblical paintings and other decorations. Some may have been vandalised during the Cromwellian period, and much of the remaining painting was removed when plaster was taken from the walls during refurbishments in 1904-1905.
They included three paintings over the east window in the south aisle, traces of a painting over the chancel arch, traces of a painting above the entrance to the rood loft, a cross in blue on a white ground on the north side of the chancel arch, a large wall painting over the Easter sepulchre arch in the south aisle, and a large painting of angels and other figures on the north aisle wall over the sepulchral arch.
The chancel is the oldest part of the church, dating from the 12th century, with many later additions. The east window has fine 14th century intersecting tracery. The stained glass made in 1893 by Percy Bacon of London commemorates Diana Caroline Monk, and the five lights depict the Nativity, Christ with the elders in the Temple, the Crucifixion, Christ before Pontius Pilate, and the baptism of Christ by Saint John.
The sedilia on the south wall are the dominant feature of the chancel. Beside them is an aumbry once used to hold the Communion elements and the sacred vessels.
There is a 12th century priest’s doorway into the chancel in the south wall. The two-light stained-glass window in the south wall depicting the Sermon on the Mount was made by William Worrall (1831-1911) of London in 1884.
The Chapel of Our Lady and Saint Benedict is a 13th century addition on the north side of the chancel. It has been a vestry, but now is used as a Sunday school room. Pevsner dates a north window there and in the room to the west to the late 13th century. In the south-east corner is a richly carved piscina with a fluted basin.
A doorway has been inserted into the north chapel and there is an aumbry to the west of it. Over the doorway to the chapel is a 12th century window in round-headed Romanesque style, with an external lintel carved with radial leaf motifs.
A chantry was founded in 1324 to say masses in the Chapel of Our Lady for the soul of Thurstan Keswick or de Hanslap, who was the vicar of Hanslope in 1300, but was abolished in 1547 during the Tudor Reformations.
Troughton’s Chapel takes its name from the Troughton family who held the manor of Castlethorpe in the early 17th century. The north wall in the chancel also has a late 13th century arch opening into Troughton’s Chapel, the extended east end of the north aisle, now cut off by the Watts tomb. A new oak screen and doors were installed in 2010.
The only remaining part of the original 12th century nave is preserved in the Norman Romanesque chancel arch. The stair turret at the south-east angle of the nave dates from the later 15th century. It provided access to a rood screen above the chancel arch, of which the only trace now is the loft doorway in the south side of the arch.
The last traces of wall paintings can be seen near the rood screen door above the south side of the arch, where there is a remnant of a painting of the Warwick badge with a bear and ragged staff.
The pulpit is probably 18th century, and Pevsner dates it to ca 1800. During the refurbishments in 1905, an older font was reworked to form a pedestal for the pulpit.
Above the chancel arch two hatchments of the Watts family flank the coat of arms of King William IV. In front of the chancel arch, a grave slab with the figures of a man and two women is a memorial to Lewis Rees who died in 1523 and his two wives, Elizabeth and Agnes. The words coming from the mouths of the women say: Sancta Trinitas unus Deus, Miserare nobis, ‘Holy Trinity one God, have mercy on us.’
The altar at the east end of south aisle is a memorial to the dead of two World Wars. The stained glass window (1921) over the altar by Percy Bacon (1860-1935) shows Saint George, Saint Michael and Saint Alban. The arched piscina in the north wall beside to the altar was excavated during the 1904-1905 works.
The stone arch with a symbolic tomb chest inserted into the wall of this aisle is thought to be an Easter sepulchre, where the Resurrection would have been re-enacted in mediaeval times. The Communion Host would have been ‘buried’ on Good Friday and removed at the first Mass of Easter.
The 15th century south porch is now used as a kitchen. In the west window of the south aisle is a group of encaustic, or inlaid, tiles, made in the late 15th century.
The east end of the north aisle is dominated by the 18th century burial vault of the Watts family, landlords of Hanslope for 150 year. William Watts, who made his fortune in India, bought the manor in 1764. His grandson, Robert Jenkinson (1770-1828), 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was Prime Minister in 1812-1827.
The west end of the north aisle has a stained glass window depicting Saint James the Great. The gilt-framed Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments nearby were originally placed on each side of the rood screen, although it is not known when the rood screen was removed.
The box pews were replaced in the early 20th century and oak pews were installed in 1929. More new oak pews were installed in 1958-1959 and the pews were moved in 1998 from a conventional aisle arrangement to the present central altar configuration.
The 19th century font was moved to its present position in 1999 from a central position at the rear of the nave.
The etched glass internal door at the north porch was designed by David Peace and executed by Sally Scott in 1999, who also completed glass work at Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. It was a bequest from two parishioners, Frank and Edith Brownsell.
There are eight bells in the tower, regularly rung by a team of Hanslope bellringers.
Outside, the church has many interesting features, including a carving of the bear and ragged staff of the Earls of Warwick on the north-west corner of the tower.
The ‘priest’s door’ into the chancel on the south side has ornate stone carving. This doorway is an example of late Norman work, with an arch with moulded bases and decorated capitals, flower and leaf motifs and a bold chevron pattern. The pillars along the chancel walls are an unusual feature in a Norman church.
On the north side, toward the east end, is a gargoyle in the form of a man laying on his side, with the spout over his shoulder, and wearing an embossed belt and a short apron. On the south side, above the aisle roof, is a large gryphon-like carving.
• The Parish Priest is Father Gary Ecclestone SSC, who is supported by Father Robin Carter SSC. The Sunday services in Saint James the Great, Hanslope, and Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Castlethorpe, are: 9:30, Sung Mass, Castlethorpe; 11:15, Sung Mass, Hanslope; 5 pm, Evening Prayer, Castlethorpe, second and fourth Sundays. Mid-week Masses are at 5 pm in Castlethorpe on Wednesdays and 9:30 in Hanslope on Thursdays.
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