Patrick Comerford
In recent weeks I have been visiting a number of churches in Bedford. The Church of Saint Peter de Merton is a Church of England parish church on Saint Peter’s Street in the De Parys area and houses architectural artefacts that are among the oldest in Bedford.
For over 1,000 years, Christians have worshipped on the site of the church beside Saint Peter’s Green in Bedford, though to be the site of the first village of Bedanford.
The early history of the site may date back to a time between 585 and 827 CE, during the Kingdom of Mercia and the early spread of Christianity, and the first, early church may have been built of timber. The Norman church was founded or refounded in 1117 by Gilbert the Norman, one-time sheriff of Surrey, Cambridge and Huntingdon, and godson of Henry I.
At one time, Saint Peter’s was known as Saint Peter’s-in-the-Fields as it was originally outside the town walls. Saint Peter’s is one of only five churches in Bedfordshire have undoubted Saxon work: Saint Peter’s, Bedford; Sait. Mary’s, Bedford; Sait. Thomas’s, Clapham; Saint Mary’s, Stevington; and All Saints’ Church, Turvey.
The lower part of Saint Peter’s tower and parts of the chancel show examples of Saxon work, the most obvious being clearly visible from the nave inside. Behind the pulpit and lectern, two great stone monoliths, each over 6 ft high, are embedded in the interior west wall of the tower. Above the pulpit are remains of long-and-short work, quoins, where the stones are alternately large and small, characteristic of the building work used by Saxon masons.
When plaster was stripped from the chancel in 1890, signs of damage caused by a great fire were found in many of the stones that were cracked and calcined. This may have been caused by the Danes under Thurkill in 1010, when 40 ships sailed down the River Ouse to ransack and burn Bedford.
Experts believe that the Saxon church at Saint Peter’s had a single-storey west porch with a small aisleless nave to the east. The tower was built up later. Today’s choir is housed in what was once the thin-walled west porch, the extreme west end of the building being where the chancel entrance is now.
There are further long-and-short quoins at the projecting south-west corner of the chancel, which was the old Saxon nave, and some herring bone work on the south face of the tower, not far from two blocked round-headed double-splayed windows.
After the great fire and the Norman conquest, the tower may have been used by the Normans for military purposes.
Traces of the foundations of an apse beyond the east end that were discovered during restoration in the 1860s suggest the Normans may have rebuilt the church at a later date.
An 8 ft high round-headed arch of limestone rubble in the north wall of the tower dates from ca 1080, and is partially obscured by the organ console. It was exposed when plaster was removed in 1890, along with the now restored fenestella or niche, the original dimensions of the 14th century priest’s door west of that, the low so-called ‘leper window’ and the greater portion of a round-headed window in the north wall near the altar.
The east wall behind the altar is not properly bonded into the side walls, suggesting the original east end could extended 10 ft beyond where the east wall is now.
None of the other three tower arches has been left unaltered. The triple-chamfered east arch dates from the 13th century when the church was restored, and the west arch is modern. The tower is now virtually central after the considerable extension of the church towards the west.
Both the chancel and the tower date from the 10th or 11th century, but only the north side belfry window is in good condition. The twin openings in Norman style were copied from Saint Mary’s and were inserted in 1850, 20 years after the ornamental parapet.
The best surviving example of Norman work in Saint Peter’s is the doorway arch in the south porch. As the architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner notes, it has two orders of shafts, carrying decorated scallop capitals, with saltire crosses in the abacus, and roll mouldings, one of them with a spiral beaded band.
However, this is not an original part of the church: it was moved to Saint Peter’s ca 1545 from the former church of Saint Peter de Dunstable, which probably stood on the square opposite Saint Mary’s before it was demolished. The arch was relocated within Saint Peter’s during the Victorian enlargement of the nave and aisles in 1845-1985 and the porch was added in 1902 to protect it.
For some time, this door was the main entrance to Saint Peter’s.
A further example of Saxon architecture came to light in 1898. When the chancel roof was removed and other interior improvements were being made, a triangular-headed doorway, walled up for centuries, was revealed halfway up the tower, in the east wall of the belfry.
This is the normal position for an upper doorway leading from the tower on to a wooden gallery or chamber. It may have been the mediaeval priest’s place of residence in mediaeval times. The jambs of the doorway are of rubble like the quoins.
Set into the north jamb is a Hiberno-Saxon stone measuring 10 in by 15 in and carved with two confronting dragons. They are upside down, and have protruding tongues, wolf-like heads and intricate tails. On another face of the stone is an interlaced figure-of-eight knot, a pattern found on old Cornish crosses. Some sources suggest the stone may be a cross-shaft fragment dating back to the late eighth century.
The church became known as Saint Peter de Merton because appointments were made by the Augustinian Canons of Merton Priory in Surrey. That connection continues in the suffix ‘de Merton’, although the Crown assumed the patronage of Saint Peter’s at the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor reformation in the 16th century.
Additions to the church in the 19th century, when the church was enlarged and restored, include the vestry, aisles and west porch, as well as an extension to the nave.
Work in the 20th century included the paintings on the east wall, the tower ceiling decoration, the construction of the chapter house and the Burma Star stained-glass window.
In front of the church are statues of John Bunyan, designed by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm in 1874 and by Edward Blore of Dr Joseph Thackeray, who was the physician to the Bedford Infirmary for 18 years until he died in 1832.
Colonel Frederick Augustus Burnaby (1842-1885) is an interesting Victorian figure associated with Saint Peter’s. His swashbuckling spirit and outlandish military adventures were celebrated in the days Victorian imperialist expansion. He travelled across Europe and Central Asia, mastered ballooning, was fluent in many foreign languages, stood for parliament twice in Birmingham in 1880 and 1885, was the author of several books, and was feted in London society.
Frederick Burnaby was born in Saint Peter’s Rectory, Bedford, the son of Canon Gustavus Andrew Burnaby (1802-1872). He was educated at Bedford School, Harrow, Oswestry School and in Germany. He was a tall, large man, standing 6 ft 4in tall and weighing 20 stone.
He reported from the Carlist forces in Spain for The Times before moving to Sudan to report on Gordon’s expedition to Khartoum. With his friend Thomas Bowles he helped found the weekly magazine Vanity Fair in 1868, and it continued un til it closed in 1914.
Burnaby’s later escapades brought him through Russia and into Afghanistan, to Constantinople and through Asia Minor and the Ottoman Empire as he tried to reach Tashkent, Herat and Samarkand, to Egypt. He crossed the English Channel in a gas balloon in 1882.
He married Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed in 1879. She had inherited her father’s lands in Greystones, Co Wicklow, and he has given his name to the Burnaby Estate in Greystones.
Burnaby held a post under Lord Wolseley when he met his death in hand-to-hand fighting in the Battle of Abu Klea, where he was killed by a spear through his throat as he attempted to rescue a wounded colleague.
Henry Newbolt’s poem ‘Vitaï Lampada’ and the song ‘Colonel Burnaby’ were written in his honour and his portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Burnaby’s autobiographical Ride to Khiva is referred to by Joseph Conrad’s short story ‘Youth’ (1898), he is a balloonist in Julian Barnes’s memoir Levels of Life (2014), and Burnaby may have inspired George MacDonald Fraser’s fictional anti-hero Harry Flashman.
Burnaby is commemorated in a stained-glass window in Saint Peter’s Church.
Across the street from the church, Saint Peter’s Church Hall is a fine Edwardian building designed by the Bedford-based architect Kensington Gammell (1874-1924) and dating from 1911. in a state of depression, while on a trip to Ireland 100 years ago, Kensington Gammell shot himself in Rathmullen, Co Donegal, sometime between 14 and 18 May 1924. The hall was converted into a nightclub in 2003.
When the neighbouring parish church of Saint Cuthbert’s was closed in 1974, Saint Peter’s received an additional dedication to Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and it is now known formally as the Church of Saint Peter de Merton with Saint Cuthbert.
Saint Peter’s Church is in the Diocese of St Albans and has many links with other churches in Bedford, as well as strong links with Bedford School located near the church.
The Revd Kelvin Woolmer has been the Priest Missioner for Saint Peter’s with Saint Cuthbert’s since 2017. He has been a team vicar in the Waltham Abbey Team Ministry, a chaplain at London City Airport and chaplain to the London Olympic construction site.
The Revd Rachel Simons has been the associate minister since 2021, having served her curacy there. She is a self-supporting minister (SSM) and is the academic registrar of the Eastern Region Ministry Course (ERMC). Janis Large, the lay reader at Saint Peter’s, is a retired teacher and also the church treasurer.
• Sunday services at Saint Peter’s are at 10:15 am every Sunday and at 9 am (said Holy Communion) and 4 pm on the first Sunday of the month. The church has morning prayer on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Holy Communion is celebrated on Thursdays at 10:30 am. A coffee shop is open at the church on the second Saturday morning of the month.
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