At the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford: both a cathedral and a college chapel

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, is unique in its dual role as a cathedral and a college chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I was at the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, this week, with the renewal of ordination vows by deacons, priests and bishops on Maundy Thursday (2 April 2026).

It was one of the last public services for Bishop Steve Croft before he retires as Bishop of Oxford, and he reminded as sharply of the words in the ordinal that ‘the trust that is now to be committed to your charge. Remember always with thanksgiving that the treasure now to be entrusted to you is Christ’s own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross. It is to him that you will render account for your stewardship of his people.’

The Diocese of Oxford has more church buildings than any other diocese in the Church of England and has more paid clergy than any other diocese except London. The diocese includes Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with another five churches in nearby counties.

Inside Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, looking east from the choir towards the High Altar and the Rose Window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, is both the college chapel of Christ Church and the cathedral church of the Diocese of Oxford. It was founded by Henry VIII with Cardinal Wolsey, and Christ Church is the largest Oxford college.

This was my second time as a priest living in the Diocese of Oxford since 2022 to take part in the Chrism Eucharist. Holy Week and Easter 2022 had been fraught times in the immediate aftermath of a stroke. I was at the Chrism Eucharist in Oxford in 2023, but missed it again in 2024 due to a hospital appointment in Milton Keynes, and in 2025, when I spent Holy Week and Easter in Crete.

I was a teenager when I first visited Christ Church more than 55 years ago. Despite the size of the diocese, this is one of the smallest cathedrals in the Church of England, and its dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique.

Inside Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, looking west from the choir towards the organ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The cathedral was originally the church of Saint Frideswide’s Priory. The site is said to be the location of the nunnery founded by Saint Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, and her shrine is now in the Latin Chapel. It once held her relics, brought there in 1180, and it was the focus of pilgrimage from at least the 12th until the early 16th century.

Osney Abbey was surrendered in November 1539 and dissolved at the dissolution of the monastic houses. The last abbot was Robert King, who became the first Bishop of Oxford.

The Diocese of Oxford was formed out of part of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1542, and from September 1542 until June 1544, Osney Abbey was the seat of the bishop of the new diocese.

However, Osney was costly to run as a cathedral and in 1545 the bishop moved to the smaller and cheaper cathedral at Christ Church. Later, during the reign of Queen Mary, Bishop King was one of the judges at the trial of Thomas Cranmer.

Great Tom, described as the ‘loudest thing in Oxford’, now hangs in Tom Tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The abbey buildings soon fell into decay and were despoiled for the sake of the new foundation. Much of the stone found its way into local buildings, including Saint Frideswide’s as it was transformed into Christ Church. Osney Abey has been described as the greatest building that Oxford has lost.

Great Tom, the bell described as the ‘loudest thing in Oxford’ and now hanging in Tom Tower at Christ Church, was taken from the tower of Osney Abbey at the dissolution. Much of the monastic property was also transferred to Christ Church.

A statue of Cardinal Wolsey, founder of Christ Church, above the entrance to the Great Hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Frideswide’s Priory was surrendered in 1522 to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had selected it as the site for his proposed college. However, in 1529 the foundation was taken over by Henry VIII. Work stopped, but the college was refounded by the king in June 1532. Henry VIII transferred the recently-created See of Oxford from Osney to Christ Church in 1546.

There has been a choir at the cathedral since 1526, when John Taverner was the organist and master of the choristers. The statutes of Wolsey’s original college, initially called Cardinal College, mentioned 16 choristers and 30 singing priests.

The nave, choir, main tower and transepts are late Norman. There are architectural features ranging from Norman to the Perpendicular style and a large rose window of the ten-part or botanical type.

The monument to the Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley of Cloyne in Christ Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Visitors to Oxford are often pointed to monuments such as those to the Wesley brothers, John and Charles Wesley, who were ordained in Christ Church, or the memorial to the poet WH Auden.

But this week I also noticed a number of monuments of Irish interest.

The philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753), who was born in Co Kilkenny, was Bishop of Cloyne when he died in Oxford on 14 January 1753, and he was buried in Christ Church Cathedral.

The monument to William Brouncker, who was almost ruined when he bought an Irish peerage weeks before he died (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A monument in the south transept remembers Colonel William Villiers (1614 -1643), 2nd Viscount Grandison of Limerick, who was killed during the First English Civil War. His father Sir Edward Villiers (1585-1626) was the older half-brother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, a favourite of both James I and Charles I, and was the Lord President of Munster when he died in Cork in 1626.

William Villiers inherited the Irish peerage title of Viscount Grandison from his great-uncle Oliver St John (1559-1630). He fought as a royalist at the Battle of Edgehill and at the Storming of Bristol, where he was wounded in the right leg. He was taken to Oxford and died there he died on 29 September 1643. His daughter Barbara Villiers (1640-1709) was later a mistress of Charles II and Duchess of Cleveland.

Close by, another monument commemorates William Brouncker (1585-1645), 1st Viscount Brouncker of Castle Lyons and Baron Brouncker of Newcastle. His father, Sir Henry Brouncker, was Lord President of Munster (1603-1607). Malicious gossip said William Brouncker paid the then enormous sum of £1,200 for his titles in the Irish peerage, which he given on 12 September 1645, and was almost ruined as a result. He died a few months later.

The 17th century window by Abraham Van Linge shows the prophet Jonah looking over the city of Nineveh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The cathedral has a fine collection of stained glass, the oldest being the 14th century Becket Window in the Lucy Chapel. It is one of very few images of Thomas Becket to survive the Reformation.

The glass at the west end of the north aisle is by the 17th century Dutch artist Abraham Van Linge. It dates from the period of Laudian Reform, around 1630, and shows the prophet Jonah looking over the city of Nineveh. A second window by Abraham van Linge is dedicated to Bishop King.

The window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in the Latin Chapel is a tribute to Saint Frideswide (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The cathedral also has windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones, best known for his work with William Morris. The east window in the Latin Chapel was designed by Burne-Jones when he was still in his mid-20s and was made in 1859 by James Powell and Sons. It is a bold and colourful tribute to Saint Frideswide, and perhaps the finest of his early works, but also a dramatic contrast to his later work with Morris.

The Vyner window by Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Vyner memorial window remembers two undergraduates who were murdered in the late 19th century. This Pre-Raphaelite window is a also pun on their family name, with vine leaves prominent in upper part of window.

The Saint Cecilia Window by Edward Burne-Jones in the North Choir aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Saint Cecilia Window by Burne-Jones depicting scenes from the life of Saint Cecilia and her martyrdom is the East Window in the North Choir aisle or Saint George’s Chapel. The angels in the tracery at top were designed by William Morris. Malcom Bell was of the opinion in 1895 that the source of the three panels showing the saint’s life was in Chaucer’s ‘Second Nun’s Tale’.

The Saint Michael Window by Clayton and Bell in the north transept (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Clayton and Bell created the dramatic Saint Michael Window in the north transept in 1870.

A window unveiled in 2023 as a memorial to EH Burn. It depicts Saint Francis of Assisi and is by John Reyntiens.

The newest stained-glass window in Christ Church Cathedral is the Prodigal Son Window by the British artist Thomas Denny. It was commissioned through the generosity of an anonymous donor and unveiled last September.

The chrism oils on a side altar in Christ Church Cathedral on Maundy Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Dean of Christ Church is both the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and the head of the governing body of Christ Church, a constituent college of the University of Oxford.

The chapter of canons of the cathedral has formed the governing body of the college since its foundation, with the dean as ex officio head of the chapter and ipso facto head of the college.

The Very Revd Dr Martyn Percy stepped down as the Dean of Christ Church in 2022 after a lengthy and acrimonious dispute. Previously, he had been the principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon (2004-2014). The governing body of Christ Church voted in 2023 to separate the ecclesiastical role of dean from the position of head of house of the college.

The Very Reverend Sarah Foot has been the Dean of Christ Church since 2023. She is also the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford since 2007, the first woman ever to hold that chair.

The other senior cathedral clergy include the Sub Dean, the Revd Canon Peter Moger, who introduced the Chrism Eucharist on Thursday and welcomed us to Christ Church, and the Archdeacon of Oxford, the Ven Jonathan Chaffey. The university’s four senior theology professors are also ex officio canons residentiary.

Looking towards the North Transept from the font and the pulpit (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In his poem ‘Thyrsis’, the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold called Oxford ‘the city of dreaming spires’, describing the architecture of the university buildings. WB Yeats refers to Christ Church in his poem ‘All Souls’ Night, Oxford’:

Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls’ Night …

The Communion vessels after the Chrism Eucharist on Maundy Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Easter Vigil with the Confirmations and the First Eucharist of Easter is at 8:05 in Christ Church Cathedral this evening. The Easter Day services tomorrow (Sunday 5 April 2026) are: 8:05 am, Holy Communion (1662 Book of Common Prayer); 9:35 am, Choral Matins for Easter Day; 11:05 am, Choral Eucharist for Easter Day; 6:05 pm, Festal Evensong for Easter Day. Choral Evensong takes place in the Cathedral each evening at 6pm and is open to the public.

Prayers for Peace in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 43, Wednesday 1 April 2026 Wednesday of Holy Week (‘Spy Wednesday’)

‘The Taking of Christ in the Garden’ by Caravaggio (1598), the National Gallery of Ireland … the betrayal of Christ is a major theme for the Wednesday of Holy Week

Patrick Comerford

We are half-way through Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easte. Today is the Wednesday of Holy Week (16 April 2025), known in many places as ‘Spy Wednesday’, and in some places 1 April is also ‘April Fools’ Day’. Passover also begins this evening (1 April 2026) and continues until Thursday next week (9 April 2026).

I hope to sing with the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church today at the funeral of Dave King, who gave so much and so cheerfully to the life of the parish and the community in Stony Stratford. Later in the evening, the choir continues its rehearsals for the rest of Holy Week and for Easter.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘The Betrayal by Judas’ by Giotto (ca 1304-1306)

John 13: 21-32 (NRSVA):

21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23 One of his disciples – the one whom Jesus loved – was reclining next to him; 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ 26 Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

‘The Ship of Fools’ by Hieronymus Bosch (ca 1450–1516)

Today’s Reflections

Today [1 April] is marked throughout much of the English-speaking world and in many parts of Europe as April Fools’ Day, a day for people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other, so that victim becomes the April fools.

My long-time friend and former colleague in journalism and history projects in Wexford, the late Nicky Furlong (1929-2022), managed to make me the victim of his April Fool’s prank in the Echo group of newspapers in Co Wexford – the Wexford Echo, the Enniscorthy Echo and the New Ross Echo – back in 2009.

On their front pages on 1 April 2009, the Echo newspapers carried reports and photographs of sharks spotted variously in Wexford Harbour, in the Slaney at Enniscorthy and in the Barrow near New Ross. The sightings were confirmed by no less an expert in large fish than one Mr Ray Whiting.

But I had to turn to page 36 inside the 1 April editions to find a report by Nicky that the Pugin churches of Co Wexford were suffering a unique infestation that threatened the demolition of the Pugin churches – and only the Pugin churches. And right beneath the dateline on the page, Nicky also carried the following preposterous report: ‘Wexford man’s church promotion’, claiming, quite preposterously, that I was to ‘become Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin’.

He gilded the lily, saying I had spent ‘holidays in Greece, Armenia, Ethiopia and even Soviet Russia when religion of any kind was forbidden’, and that I was the author of a whimsical work The Tower that ‘was a comic delight in Wexford associations’.

Two of my all-time April Fool pranks were the work of the BBC and the Guardian.

In 1957, the BBC staged the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest prank, with a fake news report of Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti. The BBC was later flooded with questions about buying spaghetti plants.

The Guardian’s successful April Fool joke was a seven-page travel supplement on the tiny tropical republic of San Serriffe on 1 April 1977. San Serriffe was ‘a small archipelago, its main islands grouped roughly in the shape of a semicolon, in the Indian Ocean,’ and was celebrating 10 years of independence.

The name San Serriffe and the shape of the islands were concocted from printing and typesetting terms. The two main islands were Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse, the indigenous islanders were Flongs, and the Republic is ruled by a dictator General MJ Pica. School subjects included A-level pearl-diving.

The supplement was designed by Philip Davies, the editorial was the work of the Foreign Editor, Geoffrey Taylor, and the advertising agency J Walter Thompson filled the advertising space on four of the seven pages, including one from Kodak running a competition for photographs of San Serriffe,

My mother, who could hold some unusual evangelical opinions, would have nothing to do with April Fool’s Day, insisting it was a continuation of the Gospel stories of Christ being mocked during his sufferings and passion before the crucifixion (see Matthew 27, Mark 15, John 19) and on the Cross (see Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke: 23).

So, how did 1 April become April Fool’s Day?

The earliest record may be in an ambiguous reference in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392). The ‘Nun’s Priest’s Tale’ is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. However, many scholars now believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote ‘Syn March was gon.’ If so, then this passage meant 32 days after April, or 2 May, which was the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia in 1381.

Readers apparently misunderstood Chaucer’s line to mean ‘32 March,’ or 1 April. In Chaucer’s tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.

For centuries, the mediaeval Christian Feast of Fools took place in January. In the opening passages of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo describes ‘rowdy theatricals and underworld parades of lay Parisians ... on the sixth of January 1482’ as a combined celebration ‘of the day of the kings and the Feast of Fools.’

The actual feast was developed in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and was finally forbidden by the Council of Basle in 1435, despite its fictional survival in Victor Hugo’s novel.

‘The Ship of Fools’ by Hieronymus Bosch (ca 1450-1516) is a fragment of the left wing of a triptych, painted ca 1490-1500 in oil on an oak panel. It measures 58 cm x 33 cm, and was given to the Musée du Louvre, Paris, by Camille Benoît of Paris in 1918.

This painting is rich with symbolism and is probably a satirical comment on Albrecht Dürer’s frontispiece of Sebastian Brant’s book of the same name. As it is seen today in the Louvre, it is a fragment of a triptych that was cut into several parts. ‘The Ship of Fools’ was painted on one of the wings of the altarpiece, and is about two thirds of its original length. The bottom third of the panel belongs to Yale University Art Gallery and is exhibited under the title ‘Allegory of Gluttony’.

The wing on the other side, which has more or less retained its full length, is the ‘Death and the Miser’, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The two panels together would have represented the two extremes of the prodigal who is condemned and the miser who is caricatured.

Sebastian Brant’s The Ship of Fools (Das Narrenschiff) is a book of satire published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland. Brant was a conservative German theologian. In a prologue, 112 brief satires, and an epilogue, all illustrated with woodcuts, the book includes the first commissioned work by Dürer, a great Renaissance artist and engraver. Much of the work was critical of the state of the Church at the time. Brant tackles the weaknesses and vices of his time, and creates the fictional Saint Grobian, who becomes the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people.

The Ship of Fools was inspired by a frequent motif in mediaeval art and literature, particularly in religious satire, due to a pun on the Latin word navis, which means both a boat and the nave of a church.

The theme of foolishness is a frequent literary device for criticism before the Reformation. Examples are provided by Erasmus in his In Praise of Folly, by Martin Luther in his Address to the Christian Nobility, and by the role of court jesters or fools. By writing in the voice of the fool, Brant found an acceptable literary device for his criticism of the Church. Dürer carved many of the woodcuts for the first edition, and the book found immediate popularity. However, it is still debated whether The Ship of Fools is a humanist work or just a late example of this mediaeval genre.

But the association of foolishness, pranks and 1 April may not have developed until the 16th century, after Pope Gregory XIII restored 1 January as New Year’s Day in the Gregorian Calendar. The change was important because the Julian calendar meant the March equinox was occurring well before 21 March, and the date is important to the Church because it is fundamental to the calculation of the date of Easter. To reinstate the association, the reform advanced the date by 10 days: Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582.

Before the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, New Year’s Day was celebrated on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation, in many parts of Europe. It developed in some places into a week-long holiday ending on 1 April. Perhaps those Catholics who celebrated the New Year on 1 January made fun of those Protestants who continued to celebrate it from 25 March to 1 April. They were seen as foolish, and so became April Fools.

The change was widespread throughout Europe – although Britain, Ireland and what became Canada and the US did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752.

The first unambiguous British reference to April Fools’ Day is by the diarist John Aubrey to ‘Fooles holy day’ in 1686 – although he might have been referring to Germany: ‘We observe it on ye first of April … And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.’

More recently, Ship of Fools has been adapted as the name of a satirical, church-related website that has its roots in a student print magazine, Ship of Fools, first launched in 1977. The print magazine, folded in 1983 after ten issues. It was revived again on April Fools’ Day 1998 as a website, and has quickly grown into an online community as well as a webzine.

‘We’re here for people who prefer their religion disorganised,’ according to Simon Jenkins, editor and designer of the website. ‘Our aim is to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith.’

Ship of Fools describes itself as iconoclastic and debunking but also committed to the ultimate value of faith, and aims to attract readers more interested in searching questions than simplistic answers. Regular features include the Mystery Worshipper.

The co-editor of Ship of Fools is Stephen Goddard, who met Simon Jenkins at theological college in London in the late 1970s. ‘As committed Christians ourselves, we can’t help laughing at the crazy things that go wrong with the church, and we’re also drawn to those questions which take us beyond easy believing. In the end, we want to make sense of the Christian faith in today’s complex world.’

The notion of ‘holy fools’ has a long, respected place in Jewish and Christian traditions. Hebrew prophets were often scorned as mad or eccentric for pronouncing unwelcome or uncomfortable truths, the Apostle Paul talked to the Corinthians about becoming ‘fools for Christ’ (I Corinthians 4: 10). Eastern Orthodoxy still sees the ‘holy fool’ as a type of Christian martyr or wise paradoxically and saintly.

The Catholic theologian and priest Professor John Saward is a Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars in the University of Oxford and the author of Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ's Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality (1980). He writes: ‘If the wisdom of the world is folly to God, and God’s own foolishness is the only true wisdom, it follows that the worldly wise, to become truly wise, must become foolish and renounce their worldly wisdom.’

The Yale theologian Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006) was a Lutheran pastor who joined the Orthodox Church in later life. In Fools for Christ (2001), he looks at various ‘fools’ and explores the motif of fool-for-Christ in relationship to the problem of understanding the numinous: ‘The Holy is too great and too terrible when encountered directly for men of normal sanity to be able to contemplate it comfortably. Only those who cannot care for the consequences run the risk of the direct confrontation of the Holy.’

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
– John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

The Guardian’s seven-page travel supplement on the tiny tropical republic of San Serriffe was a successful April Fool joke on 1 April 1977

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 1 April 2026, Wednesday of Holy Week, ‘Spy Wednesday’):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 1 April 2026, Wednesday of Holy Week, ‘Spy Wednesday’) invites us to pray:

Generous God, we remember how Judas betrayed you for silver. Transform hearts ruled by love of wealth rather than love of you and your people. Give us generous hearts to know that to give is to receive, and to love our neighbour is to love you.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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 Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘the fools, the fools, the fools!’ … street art depicting O’Donovan Rossa in Skibbereen, Co Cork (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

Saint Mary de Castro, a 900-year-old church within the precincts of Leicester Castle

Saint Mary de Castro Church in Leicester is a 900-year-old parish church within the precincts of Leicester Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary de Castro is a 900-year-old parish church in a beautiful quiet location within the precinct of Leicester Castle, and I managed to visit it twice during my visits to Leicester within the past two weeks. At the far end of the churchyard, a section of the mediaeval wall separates the castle from the Newarke. It stands on the course of the old Roman city wall of Leicester.

The name Saint Mary de Castro means Saint Mary of the Castle, and the name differentiates the church from the nearby Saint Mary de Pratis or Saint Mary of the Meadows, also known as the monastic church of Leicester Abbey. The unusual church name in Leicester also reminded me of the name of Castro Petre Church, the Church of Ireland parish church on a hill at the west end in Edenderry, Co Offaly, in the Diocese of Kildare.

Saint Mary de Castro was closed for some time after the spire was found to be unsafe and was taken down about 10 years. But the church is open to the public again, and there are regular Sunday and mid-week services.

Saint Mary de Castro dates from 1107, when it was founded as a chapel for the castle after King Henry I granted the lands and castle to Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester.

Saint Mary de Castro dates from 1107, but may stand on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The chronicler Henry Knighton implies that an Anglo-Saxon college of Saint Mary had existed and that Robert merely refurbished it. Local tradition suggests the earlier church on the site long was founded by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Æthelflæd, also known as ‘Lady of the Mercians’, ruled the kingdom of Mercia and helped free the East Midlands from Danish occupation. Today she may be ‘England’s forgotten Queen,’ but she was a formidable leader in a shadowy history of the dark ages, and in Tamworth she is celebrated in sculptures, statues and stained-glass windows.

Robert de Beaumont established the church within the castle bailey as a collegiate church served by a dean and a college of 12 canons. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Souls and he provided a chantry chapel for prayers for the souls of William the Conqueror, his queen Matilda, William II, Henry II and his wife and children, and Beaumont’s own family and relatives. To support the college, he granted the revenues of All Saints’ Church, Saint Peter’s, and other nearby churches and land in the Leicester area.

Robet’s son, Robert le Bossu, 2nd Earl of Leicester, transferred all these endowments to the new Augustinian foundation of Leicester Abbey in 1143. The collegiate church retained its dean, six clerks or priests and a chaplain, along with Robert’s grant of 20 shillings for lamps in the church, as well as parish offerings and most of the tithes.

Saint Mary de Castro Church was closed for a time ten years ago as the spire was carefully removed and put into storage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church has been much altered over the centuries, but some early features survive, including Norman doorways, a 13th century font, a sedilia and a piscina. The tower was built in the 13th century and a spire was added in the 15th century.

The richly carved 13th century font has small heads and winged figures decorating the bowl. There are some exceptional mediaeval carvings on the chancel arcade, and a Roman carved stone is set into the west wall of the church. The timber roof is 16th century and was restored in the Victorian period.

The church exterior has a number of grotesquely carved heads that look out over the large churchyard, said to be the oldest continuously used open space in Leicester city centre.

The richly carved 13th century font has small heads and winged figures decorating the bowl (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The early 12th century church had no aisles, and parts of its walls survive. It had a major expansion in the 1160, with a north aisle, doorways to the north and west, and an extension to the chancel. The two doorways on the north side and at the west end of the north aisle provide striking external Norman zig-zag decoration. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the sedilia and piscina in the chancel extension as ‘the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county.’

The 13th century alterations culminated in a major reworking of the transepts and the south aisle to create an aisle wider than the nave, providing more space for local parishioners. The mediaeval Saint Mary’s was two churches at once, side by side: one served the castle, the other served the people of the town. This dual-purpose arrangement did not last, though, and eventually the two congregations were combined.

The legacy of the dual-church means the south aisle is extraordinarily wide, because it originally served as a nave. The large east window in the south aisle, with intricate tracery, was created around 1300. The tower was built inside the south aisle, apparently as an afterthought, rising to a quatrefoil frieze, four decorated pinnacles, and with a needle-like spire rising from the battlements.

The chancel at the east end of the north side of the church … note the sedilia and the piscina to the the right, reagrded by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, is said to have married his second wife Philippa Roet in the church in 1366. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III’s queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, later the third wife of Chaucer’s friend and patron, Prince John of Gaunt, who kept Leicester Castle as one of his residences.

The infant king Henry VI, when he was a five-year old, was knighted in the church on the Day of Pentecost 1426 by his uncle, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford and the Regent of France. The child king then proceeded to dub a further 44 knights that same day, the first being 15-year-old Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, father of Richard III.

At the time, the Parliament of Bats was meeting at the castle. Tensions were high at the time and members of parliament were banned from bringing swords with them, and so brought bats instead.

The east end of the south aisle … some historians suggest Richard III prayed in the church the day before setting off for the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

It is suggested by some historians that Richard III may have prayed in the church the day before setting off for the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The collegiate status of the church lasted until the college was abolished in 1548 under the Chantry Act of Edward VI during the Tudor Reformation.

The meeting in which the Town Council of Leicester resolved to hold the town against the forces of Prince Rupert in 1645 was held in Saint Mary’s. Both Crown and Parliament forces stabled their horses in the church during the Civil War.

William Bickerstaffe (1728-1789), a charitable local schoolmaster and antiquarian, was baptised, buried and held a seven-year curacy at the church.

The doorways on the north side (above) and at the west end of the north aisle (below) are striking examples of Norman zig-zag decoration (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church spire was completely rebuilt in 1783, but retained its crockets and three tiers of lucarnes.

The architect Sir Gilbert Scott designed three Victorian arches in 1852 to replace the unstable large brick arch built in 1800 allowing for a better view of the preacher in the pulpit. The south aisle roof was extensively repaired in the 1930s and is the widest single span timber roof of its kind in England.

The church had to close for a time about 10 years ago when the spire was found to be unsafe. The 14th century octagonal spire, which was rebuilt in 1783, had developed cracks six-metres long in four of its faces in September 2013. Structural engineers who inspected the spire agreed it was at risk of collapse.

While the church was closed in 2014, the spire was carefully removed and put into storage. But current funds are insufficient to rebuild the spire and to repair the tower.

The church has a three manual pipe organ that was originally installed in 1860 by Forster and Andrews in 1860. It was modified and restored by Joshua Porritt in 1880 and by RJ Winn in 1960.

Castle House, a landmark building beside Saint Mary de Castro Church, was sold in recent weeks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Castle House, a landmark building beside Saint Mary de Castro Church and the site of Leicester Castle, was sold in recent weeks with an asking price of £800,000. It is made up of two principal buildings – a 15th century timber-framed gatehouse and an 18th century two-storey Georgian house.

Both houses are inter-connected, and until recently they were used as a residence for visiting High Court judges. Castle House was described as having a series of reception and dining rooms, 12 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and seven WCs, as well as a converted coach house with two bedrooms and bathroom.

Local reports say Castle House is expected to be converted into a restaurant or boutique hotel.

• Sung Mass is on Sundays Saint Mary de Castro at 11 am, with a Said Mass (BCP) at 11 on Wednesdays. The church is open on Sundays, 10 am to 1 pm, and Wednesdays, 10:30 to 12 noon; the church is also open on Monday, 11 am to 12:30; Tuesday and Thursday, 12 noon to 2 pm; Friday and Saturday, 12 noon to 4 pm.

Thee east end of Saint Mary de Castro … the church is open during Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays and at other times during the week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Water Eaton Church Centre is a sharedecumenical project for Anglicans and Baptists

Water Eaton Church Centre on Drayton Road, Bletchley … shared by Saint Frideswide’s Church and Spurgeon Baptist Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Water Eaton in Bletchley earlier this week for a meeting of clergy in the Milton Keynes at the Water Eaton Church Centre on Drayton Road. The Water Eaton Church Centre is shared by Saint Frideswide’s Church, the local Church of England parish church, and Spurgeon Baptist Church.

The first building on this site, Saint Frideswide’s Church, served the local community while remaining within the Parish of Bletchley. Saint Frideswide is the patron saint of the Diocese, City and University of Oxford. She is said to have inspired the foundation of Christ Church College and the cathedral, and died in the year 735.

Saint Frideswide was named by Chaucer in The Miller’s Tale and her miraculous ‘Treacle Well’ also appears in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Saint Frideswide’s Day on 19 October is also known as Oxfordshire Day.

Inside the shared church at Water Eaton on Drayton Road in Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Building work on the site began on 12 December 1956, when Bishop Harry Carpenter of Oxford dedicated the building. The church was consecrated by Bishop Carpenter and opened on 9 July 1961.

Soon, the plans for the new city in Milton Keynes were gaining momentum and by 1970, Water Eaton was growing quickly. Questions began to be asked about the size and role of the church in the new situation. At the same time, Spurgeon Memorial Church on Aylesbury Street in Fenny Stratford was considering the future of its aging building, dating back to 1892.

The two congregations found they shared common interests and were asking the same questions, and came together to discuss a possible joint project. The discussions went on for some time, with both congregations conscious of the needs of the local community.

Eventually, the two congregations committed themselves to a shared project, with a building designed to be of service to the community and in the service of God. Buckinghamshire County Council became fully involved in the project when it came to the building catering for the needs of children and local young people in the area.

The cost of the project was met from a variety of sources: the major contributions coming from the sale of Spurgeon’s Baptist Church site on Aylesbury Street, a grant from Buckinghamshire County Council, and from the sale of a Boys’ Brigade property, while Saint Frideswide’s contributed the value of the site.

Thee building is a shared project, designed to be of service to the community and in the service of God (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The building was designed by the architects Hinton Brown Madden and Lingstone of Leamington Spa, and was built by JW Dennis of Bletchley.

The original 1950s/1960s Saint Frideswide’s Church buildings were altered and extended, and a youth hall was added, along with Boys’ Brigade room and ancillary rooms. The car park was a joint one with Sycamore Club and its cost was met by Milton Keynes Borough Council. The Water Eaton Church Centre was opened on the 10 June 1975.

The first phase of the work behind the church centre on the landscaping and play area for the local community and the church was completed in 2003.

Saint Frideswide’s describes itself as a church where ‘we have fun, make friends and grow disciples of Jesus’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Frideswide’s is a resource hub in the Diocese of Oxford for community organising and church growth. It is part of the deanery of Milton Keynes and the Diocese of Oxford. It is also a member of CitizensMK, an alliance of diverse organisations in the city working together for the common good of the local communities.

Saint Frideswide’s describes itself as a church where ‘we have fun, make friends and grow disciples of Jesus,’ and ‘living in the fullness of life which God intends for us, and to help others do the same.’

The Revd Catherine Butt has been the Vicar of Saint Frideswide’s since September 2017 after 14 years as part of the leadership team of Saint Mary’s, Bletchley. The Revd Ayo Audu joined the parish as curate in July 2021 after training at Saint Mellitus College. The Revd Steve Hallett is the Associate Minister, and Nudrat Hopper is the congregational development and community organiser.

The main Sunday service is at 9:15 am, with a 5 pm ‘tea time service.’ ‘Soup for the Soul’ at 1 pm every Tuesday offers time for reflection over lunch.

Saint Frideswide’s is a resource hub in the Diocese of Oxford for community organising and church growth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Baptist work in Fenny Stratford started in 1797 and by 1805 there was a small meeting house in Aylesbury Street. A new Spurgeon Memorial Church was built in Aylesbury Street in 1892 and new schoolrooms were added in 1905.

The church takes its name from the 19th century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for 38 years. He died the year the memorial church was built in Fenny Stratford.

Spurgeon Baptist Church now shares the Water Eaton Church Centre with Saint Frideswide’s, Church of England. The leadership at Spurgeon Baptist Church is congregational, with every church member having a say in running the church. The church members elect the deacons, currently six in number, the secretary and the treasurer. With the minister, they make up the diaconate which is responsible for spiritual leadership, oversight and day-to-day administration.

The Revd Mung Hatzaw has been the Baptist minister in Water Eaton since the beginning of the month (1 March 2024), although, in the short term, some services are led by members of the lay preaching team. The Baptist Sunday services are at 10:55.

The cross outside Water Eaton Church Centre has become a local landmark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Searching for the ruins of Osney Abbey, ‘the greatest building Oxford has lost’

All that remains of Osney Abbey, once an important mediaeval monastic house and briefly the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The Diocese of Oxford has more church buildings than any other diocese in the Church of England and has more paid clergy than any other diocese except London. The diocese includes Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with another five churches in nearby counties.

The Diocese of Oxford was formed out of part of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1542, and Osney Abbey was designated the original cathedral. This was changed in 1545 to Saint Frideswide’s Priory, which became Christ Church Cathedral.

During my visit to Oxford last week, I went in search of Osney Abbey, later Osney Cathedral. But the site was difficult to find and there few remains of the ruins of the former abbey or cathedral could be sees. The site is south of the Botley Road, down Mill Street and close to Osney Cemetery. I found it a few steps west of the railway line, just south of Oxford Station and 300-400 metres south-west of the Church of Saint Thomas the Martyr – although the two are now separated by the railway line, linked to each other by a lengthy footbridge.

Osney Abbey was one of the four great monastic houses of mediaeval Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Osney Abbey was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1129, and became an abbey in 1154. It was one of the four renowned monastic houses of mediaeval Oxford, along with the Augustinian Saint Frideswide’s Priory (now Christ Church), Rewley Abbey of the Cistercians, on the north side of Osney Island, and the nunnery at Godstow Abbey.

Visiting the few sparse remains of Osney Abbey last week, it is difficult to imagine how this was also one of the great houses of the Augustinian Canons Regular in mediaeval England, alongside Saint Osyth’s Priory in Essex, Cirencester Abbey in Gloucestershire, and Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, in London, as well as Llanthony Priory in Wales.

At the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, Osney Abbey was surrendered and briefly served as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Oxford, and the last Abbot of Osney, Robert King, became the first Bishop of Oxford.

However, little remains of the abbey today, and what is still standing is difficult to find, at the end of a narrow street, between the railway line and the river. The current navigation of the River Thames, replacing the old navigation to the east side of Osney Island, is believed to have been engineered by the canons of the abbey to turn their mill.

Osney Abbey was founded as Saint Mary’s Church on Osney Island, immediately west of Oxford Castle, almost 900 years ago in 1129 by Robert D’Oyly, Governor of Oxford and nephew of Robert D’Oyly, who built Oxford Castle. His wife Edith Forne wanted to atone for her past life as the mistress of Henry I, and encouraged her husband to found the priory.

The foundation of the priory is associated with her story of chattering magpies, interpreted by a chaplain as souls in Purgatory who needed the foundation of a monastery to free them from their sins.

Edith was buried in Osney Abbey in a religious habit. John Leland describes seeing her tomb on the eve of the dissolution: ‘Ther lyeth an image of Edith, of stone, in th’ abbite of a vowess, holding a hart in her right hand, on the north side of the high altaire’. The legendary dream of magpies was painted near the tomb.

Osney Abbey was the venue of the Synod of Oxford in 1222 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

When the Augustinian Priory in Osney was founded 1129, it was a house for 26 canons. After the priory became an abbey in 1154, it became one of the most important monastic houses in England.

The Augustinians of Osney provided six of the canons for Henry II’s re-foundation of the Church of the Holy Cross, Waltham, as an Augustinian house in 1177. When this became Waltham Abbey in 1184, the first abbot was a canon of Osney. The church of Saint George in Oxford Castle was translated and annexed to the abbey in 1199.

By the 13th century, Osney Abbey had 50 canons, and the Synod of Oxford met there in May 1222. The synod was called by Archbishop Stephen Langton, and is notable for a number of decisions. The Synod implemented the anti-Jewish decrees passed by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, including laws that banned social relations between Jews and Christians, levied church tithes against Jews, forced English Jews to wear an identifying badge, and banned building new synagogues.

These laws passed at Oxford in 1222 were the precursor to further anti-Jewish statutes, in particular those passed in 1253 and 1275. This increasing intolerance culminated in the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290.

For many centuries, it was thought that the decision that Saint George’s Day should be celebrated on 23 April as a holy day in England was made at this synod, although, since the 1960s, historians have regarded this as an invention. The Synod also established celebration of the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ on 1 January, building on long-established celebrations of the start of the Julian calendar year.

When the papal legate, Cardinal Otto Candidus, visited Osney in July 1237, a brawl broke out between a group of scholars from the university and the cardinal’s men. During the brawl, the legate’s cook was killed, and the cardinal was locked for safety in the abbey tower. When he emerged unscathed, he placed the city under interdict in reprisal.

Osney Abbey was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by Abbot Leech in 1247. In the 13th century, the abbey was engaged in a large banking business, enabling it to invest in property in Oxford. The abbey’s endowments included the Manor of Water Eaton, the Island of Osney, some rents and property in Oxford, churches in Watlington, Kidlington, Hook Norton, Weston-on-the-Green, Chastleton, with Claydon in Buckinghamshire, and Shenstone near Lichfield in Staffordshire.

Eventually the house had property in more than 120 places, scattered across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, with small possessions in Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Middlesex, and Bedfordshire. It also had two churches in Ireland, Kiltevenan (now Kiltinan), near Fethard, Co Tipperary, and Balibrenan, and other lands.

The number of canons was reduced from 50 to 27 after the Black Death in 1377. By 1445, the abbey consisted of the abbot and 26 canons, two of whom were absent, in Bibury and in Ireland.

Osney Island included Osney Abbey and Osney Mill, and the place plays a minor but significant role in the notoriously bawdy ‘Miller’s Tale’ in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

Osney plays a minor but significant role in ‘The Miller’s Tale’ in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

In 1481, the Abbot of Osney was granted permission to wear a mitre, and to confer minor orders on the novices.

When the Bishop of Lincoln made a visitation to Osney in 1499, the abbey was in debt and the buildings were out of repair. The abbot was ordered not to spend more than 40 marks a year on clothes, food and fire, until the debts of the house were paid. He was to have but one cook and one butler, and was to have the manor of Medley for his residence. No strangers were to be invited to feasts at the expense of the abbey, no canon was to be allowed to go into Oxford except for study or for reasonable cause, and the prior was not to frequent taverns and disreputable places.

The visitations in 1518 and 1520 show the abbey had an abbot, 19 canons, including one in Ireland, and six novices. One of the canons, named Taunton, was described as utterly irreligious and unwilling to rise to mattins more than once in a month. After he had been corrected many times, he was banished to the property of the monastery in Ireland, but then fled to the Bishop of Lincoln. The abbot excommunicated him for this, and the bishop in return excommunicated the abbot. The canons complained that by excommunicating the abbot the bishop had brought discredit on their house.

Another canon is described as utterly irreligious, a fomenter of strife, one who threatened with a dagger those with whom he disagreed. The debts of the house were estimated by one canon at £500, by another at £800, while the income was estimated at £730.

One of the canons had spoken contumelious words of the bishop in 1520, saying 'that he caryd not a teide for his malice.' By then, Taunton was back at Osney and incarcerated, but the bishop showed that he was not entirely satisfied with the state of things, by adjourning his visitation for nine months instead of dissolving or closing it.

The abbot resigned in 1524, and was allowed a pension of £60. He was succeeded by the Prior of Saint Frideswide’s, which at the time was in the process of suppression.

Sir John Tregonwell and Dean Richard Layton were the principal agents of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. They visited Osney in September 1535, and issued injunctions that no canon should leave the precincts for any cause.

Against these orders the abbot, John Burton, protested to Cromwell, saying he could not receive his rents nor see to the repairs of his manors. He said Osney stood very low and in a wet situation, ‘and I was brought up in wholesome ground of the King’s College, sometime called the monastery of Saint Frideswide.’ He argued that if he remained continuously at Osney his life would be shortened.

The abbots of Osney and Eynsham were accused in January 1537 of speaking ‘obtrectuous’ words against the king, but this was dismissed as merely the wild invention of a crazy talebearer, John Parkyns.

Great Tom, the ‘loudest thing in Oxford,’ was taken from the tower of Osney Abbey and hangs in Tom Tower at Christ Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Osney Abbey was surrendered to the king in November 1539 and dissolved. The last abbot was Robert King, a suffragan Bishop of Lincoln who subsequently became the first Bishop of Oxford. As he was a Cistercian monk and Abbot of Thame, he must have been temporarily appointed to Osney, with his elevation to bishop in view.

From September 1542 until June 1544, Osney Abbey was the seat of the new Bishops of Oxford. However, Osney was costly to run as a cathedral and in 1545 the bishop moved to the smaller and cheaper cathedral at Christ Church. Later, during the reign of Queen Mary, King was one of the judges at the trial of Thomas Cranmer.

The abbey buildings soon fell into decay and were despoiled for the sake of the new foundation. Much of the stone found its way into local buildings, including Saint Frideswide’s as it was transformed into Christ Church.

Osney Abey has been described as the greatest building Oxford has lost. Great Tom, the bell described as the ‘loudest thing in Oxford,’ now hanging in Tom Tower at Christ Church, was taken from the tower of Osney Abbey at the dissolution. A good deal of the monastic property was also transferred to Christ Church, and the remains of the abbey became a source of building material for the city.

During the Civil War, the former abbey was used to fortify the city and an explosion in a powder house in 1643 caused further damage. The remaining west tower was pulled down a few years later.

The site was leased to a clothier, the iron, glass and woodwork were removed and most of the old buildings were demolished. The much reduced ruins were later drawn by Thomas Hearne of Saint Edmund Hall in 1720.

All the buildings have since been destroyed, apart from a rubble and timber-framed structure that may date from the 15th century. The remnants were Grade II listed in 1954.

Osney has about 200 households today, mainly in 19th-century terraced cottages built on a grid pattern by George Hester to house railway workers. The island also has two public houses, and is part of the Oxford ward of Jericho and Osney.

The long disused Osney Mill has been converted to housing, close to Osney Lock. To the east is Osney Cemetery and the site of the abbey includes Osney Mill Marina, on a 500 metre long island originally formed for the mill. To the north are Oxford railway station and Botley Road, the busy road west out of Oxford.

Last year, the 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford at Osney in 1222 was marked at a service in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, in May 2022, attended by Christians and Jews. Archbishop Justin Welby described it as ‘an opportunity to remember, repent and rebuild.’

Osney Marina is beside the ruins of Osney Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, finding the literary and cultural legacy of Berkhamsted

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, Berkhamsted has a rich literary and cultural heritage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

There was so much to see in Berkhamsted during my visit earlier this month that I returned again this week. Apart from the castle and Saint Peter’s Church, which I described in a blog posting earlier this week, I was interested to learn more about the town’s many literary and cultural associations, from Geoffrey Chaucer and the ‘Physician’s Tale’ to Maria Edgeworth, William Cowper and Peter Pan, and to Graham Greene, Claud Cockburn and the early days of the BBC.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the Canterbury Tales, is said to have visited Berkhamsted in 1389 to oversee renovations at the castle after he was appointed the clerk of the king’s works. During his time in office, Chaucer organised most of the king's building projects, including repairs to Westminster Palace and Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor, and work on the wharf at the Tower of London.

It is not known whether Chaucer spent much time working at Berkhamsted Castle. It is claimed by some sourves that while Chaucer was at Berkhamsted he got to know – or least know of – John of Gaddesden, who lived nearby in Little Gaddesden and who became the model for the Doctor of Phisick in the Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400.

Berkhamsted Castle … did Geoffrey Chaucer ever spend any time working there? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

However, Chaucer could never have met John of Gaddesden (1280-1361), who died almost a generation before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted. Indeed, the ‘Physician’s Tale’ is usually seen as an early work by Chaucer, probably written before much of the rest of the Canterbury Tales. The long digression possibly alludes to an historical event that may date it to 1386, three years before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted.

John of Gaddesden was a writer in his own right too. He was born near Berkhamsted, but spent most of his academic life in Oxford. He was the author of Rosa Medicinae (‘The Rose of Medicine’), or Rosa Anglica (‘The English Rose’). It was written between 1304 and 1317, and regarded as the first English textbook of medicine.

John of Gaddesden was a theologian, a fellow at Merton College, Oxford, a physician to kings and princes, and the most celebrated medical authorities of his day. It is said his medical works, alongside those of Gilbertus Anglicus, formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years.

The hymn writer William Cowper (1731-1800) was born in Berkhamsted Rectory, where his father, the Revd John Cowper, was the Rector, and was baptised in Saint Peter’s Church.

Although William Cowper moved from Berkhamsted when was still a boy, there are frequent references to the town in his poems and letters, and two windows in Saint Peter’s Church commemorate his life and writing. His popular hymns include ‘Oh! for a closer walk with God,’ and he give the English language the phrase ‘God moves in a mysterious way.’

Cowper was an active abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement. In the Victorian era, Cowper became a cult figure and Berkhamsted was a place of pilgrimage. He was quoted by the Revd Martin Luther King in his protest speeches in the 1960s.

Dean Thomas Charles Fry was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School for almost quarter of a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), a prolific writer of adults’ and children’s literature, was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She lived in Berkhamsted as a child in the 18th century. She spent her early years with her mother’s family, living at The Limes, now known as Edgeworth House, in Northchurch, Berkhamsted.

Her mother died in 1773 when Maria was five. Later that year, her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) from Lichfield, married his second wife Honora Sneyd, and Maria went with them to live on his Irish estate af Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.

Between 1904 and 1907, the five Llewelyn Davies boys were the inspiration for the author and playwright JM Barrie’s Peter Pan. Their grandfather, the Revd John Llewelyn Davies, was outspoken on social issues like poverty and inequality, and active in Christian socialist groups.

Their parents, Sylvia (1866-1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863-1907), moved out of London and went to live in Egerton House, an Elizabethan mansion in Berkhamsted, in 1904, the year when Barrie’s play had its debut. The brothers were first cousins of the writer Daphne du Maurier.

The Revd Dr Thomas Charles Fry (1846-1930), was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School in 1887-1910. He was one of the pioneers in the work of the Christian Social Union, and was the author of Old Testament History for Schools, Social Policy for the Church and Sermons on Social Subjects. Later, as the Dean of Lincoln (1910-1930), Fry worked devotedly to raise funds for the restoration of the cathedral.

Saint John’s House, Berkhamsted … the birthplace of Graham Greene (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

While Fry was headmaster of Berkhamsted, his wife’s cousin, Charles Henry Greene (1865-1942), was second master and the housemaster at Saint John’s House. When Fry became Dean of Lincoln in 1910, Greene succeeded him as headmaster of Berkhamsted.

Greene’s brother, Edward Greene, once a highly successful coffee merchant in Brazil, also moved to Berkhamsted, and lived in some splendour at the Hall or Berkhamsted Hall, near the Rectory. Edward Greene bought the house in 1917 and was the last private resident there. The Hall was used by Berkhamsted School as a prep school from 1928, while the former gardens were sold off for housing development. By then, however, the house was suffering from dry rot, and finally it was demolished in 1937.

Both Charles Greene and Edward Grene each had six children and this influential generation of cousins were key figures in literary and cultural life in 20th century.

Graham Greene (1904-1991), one of the ‘School House’ Greenes, is the best known of these cousins. He was a bestselling novelist by the age of 28 and he was often tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also known as a politically contrarian, anti-American, a Catholic convert, a sometime publisher, a spy and a friend of Kim Philby.

In The Human Factor (1978), Graham Greene describes a scene in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, when a sonic boom suddenly ‘shook the old glass of the west window and rattled the crusader’s helmet which hung on a pillar.’ The helmet is that of Sir Adolphus Carey – who lived 300 years after the crusades.

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (1910-1987), Graham Greene’s youngest brother, first made his name as a journalist in pre-war Nazi Germany. During World War II, he was in charge of BBC broadcasting to Germany. He later became the director general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969, modernising the BBC at a time of great social change.

After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother Graham Greene, and made television programmes both for the BBC and ITV.

Their oldest brother, Herbert Greene, is often seen as the ‘black sheep’ in the family, and he became the model for several of Graham Greene’s antiheroes, such as Anthony Farrant in England Made Me.

Another brother, Dr Raymond Greene (1901-1982), was a doctor and mountaineer who took part in two Everest expeditions. He chaired Heinemann Medical Books from 1960 to 1980, and his autobiography, Moments of Being, was published in 1974.

The ‘Hall’ Greene cousins included the journalist Felix Greene (1909-1985), a creative figure in the early history of the BBC who set up its American offices in the 1930s. He first visited China for the BBC in 1957, and he was one of the first Western reporters to visit North Vietnam when he travelled there for the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1960s. He published books on China, Vietnam in 1960s and 1970s.

His brother Ben Greene (1901-1978) was a fellow pacifist, a Quaker and a key figure in the pre-war Labour Party. But he moved to the far-right politically, and during World War II he was imprisoned without trial along with the fascist Oswald Mosley.

The literary contemporaries of the Greene cousins at Berkhamsted School included Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), who lived later at Myrtle Grove in Youghal, Co Cork, from 1947, and in Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times.

Other writers and literary figures in school with the Greenes at Berkhamsted include Sir Peter Quennell (1905-1993); the diplomat Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985), who wrote a number of books about his career, including The India We Left and The Middle East in Revolution; and the diplomat and writer Sir Cecil Parrott (1909-1984), known for his translation of Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk and The Red Commissar, his biography of Hašek, The Bad Bohemian, and his autobiographical books, The Tightrope and The Serpent and the Nightingale.

The children’s authors HE Todd, author of the Bobby Brewster books, and Hilda van Stockum have also lived in Berkhamsted.

Greene's Court … place names are reminders of the literary legacy of Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)