A will in the Bodleian in Oxford links Comberford Hall with the Battle of Bosworth Field and Stanley family intrigues

Comberford Hall, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth … William Stanley was living at Comberford when he made his will in 1552 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been in Oxford three times in the space of six or seven weeks for medical tests, surgical procedures and hospital visits, with one overnight stay, and time too for walks by the river, Choral Evensong in Pusey House and browsing in the bookshops.

During some of those visits, I began thinking about the potential for resources in the Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts that might be important sources for my continuing research in genealogy and family history when I came across the will of William Stanley (1474-1552) of Comberford, Staffordshire, made in 1552.

William Stanley’s kinship with King Henry VII, although there was a 20-year age gap, is analagous to that of a third cousin: his father, Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, was a second cousin of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, who married the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. William Stanley’s will is held the Bodleian Libraries as part of the Weld Family Papers, including deeds relating to the manors in Staffordshire held by the Stanley, Heveningham, Simeon, Weld and Eyre families, dating from 1293 to 1809.

This collection of papers in Oxford includes deeds, family papers, court rolls, list of charges and even an indulgence granted to Sir John Stanley by Michael Laskeis (?Laskaris), in return for a florin given to Laskeis to help him liberate his family at Constantinople in 1468. Among the wills in this collection in the Bodleian are two wills of Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, dated 1516 and 1518, and the will of her son William Stanley of Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth, made in 1552.

The Bodleian Library, Oxford … a collection includes the wills of Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, and her son William Stanley of Comberford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I wondered why William Stanley was living at Comberford Hall, and how he was related to one of the most powerful political families in Staffordshire, who were among the kingmakers during the wars of succession now known as the ‘Wars of the Roses’.

The Stanley family rose to political prominence first in Lancashire and Cheshire through Sir John Stanley (I) (ca 1350-1414), a younger son of Sir William de Stanley of Stourton.

John Stanley married Isabel Lathom, despite the opposition of John of Gaunt, and as heiress she brought him great wealth. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on three occasions (1386-1388, 1399-1401, 1413-1414), and was granted the Lordship of Mann or the Isle of Man by Henry IV in 1406, becoming titular King of Mann. He died on 6 June 1414 at Ardee, Co Louth, and was brought back to England and buried in Burscough Priory, Lancashire.

John Stanley and Isabel Lathom were the parents of both Sir John Stanley II (1386-1437), ancestor of the Earls of Derby, and Thomas Stanley (1392-1463), ancestor of the Stanleys of Elford and of William Stanley of Comberford Hall.

The Stanley coat-of-arms (left) in a stained glass window in the Chapter House, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The eldest son, Sir John Stanley II (1386-1437), was also titular King of Mann. He died on 27 November 1437 in Anglesey, Wales, and was buried in Saint Oswald Churchyard, Winwick, Cheshire. He married Elizabeth Harrington and they were the parents of three sons and two daughters, including: Thomas Stanley (ca 1405-1459), 1st Baron Stanley; Richard Stanley, Archdeacon of Chester (1425–1433); and Edward Stanley, Archdeacon of Chester (1454-1462) – at the time, Chester was part of the Diocese of Lichfield or Coventry and Lichfield.

The eldest son of Sir John Stanley II, Sir Thomas Stanley (1405-1459), was the titular King of Mann, 1st Baron Stanley (1456) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1431-1436). He died at Knowsley, Lancashire, on 20 February 1459 . John Stanley and Joan Goushill were the parents of three daughters and four sons, including: Thomas Stanley (1435-1504), 1st Earl of Derby; and James Stanley (1478-1485), who was also Archdeacon of Chester when it was still part of the Diocese of Lichfield.

The eldest surviving son, Thomas Stanley (1435-1504), was the 1st Earl of Derby and became the stepfather of King Henry VII. He was the last of the Stanleys to style himself King of Mann. His first wife Lady Eleanor Neville, was a daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, a descendant of Edward III and a sister of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (‘Warwick the Kingmaker’), creating a powerful alliance with the House of York. In 1472, when the House of York was back on the throne, he married his second wife, the widowed Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), whose son, Henry Tudor, later became Henry VII.

Lady Margaret Beaufort married Thomas Stanley in 1472 and founded Christ’s College and Saint John’s College, Cambridge … her coat of arms at the gatehouse of Christ’s College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

After the death of her second husband Sir Henry Stafford, Lady Margaret Beaufort married Thomas Stanley in 1472. She founded both Christ’s College and Saint John’s College in Cambridge, and gives her name to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was a daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and had previously married Edmund Tudor (1430-1456), 1st Earl of Richmond and half-brother of Henry VI, and then Sir Henry Stafford (1433-1471), son of the Duke of Buckingham.

Haselour Hall, one of the homes of the Stanley family in Staffordshire, became one of her homes too, and the house played a role in the War of the Roses. The house is within the boundaries of Lichfield District Council, 4.6 km from Comberford and from Comberford Hall, 12 km east of Lichfield and 8.3 km north of Tamworth. Haselour Hall is the house where Thomas Stanley’s son, the future Henry VII, is said to have spent the night before his decisive victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Henry Tudor, then Earl of Richmond, is said to have spent a night at Haselour Hall, after slipping away from his march from Lichfield to the Battle of Bosworth Field with a small band of his guards before his decisive victory in 1485. While he was visiting his mother, Henry entreated Stanley, his step-father, to join him in battle against Richard III. Stanley, however, refused to choose sides, opting instead to remain neutral for a while longer before making clear his allegiance. This neutrality was so important to the Stanleys, that when Richard kidnapped one of Stanley’s sons to force him to join his ranks, Stanley replied laconically: ‘I have other sons.’

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle in the War of the Roses. On the day of the battle, it is said that Stanley watched it unfold from afar, and when Henry defeated Richard III, Stanley rode down the hill from which he was watching, took the defeated king’s crown from his head and used it to crown Henry VII, only then pledging his allegiance to the new king. It was a decisive intervention that brought an end to the War of Roses and put the first of the Tudors on the throne of England.

Thomas Stanley died on 29 July 1504, and was buried in the family chapel in Burscough Priory. His descendants included the subsequent Earls of Derby. When Lady Margaret died on 29 June 1509, she was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

Haselour Hall, one of the homes of the Stanley family in Staffordshire, played a role in the War of the Roses

Meanwhile, the second surviving son of Sir John Stanley who died in 1414, was Thomas Stanley (1392-1463) of Elford. He was Sheriff of Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, and MP for Staffordshire, and he was the ancestor of the Elford branch of the Stanley family, which continued until 1508.

Thomas Stanley acquired the Elford estates through his marriage to Matilda Arderne (1396-1423) of Elford. The most famous member of her family was Sir Thomas Arderne, who fought with the Black Prince at Crecy and Poitiers. Matilda and Thomas Stanley were the parents of a daughter and two sons: Anne Gresley, Sir John Stanley and George Stanley.

The younger son, George Stanley (ca 1440-1509) of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, High Sheriff of Staffordshire (1473), has been identified recently with the Stanley effigy in the South Choir Aisle in Lichfield Cathedral, despite its Victorian inscription.

Elford Hall, home of the Stanley family and their descendants, was demolished in 1964 (Photograph © Lost Heritage/Staffordshire Past Track)

The elder son, Sir John Stanley (1423-1474) of Elford, was married three times. He was first married in 1428 at the age of five and with a special church dispensation, to Cecile de Arderne of Harden, and eventually were the parents a son, Sir John Stanley (1447-1508).

His second wife Isabel Vernon (1427-1471), daughter of Sir Richard Vernon of Haddon, Speaker of the House of Commons, and they were the parents of three daughters and a son, Sir Humphrey Stanley (1452-1505) of Pipe. His third wife was Dulcia Leigh, and they were parents of a further son, Roger Stanley. When this Sir Thomas Stanley died in 1474, he was buried in Saint Peter’s Church, Elford, and his eldest son, also Sir John Stanley, succeeded to the Elford estates.

This eldest son, John Stanley (1447-1508) of Elford, is said to have joined his first cousin’s son Thomas Stanley (Lord Stanley) and Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, at Haselour Hall on 21 August 1484 ahead of the Battle of Bosworth Field. Lord Stanley’s decisive intervention in the Battle of Bosworth the next day brought the first of the Tudor monarchs to the throne.

Local legend says John Stanley was the father of John Stanley, the last male heir of the Elford Stanleys, who was fatally injured ca 1460 by a tennis ball that severed his jugular vein. He is depicted in a monument in Saint Peter’s Church, Elford, that was completely restored in the Victorian period. The ‘Stanley boy’ has short hair and a simple robe, his left hand holds a round object, and his right touches the side of the face, while a Latin inscription on the plinth reads Ubi dolor ibi digitus (‘Where the pain is, there is the finger’).

The legend is retold by many local historians, including Sampson Erdeswicke (1603), William Wyrley and Thomas Pennant (1781). However, Sophie Oosterwijk has examined all the historical evidence and concludes the effigy is a post-mediaeval forgery and the unusual hand gestures may have been introduced by a 17th or 18th century forger to illustrate the legend even more convincingly.

Putting legends aside, John Stanley was the father of three daughters who eventually became co-heiresses to the Elford estates: Maud married Sir John Ferrers (1438-1484) of Tamworth Castle; Anne married Christopher Savage of Worcestershire; and Margery married William Staunton. Elford passed through the female line to William Staunton then to Richard Huddlestone, then to William Smythe and finally to Sir John Bowes.

This line of descent then continued in the Bowes, Howard and Paget families until the end of the 1930s. Henry Bowes Howard (1687-1757), 11th Earl of Suffolk and 4th Earl of Berkshire, built a new hall on the site of the old Elford Hall, ca 1720-1730. Elford Hall was finally demolished in 1964.

Pipe Hall near Lichfield … once home of the branch of the Stanley family that included William Stanley of Comberford Hall (Photograph © Pipe Green Trust)

Sir John Stanley (1423-1474) of Elford and his second wife Isabel Vernon (1427-1471) were also the parents of Sir Humphrey Stanley (ca 1452-1504), of Pipe Hall near Lichfield.

Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall married Dame Ellen Lee, daughter of Sir James Lee of Stone, and they were the parents of four sons, John, William, Humphrey and George, and two daughters, Maud (Wolverston) and Alice (Swinnerton).

Sir Humphrey Stanley died on 12 March 1504 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. But antiquarians in the 18th century mistakenly identified him with the Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral. His widow, as Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of made two wills, dated 1516 and 1518, that are in the collection of papers in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, that includes the will of her son William Stanley (1474-1552), who lived at Comberford Hall.

Their eldest son, Sir John Stanley of the Pipe Hall near Lichfield, married Margaret Gerard, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard, and they were the parents of father of two daughter and co-heiresses: Isabel, who married Walter Moyle of Kent, and was the mother of an only daughter Mary, who married Erasmus Heveningham; and Elizabeth, who married Sir John Hercy of Grove, Nottinghamshire.

The Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A brass plate in the niche above the Stanley effigy in the South Choir Aisle in Lichfield Cathedral has long identified it as the tomb of John Stanley, son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe. But this appears to be a Victorian addition and so is not conclusive evidence of the effigy’s subject.

William Stanley (1474-1552), who lived at Comberford Hall, was the second son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall and Dame Ellen Lee. He was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, in 1474, and he married the much younger Margaret Comberford (1494-1568), daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy FitzHerbert. She was a sister of Humphrey Comberford, of Comberford Hall and Master of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1530; Richard Comberford, putative ancestor of the Comerfords of Kilkenny and Wexford; Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral; and John Comberford of Wednesbury.

How did William Stanley come to live at Comberford Hall in the 1550s? He was then in his mid-70s and I can only speculate that this is because his eldest brother-in-law was living at on the Northamptonshire estates at Watford, Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger inherited from the Parles family; the next brother, Canon Henry Comberford, was heavily involved in Church life; Richard may have died by then; and John was living on the family’s estates in Wednesbury.

William Stanley and Margaret Comberford had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s. They were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy.

Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), who married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574), daughter of Mary Moyle and Erasmus Heveningham. Dorothy and Christopher were the parents of Dorothy Heveningham and Sir Walter Heveningham, of Aston and Pipe, and the descendants of these lines of the Stanley and Comberford families continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations.

But this is a story that involves continuous litigation, lost fortunes, and economic decline. And that is, indeed, a story for another day.

As an aside that brings me back to those recent visits to Oxford, the crest in the Stanley coat of arms gave rise to the popularity of the Eagle and Child as the name for public houses in England, often in former manors once held by the Stanley family. They include the Eagle and Child on St Giles in Oxford, currently undergoing extensive refurbishment. It is known for its literary associations and is affectionately dubbed ‘the Bird and Baby’.

The Eagle and Child on St Giles in Oxford, currently undergoing extensive refurbishment (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG: 3 February 2023

Saint Werburgh’s statue at the south west-corner of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Feast of the Presentation yesterday (2 February) concluded the 40-day season of Christmas and Epiphany.

In these days of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday later this month (22 February), I am reflecting in these ways each morning:

1, reflecting on a saint or interesting person in the life of the Church;

2, one of the lectionary readings of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The majestic interior of Saint Werburgh’s Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Werburgh of Chester:

Saint Werburgh, whose feast day is today (3 February), is the patron saint of of Chester and has close associations with Lichfield and Ely.

Saint Werburgh was born an Anglo-Saxon princess in Mercia at Stone in Mercia (now in Staffordshire) ca 650. She was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia and his wife Saint Ermenilda. With her father’s consent, she entered the Abbey of Ely, which had been founded by her great-aunt Etheldreda (Audrey), the first Abbess of Ely and former queen of Northumbria.

Werburgh was trained at home by Saint Chad (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield), and by her mother; and in the cloister by her aunt and grandmother. Werburgh was a nun for most of her life. During some of her life she was resident in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

Werburgh was instrumental in convent reform across England. She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Seaxburh, and he great-aunt Etheldreda as the fourth Abbess of Ely. She died on 3 February 700 and was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire.

Following Saint Werburgh’s death, her brother Coenred became king of Mercia. In 708, he decided to move his sister’s body into the church in Hanbury. When the tomb was opened, her body was found to be intact, and this was taken as a sign of divine favour. A year later, he abdicated and become a monk in Rome.

According to one story about Werburgh, she restored a dead goose to life. A stained glass window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, recalls to another tale in which she banished all the geese from the village.

Saint Werburgh’s shrine remained at Hanbury until the threat from Danish Viking raids in the late ninth century, when they were moved to Chester, where a new shrine was established at the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, later the site of Chester Cathedral. The church has since been rededicated to Saint Werburgh and Saint Oswald of Northumbria.

A monastery in the names of Saint Werburgh and Saint Oswald was attached to the church in the 11th century. The Abbey church was rebuilt by 1075 and further endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia.

Saint Werburgh’s shrine remained a place of veneration after 1066 and the Norman conquest. Hugh d’Avranches, Earl of Chester, endowed the abbey with additional property in 1093, enlarged and rebuilt the church, and established a Benedictine monastery. The monks came from Bec Abbey in Normandy, which also provided the first two post-Conquest Archbishops of Canterbury, Lanfranc and Anselm.

Hugh d’Avranches entered the monastery shortly before he died and was buried there. During the Middle Ages, the badge of a gaggle of geese became a symbol of a pilgrimage to Saint Werburgh’s shrine.

Monks from Chester or perhaps Bristol later brought the cult of Saint Werburgh to Ireland, and Saint Werburgh’s Church in Dublin was first built in 1178.

The dissolution of the abbey in 1540 led to the creation of Chester Cathedral, which was rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her elaborate 14th century shrine was broken up and her relics were lost. Parts of the surviving stonework were reassembled in 1876.

Saint Werburgh remains the patron saint of Chester. The churches dedicated to her include churches in Dublin, Derby and Spondon. The village of Warburton near Manchester is named after its parish church of Saint Werburgh.

I have often taken services and preached on Sundays in Saint Werburgh’s Church, Dublin, which ws one of the churches in the Christ Church Cathedral group of parishes until it closed recently. It is one of the oldest churches in Dublin, dating back to 1178, when a church was built on this site shortly after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Dublin. The church is first mentioned in a letter of Pope Alexander III dated 1179.

In the 18th century, Saint Werburgh’s became a fashionable city centre church, attended by the Lord Lieutenant and his entourage, and with a reserved Viceregal pew. Saint Werburgh’s was the Chapel Royal attached to Dublin Castle, the Viceroys were sworn into office there and seats were reserved for the officers and soldiers of Dublin Castle until 1888.

Saint Weburgh is one of the many saints carved on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral. The Two Saints’ Way is a project to recreate a pilgrim way linking the shrines of Saint Chad in Lichfield and Saint Werburgh in Chester. This pilgrim way gives its name to Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield, where I stay regularly at the Hedgehog on the corner with Stafford Road.

The project owes everything to David Pott, an experienced long distance walker. At an early stage, his dream was of a pilgrimage trail from Stafford over Cannock Chase along the Heart of England Way to Lichfield Cathedral and the shrine of Saint Chad.

Later, he learned about the pilgrimage route between Chester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral. Many pilgrims on that route would continue to Canterbury or even to Rome or Jerusalem. He then thought of linking Lichfield with the shrine of Saint Werburgh, using existing paths to create a revived pilgrimage route between the two cathedral cities.

The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard some years ago brought a new interest in Mercian heritage, attracting support from people with links with Staffordshire University, British Waterways, local tourist boards, and the cathedrals in Chester and Lichfield.

Saint Werburgh or Saint Barbra? … Werburgh Street in Dublin is named after Saint Werburgh of Chester, Ely and Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 6: 7-13 (NSRVA):

7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

The Two Saints’ Way … markers along the road at Cross in Hand Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is the ‘Opening Our Hearts.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by James Roberts, Christian Programme Manager at the Council of Christians and Jews, who reflected on Holocaust Memorial Day last Friday and World Interfaith Harmony Week, which began on Wednesday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for a world where persecution is no more. May we examine our own prejudices, work for an end to discrimination and campaign against injustice.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Werburgh’s Church in inner-city Dublin (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

Sad to hear of the plans to close Saint John’s College, Nottingham

Saint John’s College, Nottingham … due to close next summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

It was sad to read in the Church Times at the weekend that Saint John’s College, Nottingham, is to close after 156 years.

While I was on the staff of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, I worked closely with Saint John’s and the college staff. The principal, Canon Christina Baxter, was an external examiner at CITI and a regular visitor, and I also worked closely with other staff members, including the Revd Dr Tim Hull, tutor in theology.

With other members of academic staff at CITI, I lectured on the three-year course for NSM ordinands leading to Certificate in Christian Studies awarded by Saint John’s in association with the Open University and the University of Chester. I also supervised post-graduate research leading to the MA in theology and art from Saint John’s College and the University of Nottingham.

I regularly visited theological colleges in England, to compare notes and network with academics who were teaching in the same fields as I was teaching in, including Church History, Liturgy and Patristics, and I was welcomed to Saint John’s in 2013.

A statement last week said the college council agreed last month [11 November 2019] ‘that the operation of the current configuration of St John’s is no longer financially viable in the long term,’ and that the process of closure would begin.

It now looks as though most of the 28 people working at Saint John’s, including tutors, are to transfer to new posts in institutions that continue the college’s distance-learning and youth-ministry work. But, inevitably, there will be job losses and redundancies by next summer.

Students have been reassured that their courses will continue until they have completed them.

The Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course, the Revd Dr Alex Jensen, a former lecturer at the Church of Ireland Theological College, suggested there is ‘great fear’ in the Theological Education Institutions (TEI) sector that other closures could follow. ‘Hardly any college or course is financially sustainable,’ he told the Church Times last week, wondering when ‘the next college or course falls by the wayside.’

The broader context for theological education was illustrated by figures seen by the Church Times, suggesting a target in the Church of England of a 50 per cent increase in ordained vocations is unlikely to be met by 2020.

The Church Times said there have been ‘signs of trouble’ at Saint John’s ‘for some time.’ The college had 60 students last year, compared with 108 in 2016-2017, and 223 in June 2016.

Saint John’s decided in 2014 to stop recruiting students, including ordinands, to study on campus. Plans were announced for ‘remodelling the college to meet the future training needs of the Church.’ It was renamed Saint John’s School of Mission in 2015, although it later returned to calling itself Saint John’s College.

Plans were made to place students with a church and to study for two days a fortnight at the campus. All recruitment was suspended for the academic year 2016-2017, and the last ordinands finished training in June 2017.

Healthier finances were secured in 2017 when land was sold for a new housing development. The college reported a surplus of £1.3 million in 2018, compared with a deficit of £612,853 the previous year. The Revd Dr David Hilborn, who welcomed me to Saint John’s six years ago, resigned as principal at the end of last year, and is now Principal of Moorlands College, Christchurch, an evangelical college in Dorset.

As far back as 1997, the college was facing financial pressures and falling student recruitment. But a ‘mixed-mode’ delivery of ordination training was introduced, and two years later the Midlands Institute for Children Youth and Mission (MCYM) was opened on site, in partnership with Youth for Christ, offering two undergraduate degrees. This became the college’s main source of income.

However, the MCYM announced in October it was moving to Leicester to merge with the Institute for Children Youth and Mission. That move includes moving a collection of 10,000 books, while discussions are taking place way with the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, and Saint Mellitus College, East Midlands, to ensure the Saint John’s library has ‘a new home in Nottingham.’

The last remaining building owned by Saint John’s will be sold, and the three parts of the legacy – MCYM, distance-learning, and the library – will be given funds to help to secure their future in new homes.

The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, is to take over the Extension Studies department, offering distance-learning courses and degrees validated by the University of Durham. The majority of staff, including tutors, are expected to transfer to Leicester or Birmingham.

In the gardens at Saint John’s College, Nottingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint John’s was originally founded as the London School of Divinity, an evangelical college, in 1863. Former principals include Donald Coggan, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and the evangelist and theologian Michael Green. Another Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, trained at Saint John’s, as did Bishop Christopher Cocksworth of Coventry, Bishop Vivienne Faull of Bristol, Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda, and the recently retired Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore.

The college was founded by the Revd Alfred Peache and his sister, Kezia, after they inherited their father’s fortune. The college was established to provide an evangelical theological education to ordinands who could not go to university. Canon Thomas Boultbee was the first principal and Lord Shaftesbury became the first president of the college council.

The first premises near Kilburn High Road Station were known as Saint John’s Hall, and Saint John’s became an informal name for the college, perhaps because Boultbee was a graduate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge.

The college moved to Highbury in 1866 and remained there for almost 80 years, with close links to Arsenal FC and their grounds at Highbury. During World War II, the faculty, staff and students were evacuated to Wadhurst School in Sussex in 1942 when the Highbury buildings were damaged by air-raids.

The future Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, became principal in 1944, and for the 10 years he was principal, the college was based at Harrow School and then at Ford Manor in Lingfield, Surrey.

Under Dr Coggan’s successor, Canon Hugh Jordan, discussions began on moving away from London. Canon Jordan believed the future of the college was outside London but near a university. A site was available in Nottingham, where the university’s theological department was growing in reputation. His successor as principal, Canon Michael Green, oversaw the move from London to Bramcote in Nottingham in 1970.

With the move from London, the London College of Divinity changed its name to Saint John’s. As Saint John’s, the college pioneered distance learning programmes in theology in the late 1970s, and made new theological thinking and research accessible to a wide audience through its A5-sized Grove Booklet series.

Later principals included Colin Buchanan, who became Bishop of Aston, Professor John Goldingay, Canon Christina Baxter, the first lay principal, Dr David Hilborn and Dr Sally Nash.

Former staff members include Dr George Bebabwi, an Egyptian scholar who was one of my lecturers at the summer school on ‘The Ascent to Holiness,’ organised by the Institute for Orthodox Studies at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 2008. I still recall how he barely managed to stick to his script as he delivered his paper on ‘Discernment’ with great style, compassion and humour.

Dr Bebabwi warned against what he described as ‘learning wisdom.’ He quoted from the Egyptian Desert Father, Abba Poemen, who said: ‘A man who teaches without doing what he teaches is like a spring which cleanses and gives drinks to everyone, but is not able to purify itself.’

In the chapel at Saint John’s College, Nottingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A practical guide to the pilgrim route on the Two Saints Way

The countryside outside Lichfield along the Two Saints Way (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

When I am back in Lichfield, I often stay in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, on the northern edges of the cathedral city. The Hedgehog stands on a hill, with sweeping views across the countryside, and across to the three spires of Lichfield Cathedral.

Below the bank on one side of the grounds of the Hedgehog is Cross in Hand Lane, a meandering country lane that leads out into open countryside, with fields and brooks, leading north to the villages of Farewell and Chorley.

The name of Cross in Hand is a link to the origins of the pilgrim route between Lichfield and Chester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But Cross in Hand Lane also marks the ancient pilgrim route between the shrine of Saint Chad in Lichfield and the shrine of Saint Werburgh in Chester. Both saints had Irish connections – Saint Chad is said to have been trained in an Irish monastery, and Saint Werburgh was a popular saint in mediaeval Dublin – but I have often thought this pilgrim route has the potential to be England’s very own camino.

Walking along the Two Saints Way between Lichfield and Farewell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Recently, I received a beautifully produced and well-researched guide to this English camino. The Two Saints Way by David Pott, published last year [2015], is a guide to this pilgrimage way.

David Pott is an experienced long-distance walker and the key person in developing the idea of the Two Saints Way.

When David and his wife Pam came to Stone in the autumn of 2007, he became interested in the foundational story of the town and the legend of the two princes Saint Wulfad and Saint Rufin. The story features both Saint Chad and St Werburgh.

Apart from various sites in Stone, however, he found connections with the legend in other places in the Trent Valley between Trentham and Salt, including a Saxon hill fort at Bury Bank (formerly called “Wulpherecestre”) and Saint Rufin’s Church in Burston.

Enjoying the countryside and the views along the Two Saints Way (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

David first thought of linking together these sites in a trail between Trentham and Stafford. But soon there was a suggestion of extending the story trail from Stafford to Lichfield over Cannock Chase along the Heart of England Way.

Then David was heard about the mediaeval pilgrim route between Chester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral. Many pilgrims on this route would have continued to Canterbury or even on to Rome or Jerusalem.

He began thinking about linking existing paths to create a revived pilgrimage route between the two cathedral cities.

At first, he called this the Saint Chad’s Way Project. But the idea grew and an early support group became a steering group.

With the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard in 2009, there was a new interest in the heritage of Mercia, and the name of Two Saints Way was adopted in June 2010.

The inaugural pilgrimage along the Two Saints Way took place in March 2012. Since then, work has continued on signing the setting up interpretation panels. This colourful and practical guidebook was published last year [November 2015].

A typical marker on the Two Saints Way (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Preparing the guidebook was a lengthy process that included assembling photographs and finalising maps.

Inevitably, changes took place along the route, such as kissing gates replacing stiles. And there has been in upsurge in interest in the pilgrim route.

The Two Saints Way now has a team of volunteer local co-ordinators to oversee each section of the route in their locality, making sure the footpaths are clear and the signs stay in place.

The maps and instructions in this book are clear and helpful, and the book is a beautifully presented and attractive invitation to set out on this pilgrim route. There is a wealth of practical detail and information, with interesting and inspiring content.

The Two Saints’ Way is part long-distance footpath, part-pilgrim trail (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his cover endorsement of the book, the Dean of Liverpool, Pete Wilcox, a former Canon Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral, says: “The Two Saints’ Way is a remarkable achievement: part long-distance footpath, part-pilgrim trail; full of history and natural beauty. This superb new guidebook is as clear and colourful as it is full of detail. It will enable users to get the very best out of every section of the route, whetting the appetite of those planning a trip, and serving as a souvenir for those looking back on the experience.”

The book has a cover price of £12.99 (ISBN 9781910786215). I bought mine through the Lichfield Cathedral Shop at No 9, The Close, Lichfield.

Find out more about this interesting pilgrim route here.

The High Altar and reredos in Saint Chad’s Church, Stafford … one of the ancient sites on the Two Saints Way (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Wiping out the memory of mediaeval saints is a way of wiping out the memory of a city

Saint Werburgh or Saint Barbra … named after Saint Werburgh of Chester, Ely and Lichfield, or Barbra Streisand? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

I often wonder who decides on the Irish names of inner city streets in Dublin. Sometimes I think they render the street names into Irish with a distorted sense of humour; sometimes I wonder if they have idea at all of what they are doing; and sometimes I think they simply want to destroy and eliminate collective memory and a communal sense of identity.

The Czech writer, Milan Kundera, in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, offers a series of reflections on the importance of memory as the root from which individuals and groups begin to shape the self-understanding of their identities.

In an essay in this book, Kundera analyses the writings of Franz Kafka and comments:

Prague in his novels is a city without memory. It has even forgotten its name. Nobody there remembers anything, nobody recalls anything … No song is capable of uniting the city’s present with its past by recalling the moments of its birth.

Time in Kafka’s novel is the time of humanity that has lost its continuity with humanity, of a humanity that no longer knows anything nor remembers anything, that lives in nameless cities with nameless streets or streets different from the ones they had yesterday, because a name means continuity with the past and people without a past are people without a name.

In his essay, Milan Kundera explores this theme in relation to the way in which the state authorities tried to change the awareness of the identity of the Czech people since the end of World War II. An attempt has been made to erase the nation’s memory, and through this the identity of the people has been eroded.

As Kundera notes, when he quotes his friend Milan Hubi:

The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.

The culture, traditions, songs, religious commitment, political ideas embodied in the literature and the poetry of the community are important vehicles communicating and challenging the identity of the society.

Street names in our cities and towns, like our family names, are a way of passing on and inheriting identity and memory. As a schoolboy in the 1960s, I deeply resented the efforts of misguided teachers who, in the fervour leading up to marking the golden jubilee of the 1916 Rising, tried to render my name into Irish.

Patrick is a perfectly good name on its own. It is the name I was baptised with, and so I like to imagine it is the name God knows me by. Why would someone want to render it as “Padraig” or “Padriac”? Perhaps they thought Saint Patrick was from England, and that Patrick is an English name – even though he was born long before the arrival of the Anglo-Normans.

As for Comerford, there were too many aggressive efforts to render it as “de Comartún” or even the ludicrous “O Comartún” or convoluted but simply wrong “Mac Cumascaigh.” What was wrong with Comerford, in their eyes, of course, is that it is derived from the name of an English village. A pretty village, and a delightful place, but those self-appointed patriots knew from the sound of my name that it was an English village, no matter how long the Comerford family was living in Ireland.

“Saints alive!” you may respond. But it even happens to saints.

Now that we are coming up to the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the greening of names is plaguing us again … most visibly in the green street names around the city centre in Dublin.

As I came out of Christ Church Cathedral today and was heading down Saint Werburgh Street to Dublin Castle for lunch in the Silk Road Café, I looked up at the street sign on the “Lord Edward” on the corner of Saint Werburgh Street and Christ Church Place.

There the street sign told me in English that I was standing on “Werburgh Street” (not Saint Werburgh Street), and in Irish it told me I was on Sr[aid] Barbra [sic]. Obviously, whoever was charged with this translation thought poor Saint Werburgh was too English. But the same benighted translator did not know how to spell Barbara … perhaps he had Barbra Streisand in mind.

Upper Exchange Street … is it Upper Isolde Street or Upper Exchange Street (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Some years ago, I wrote about neighbouring Upper Exchange Street, off Lord Edward Street, which apparently is in both Dublin 2 and Dublin 8, and which has been rendered in Irish on one sign as Sráid an Mhalartáin Uachtarach, or Street of the Upper Exchange – did no-one know how to translate it into Upper Street of the Exchange, or did they think there were two exchanges? And then, at the corner of Lord Edward Street, opposite the former Royal Exchange, the same people have translated Upper Exchange Street as Sráid Iosóilde Uacht or Upper Isolde Street.

I have often taken services and preached on Sundays in Saint Werburgh’s Church, which is one of the churches in the Christ Church Cathedral group of parishes. It is one of the oldest churches in Dublin, dating back to 1178, when a church was built on this site shortly after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Dublin.

The church is named after Saint Werburgh, the Abbess of Ely and patron saint of Chester. She died in 699 AD, and the church in Dublin is first mentioned in a letter of Pope Alexander III dated 1179. However, the parish dates back much further than the Anglo-Norman foundation. In Viking Dublin, the parish church was named after Saint Martin of Tours, and the church stood near the south end of Werburgh Street.

In the 18th century, Saint Werburgh’s became a fashionable city centre church, attended by the Lord Lieutenant and his entourage, and with a reserved Viceregal pew. Saint Werburgh’s was the Chapel Royal attached to Dublin Castle, and the Viceroys were sworn into office there and seats were reserved for the officers and soldiers of Dublin Castle until 1888.

The self-appointed patriots who want to wipe out the memory of Saint Werburgh in the Irish language ought to remind themselves that Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leaders of the 1798 Rising, is buried in that church in a vault that was reserved for the Rectors of Saint Werburgh’s.

Saint Werburgh’s Statue at the south west-corner of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Werburgh was a Staffordshire saint, the daughter of King Wulphere of Mercia. She was trained at home by Saint Chad, the founding saint of Lichfield Cathedral. Of course, while Saint Chad came from an Anglo-Saxon background, he too had Irish connections: he received his early training under Saint Aidan at Lindisfarne and later spent some time in a monastery in Ireland.

Later, Werburgh became a nun in the Abbey of Ely, where the abbess was her aunt, Saint Etheldreda. She became the Abbess of Ely before she died in the seventh century. She was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire, but her body was later reburied at the Saxon Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which was rededicated to Saint Werburgh and Saint Oswald in 907 and eventually became Chester Cathedral.

Monks from Chester or perhaps Bristol later brought the cult of Saint Werburgh to Ireland, and Saint Werburgh’s Church in Dublin was first built in 1178.

The Two Saints’ Way … makers along the road at Cross in Hand Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Two Saints’ Way is a project to recreate a pilgrim way linking the shrines of Saint Chad in Lichfield and Saint Werburgh in Chester. This pilgrim way gives its name to Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield, where I stay regularly at the Hedgehog on the corner with Stafford Road.

The project owes everything to David Pott, an experienced long distance walker. At an early stage, his dream was of a pilgrimage trail from Stafford over Cannock Chase along the Heart of England Way to Lichfield Cathedral and the shrine of Saint Chad.

Later, he learned about the pilgrimage route between Chester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral. Many pilgrims on that route would continue to Canterbury or even to Rome or Jerusalem. He then thought of linking Lichfield with the shrine of Saint Werburgh, using existing paths to create a revived pilgrimage route between the two cathedral cities.

The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard six years ago brought a new interest in Mercian heritage, attracting support from people with links with Staffordshire University, British Waterways, local tourist boards, and the cathedrals in Chester and Lichfield.

Saint Weburgh is one of the many saints carved on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral. If Lichfield, Chester and Ely can remember her, why can she not be remembered – and celebrated – in the street names of Dublin?

Yes, it was all enough to make a saint blush. All in a weekend that was disappointing for any fans or followers of the Irish cricket and rugby teams.

Barry Sheehan’s new installation in the gardens of Dublin Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

And so, after admiring Barry Sheehan’s new installation in the gardens of Dublin Castle and visiting a new design exhibition in the Coach House, two of us went out to Malahide to clear our heads and walk along the beach on a cold grey afternoon, enjoying the views back to the Marina and across Broadmeadow Estuary to the sandy end of the peninsula at Donabate.

Despite the strong currents, it was dangerously tempting to think it would be possible to wade or swim across on sunnier days. But I knew no saints would come to my rescue.

We drove back through Portmarnock, Sutton and Clontarf to the city centre, where there were countless tourists dressed in those green hats with attached red beards.

The Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations are already under way. But who will remember where he came from? Who remembers Saint Werburgh? And who remembers that Saint Barbara was a very different woman, from Nicomedia in present-day Turkey or Heliopolis of Phoenicia, in present-day Lebanon?

Looking across Broadmeadow Estuary from Malahide to the tip of the Donabate Peninsula (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)