Hayes: Churches

CHURCHES.

In 1086 there was a priest on the Archbishop of Canterbury's manor of Hayes, (fn. 1) where the church was possibly already exempt from the Bishop of London. In 1272 Hayes was counted as part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's peculiar deanery of Croydon (fn. 2) and so remained until the abolition of the Middlesex peculiars in 1845. (fn. 3)

Throughout the Middle Ages the archbishop normally presented to the rectory, (fn. 4) except sede vacante when the Crown did so. (fn. 5) A papal provision to the church in 1351 (fn. 6) seems to have been without effect, since the provisor was not yet in possession in 1366, when he petitioned the archbishop for it. (fn. 7) In the 15th century the advowson of the church, with the chapel of Norwood, was included in the farm of the manor. (fn. 8) In 1545 it passed with the manor to the king, who sold it to Sir Edward North. (fn. 9) In spite of this transaction it was granted by Cranmer to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who claimed the right to exercise it in 1557. (fn. 10) William Jones, perhaps a servant of Lord Pembroke, presented in 1565 (fn. 11) and Thomas Higate held the advowson in 1589 and 1591 under a grant to his father Thomas from the earl. (fn. 12) In 1601 Lord Pembroke's grandson presented (fn. 13) but Higate again presented in 1608. (fn. 14) In 1656 the 'minister' had been appointed by Bulstrode Whitelocke, presumably as commissioner of the great seal. (fn. 15)

Miles Wolfe and John Knight were the patrons in 1661 and Ralph Hawtrey and Christopher Cratford presented in 1685 and again in 1689. Two lords of the manor, James Jenyns in 1727 and George Cooke in 1730 and 1739, owned the advowson, and a lawyer, Edward Jennings, presented in 1759. (fn. 16) In 1770, when the manors were offered for sale by the Cooke family, (fn. 17) the advowson was said to be annexed to the lordship of Hayes. This may have been the origin of the statement that the advowson had belonged to the lords of Hayes manor until 1777, (fn. 18) for it was not included in the sale of the Cooke property to the Ascoughs in that year. It must soon have changed hands, as James Clitherow of Boston House, New Brentford, presented in 1788, and James and Thomas Graham were the patrons in 1807. John Hambrough, a local landowner, held the patronage in 1858, but in 1860 William Randall was both patron and rector. Henry Bellinhurst, Samuel Wickens, and Frederick Owen presented in 1872, (fn. 19) as trustees of the rector, John Godding, who later became the patron. (fn. 20) In 1938 the advowson was bequeathed by Mr. J. W. S. Godding to Keble College, Oxford, which first exercised its right in 1957. (fn. 21)

The medieval rectors seldom, if ever, served the cure themselves but a vicarage was not ordained until 1520. (fn. 22) The rectory was then leased: by 1520 the lessee John Osborne had been replaced by a lawyer, Thomas Gold. (fn. 23) In 1656 the rectory was described as having cure of souls, (fn. 24) but in 1661 it was once again clearly a sinecure. (fn. 25) In the 18th century the patron normally appointed a rector who then leased the 'capital mansion house', glebe, and tithes to the patron. From this income the patron, who was thus also the effective impropriator, paid the salaries of the rector and vicar of Hayes and the curate of Norwood. (fn. 26) As early as 1656 part of the minister's salary was said to come from the farmers of the parsonage. (fn. 27) John Hambrough, the patron of the rectory, was said to be the lay impropriator in 1845; (fn. 28) James Townsend, described as the last sinecure rector, died in 1858, (fn. 29) from which time the benefice has been held by working rectors.

The tithes of the benefice are first mentioned in 1260 when the rector made an agreement with the Prior of Ruislip, whose house, like Ogbourne Priory (Wilts.), was a dependency of the Abbey of Bec. The rector was to have all the tithes but was to pay 8s. a year to the prior. (fn. 30) In 1291 the gross income of the benefice was reckoned at £42 13s. and the net income at £21 17s. (fn. 31) The benefice was then taxed at £23 6s. 8d., and was charged with portions of £13 6s. 8d. to the monks of Rochester and of £2 6s. 8d. to Ogbourne. (fn. 32) It is possible that Osbert de Bilcheham of Yeading, who about 1200 gave some tithes to Rochester, may have been responsible for the first of these payments. (fn. 33) It is not known how Ogbourne Priory acquired rights in the benefice but it seems certain that the land subject to this payment lay in fact in Norwood. (fn. 34) In 1340 the church was taxed at £26 6s. 8d. (fn. 35) and it was valued and taxed at 35 marks in 1362 and 1428. (fn. 36) At the latter date the tax on the Ogbourne estate, at 46s. 8d., was larger than the 20s. levied on the Rochester property. Another annual payment in the late 15th century was 7s. 6d. free alms to the nuns of St. Sepulchre, Canterbury, which had been ordered by Archbishop Boniface of Savoy (d. 1270). (fn. 37) In 1535 the rectory was valued at £40. (fn. 38) Other income accrued from offerings customarily given on church-going, marriage, and burial, and some obits. (fn. 39) The advowson was reckoned to be worth 20s. a year in 1589 (fn. 40) and the value of the parsonage, about £640 in 1656, (fn. 41) had risen to about £700 by 1866. (fn. 42)

A dispute over the tithes of corn and lambs reached its height in 1530, when the parishioners carted away their corn before the rector's share could be checked. (fn. 43) The incumbent was allowed one lamb in every 10, and those over were added to the lambs of the following year. (fn. 44) Alternatively if there were 6 odd lambs the tithe was 2d. a lamb. (fn. 45) Every tenth sheaf of corn was likewise to be laid aside when it was bound, or to be bound together in separate sheaves. This was said to be the local custom in Harlington, Heston, Ealing, and other neighbouring places. (fn. 46) In 1710 the tithes were owned by the patron, John Jenyns, who had sublet the small tithes of wool and lambs, called the town tithes, first to Henry Pigg, and then to William Fellowes. In that year he sold both the town tithes and the corn, grain, and hay tithes, together with other property, to Priscilla and Joseph Reynardson. (fn. 47) In 1770 the lay rector owned all the Hayes tithes, the great tithes amounting to over £344, divided into 12 lots, among them being the Botwell, Court, Home, and Yeading divisions. They were said to be considerably underlet and could be raised to about £125 a year, while the small tithes, if collected, were reckoned to produce at least £120 a year. (fn. 48) The tithes were extinguished at the inclosure award of 1814, when over 764 a. were allotted in lieu of tithe, 625 a. being granted to the rector, Elias Taylor. This amount, however, included property in Norwood. (fn. 49) A building called the Old Tithe Yard, owned by John Hambrough, was standing in 1827, (fn. 50) and corn rents of over £311 were owned by the rector in 1864. (fn. 51)

Little is known of the glebe land of Hayes rectory, which presumably originated from the hide held by the priest in 1086. (fn. 52) In 1413 the manor court granted a small piece of land in perpetuity to the churchwardens, (fn. 53) and in 1530 an inclosed field called Sherfield formed part of the glebe. (fn. 54) The rector held about 74 a. in 1598 (fn. 55) and in 1656 the glebe was said to be 99 a. (fn. 56)

As early as 1367 the Archbishop of Canterbury had ordered an absentee rector to provide a chaplain, as the parish was neglected. (fn. 57) In 1426 there was a chaplain of the parish as well as a rector, (fn. 58) but it was not until 1520 that a vicarage was ordained by Archbishop Warham, uncle of William Warham, Archdeacon of Canterbury and Rector of Hayes. The vicarage was endowed with a £20 stipend, paid by the rector, which was considered sufficient to maintain the vicar and to supply a chaplain for Norwood chapel. The advowson was reserved to the archbishop, who was to pay the stipend during vacancies of the rectory. The rector was to build a vicarage and the vicar was not entitled to tithes or mortuaries. (fn. 59) Although the archbishop granted the advowson of the vicarage, with the manor, to the Crown in 1545, his successors acted as patron until 1608, (fn. 60) and thereafter the patronage seems to have been exercised by the rector (fn. 61) or, as in 1656, by his lessee. (fn. 62) The last patron was John Hambrough, who exercised his right in 1858, but no vicar was appointed thereafter. (fn. 63) In the early 16th century the value of the vicarage was reckoned at £20; (fn. 64) in 1770 an annual stipend of £60 was paid to the vicar by the patron. (fn. 65) This stipend was commuted at inclosure in 1814 for 16 a. of land. Four acres of glebe were augmented by a further 7 a., allotted in lieu of a salary augmentation from John Hambrough, the patron. (fn. 66) Hambrough had also attempted to augment the vicarage of Hayes and the Norwood curacy by a private Bill which failed from lack of support. (fn. 67) In 1855 the vicarage was valued at £120. (fn. 68)

There was probably a rectory house in the parish before the ordination of the vicarage in 1520, but it is first mentioned in about 1598 when it stood in Cotman's Town. (fn. 69) In 1656 Mrs. Patrick Young, the widow of a former rector, (fn. 70) had leased the parsonage to Thomas Jennings, the patron of the vicarage. (fn. 71) It is uncertain where this house stood. A building called the 'glebe dwelling house' which stood on Church Road in 1814 is probably identifiable with the Rectory of the 1860s. (fn. 72) In 1841 the curate of the parish lived in Manor House, (fn. 73) which was later claimed to have been a residence of Archbishop Cranmer and, being situated on the glebe, to have been the rectory house until its sale in 1860. (fn. 74) This was probably the building on the north side of Freeman's Lane, known in 1865 as Manor House but by 1914 as Manor Lodge; it was still standing in 1940 (fn. 75) but its site is now covered by the gardens adjoining the Town Hall. A house on the north side of Hemmen Lane, near the junction with Church Road, had been reconstructed in 1862 (fn. 76) and in 1864 was occupied by the rector. (fn. 77) This was called the Rectory in 1865 but 30 years later it was described as Rectory Manor House and, by 1914, simply as Manor House. The present rectory, further north but on the same side of Church Road, was in use by 1935. (fn. 78) Manor House, which in 1961 was the Education Office of the Hayes and Harlington U.D.C., is of 16th-century origin; (fn. 79) on the north side is some exposed timber framing, much restored. A vicarage house was ordered to be built when the vicarage was ordained in 1520, (fn. 80) and by 1531 it had been built and occupied. (fn. 81) It was in the secular ownership of Richard Millett in 1553, (fn. 82) and is mentioned as standing in Cotman's Town in 1598. (fn. 83) The vicarage house was situated on the vicarial glebe in Freeman's Lane in 1814, (fn. 84) and was occupied by the vicar in 1842. (fn. 85) Presumably the Manor House occupied by the curate in 1841 was a different dwelling.

In the mid 16th century the church had acquired 2½ a. towards maintaining the fabric, while another 5 a. supported two lamps. (fn. 86) Throughout the Middle Ages the rectory was often held by pluralist or nonresident clergy. The earliest known, Rayner de Vitio in 1290, was a pluralist, (fn. 87) and his successor, Guy de Vitio, was a papal tax collector in Ireland. (fn. 88) Vitio was arraigned of 'divers trespasses' in 1307 (fn. 89) but died still holding the living. He was succeeded by a pluralist who was provided to the benefice in 1312, (fn. 90) but in the same year Adam Murimuth, a distinguished historian, was collated to Hayes. (fn. 91) Many other pluralists held this rich archiepiscopal living during the late 14th and 15th centuries. (fn. 92) In 1537 William Warham was licensed to remain abroad to study and to be non-resident on his return. (fn. 93) Other distinguished rectors in the late 15th and early 16th centuries included Thomas Jane, Bishop of Norwich 1499-1500, Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham 1509-23, and Dr. John Young, Master of the Rolls. (fn. 94) Robert Wright, chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I, and later Bishop of Bristol (1623-32) and Lichfield (1632-43), held the rectory from 1601 to 1623 together with a residentiary canonry of Wells and, from 1613, the wardenship of Wadham College, Oxford. (fn. 95) He was succeeded by Patrick Young, chaplain of All Souls College, Oxford, librarian to James I and Charles I, and treasurer of St. Paul's. (fn. 96) Both Young, 'the most celebrated Grecian of his Age' and his vicar, Edmund Reeve, were sequestered in 1645, (fn. 97) and Timothy Hall, the succeeding vicar, was ejected in 1661. (fn. 98)

Nothing is known of the conduct of services in the parish. In 1530 there were riots against the farmer of the rectory, Thomas Gold, his brother Henry, the vicar, and the curate, Peter Lee. A band of parishioners, hoping to embarrass the Golds, vainly tried to secure Lee's dismissal. (fn. 99) Ornaments and vestments were removed from the church, and mass was not celebrated for a fortnight. (fn. 100) These disturbances were closely connected with an attack on the archbishop's authority in the parish and with the tithe disputes mentioned above. In the mid 18th century the vicar complained that his parishioners attended cock-fights, swore, and rioted in the churchyard during Shrove Tuesday services. (fn. 101) At about the same date he was having trouble both with his choir, which upset the congregation by singing the wrong psalms, and with the bellringers, who rang the bells during the services and spat from the belfry upon the seated congregation. (fn. 102) Large, serious, and wellbehaved congregations, however, are said to have listened to the preaching of Charles and John Wesley between 1748 and 1751. (fn. 103) A curate, Frederick Sturmer, was blamed in 1839 for a fight among his pupils in which a boy was killed, but despite a petition from the parish for his removal, the archbishop refused to censure him. (fn. 104)

The church of ST. MARY stands behind a small green on the west side of Church Road; the churchyard was much enlarged in the 1860s (fn. 105) and in the 20th century. The building is of flint rubble with stone dressings and consists of chancel, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, and three-storied west tower. The chancel and the west end of the north arcade of the nave date from the later 13th century. (fn. 106) The chancel, which is built at a slight angle to the rest of the church and originally extended further west, has in its side walls lancet windows with reararches supported on carved corbels. The piscina and sedilia in the south wall are of the same date and nearby is an inserted 14th-century window. A new belfry is mentioned in 1422 (fn. 107) and the west tower was probably built or altered at this time. In the late 15th century the north aisle was rebuilt and both aisle and nave were extended eastwards, adding two bays to the north arcade. The chancel roof and its east window are also of the 15th century. The south aisle and the nave roof, which has later dormer windows, date from the early 16th century; the timber south porch and the lychgate to the churchyard are probably of the same period. (fn. 108)

Views of the church in 1798 show the north aisle and the tower faced with brick-work while the other walls were apparently plastered. (fn. 109) The fabric was extensively restored in 1873 by Sir Gilbert Scott and further repairs were carried out by W. E. Troke in 1937. (fn. 110) In 1968 restoration of the nave roof was in progress.

Of the fittings in the church the oldest is the circular font bowl dating from c. 1200. (fn. 111) A former altar-table, dated 1605, (fn. 112) appears to have been removed to the vestry in 1909. (fn. 113) In 1726 a painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds was presented by James Jenyns, lord of the manor, and this constituted the altar-piece until 1873. (fn. 114) A three-decker pulpit of painted deal, said to have been made in 1726, (fn. 115) once formed the lofty centre-piece of a threearched screen between nave and chancel; it was still in existence in 1853, although it had been removed to the tower arch. (fn. 116) An organ, financed by voluntary subscriptions, was first installed in 1812, (fn. 117) and in 1833 increasing congregations necessitated the erection of seats in the central aisle. (fn. 118) The charity board dates from the early 19th century. During Sir Gilbert Scott's restoration of 1873 the surviving box pews were removed and two wall paintings, a 13thor 14th-century chequer-pattern on the north arcade and a 15th-century St. Christopher in the north aisle, were discovered. (fn. 119)

Memorial brasses in the church include one of c. 1370 to Robert Lenee, rector, said to be the earliest in Middlesex, and an inscription to Robert Buryges, rector (d. 1421-2). A stone tomb-chest with traceried sides and brasses on the lid commemorates Sir Walter Green (d. 1456) and a slab with brasses on a brick tomb is to Thomas Higate (d. 1576) and his wife. An elaborate monument of marble and alabaster with a reclining effigy in judge's robes commemorates Sir Edward Fenner (d. 1612) and a mural tablet with a half-figure laying one hand on his helmet is ascribed to Edward Fenner (d. 1615). There are also mural tablets and floor slabs of the later 17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 120) There are six bells: one of 1793, three of 1798, and two which were recast in 1890. (fn. 121) The plate includes a chalice and paten of 1623 and an alms dish of 1693. (fn. 122) The registers, which are complete, date from 1557. (fn. 123)

A district chapelry at Botwell was established in 1910, when a chapel was built in Golden Crescent on a site given by the Shackle family. (fn. 124) In the following year a stipend was granted to the incumbent of Hayes in order to provide a curate at Botwell. (fn. 125) In 1914 a new mission church, provided out of the London Diocesan Fund, (fn. 126) was built on the corner of Nield Road and Station Road. This was replaced by the permanent church of ST. ANSELM, built on the same site and consecrated in 1929 when the parish of St. Anselm was created. Built in yellow brick to a design by H. C. Corlette, the church consists of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, and a bell-turret with one bell. (fn. 127) The patron is the Bishop of London. (fn. 128)

A mission church in Yeading, described in 1890 as having formerly been a day school, was styled a mission room in 1908. (fn. 129) A small wooden hut in Yeading Lane was dedicated in 1932. This was removed in the following year and replaced by a larger timber hall built by the London Diocesan Mission. (fn. 130) It was demolished in 1961 when the permanent church of ST. EDMUND OF CANTERBURY, built on an adjoining site, was consecrated. The church, designed by Antony Lewis, is of yellow brick and is not orientated, its long axis lying north to south. The chancel is raised by 3 steps above the broad nave, and a Lady chapel is situated on the west side of the chancel. An octagonal hall at the south end is curtained off from the nave. There is one bell in the west bell tower, which is connected to the church only at the ground floor level.

The first church of ST. NICHOLAS was consecrated in 1937. (fn. 131) It consisted of a rectangular wooden hut set on the corner of Balmoral Drive and Raynton Drive. A new church on the corner of Raynton and Lansbury Drives was consecrated in 1961. This was built by the architect responsible for St. Edmund's and substantially to the same design. (fn. 132)

Although the church of ST. JEROME, Dawley, lies on Judge Heath Lane within the boundary of Hayes parish, its history has been included with that of the parish of Harlington. (fn. 133)