Parishes: Barnwell St. Andrew

BARNWELL ST. ANDREW

Beornwelle, Bernewelle (xi cent.); Bernewelle Sancti Andree (xiii cent.); Bernewell Moyne (xiv cent.); Barnwell, Barnwell Andree (xvi cent.); Barnwell St. Andrew (xvii cent.).

This parish, to which Barnwell All Saints has been ecclesiastically attached since 1821, covers 1,681 acres on a subsoil of cornbrash in the west and centre and Oxford clay in the east, the upper soil being mixed. The principal crops are hay, wheat, barley and beans. Barnwell St. Andrew lies low, rising from about 80 ft. above the ordnance datum on the bank of the Nene, which bounds it on the north-west, to 117 ft. at the church, and an average of 200 ft. east and south-east of the village. A large tract of land in the north and north-west is liable to floods. From Barnwell All Saints on the south a stream flows northwards through the village of Barnwell St. Andrew into the Nene. The principal road in the parish, known as Barnwell Road, leads from Thrapston in a north-westerly direction to Oundle. The Northampton and Peterborough branch of the London Midland and Scottish Railway runs in the same direction on this road; Barnwell station is in the parish of Lilford. The church of St. Andrew and its rectory stand near the station and from the churchyard a shady pathway leads over a single-arched bridge to the ruins of Barnwell castle.

The ruins of the castle stand some 20 ft. above the Barnwell Brook, up a small side valley opening on to the main valley of the Nene, to the south-east of the earthwork already described, (fn. 1) which is apparently the site of an earlier castle. The position is one of no military importance. The castle is a quadrangular stone structure with round towers at the angles, and a gatehouse at the south end of the east wall, which has semi-cylindrical towers on either side of its outer entrance. It is built throughout with oolite limestone, probably from the quarries at Barnwell, (fn. 2) by Berengar le Moyne in or about 1266 (fn. 3) and is a good example of the type of stronghold erected when the strengthening of outer walls and entrances had made the keep superfluous and the defence of the curtains had made necessary the multiplication of flanking towers. In 1257, William de Stokes, canon of Salisbury and rector of Barnwell St. Andrew, agreed that Berengar le Moyne should have a chantry in his chapel in Barnwell Castle. (fn. 4) Leland, in 1540, speaks of 'four strong towers, part of Berengarius Moynes castle' as still remaining, and mentions a 'meane house for a farmer' within the ruins, which has long disappeared. (fn. 5) Half a century or so later Camden described Barnwell Castle as 'a little castle repaired and adorned with new buildings by the worthy Sir Edward Montacute Knight.' (fn. 6) Charles I was here on his way to Bedford in August, 1645, (fn. 7) and the place remained one of the residences of the Montagu family until the latter part of the 17th century. In 1704, however, it was said to be 'late demolished' (fn. 8) and Stukeley in 1748 records that the Duke of Montagu lamented that his father (who died in 1709) had pulled the castle down. Buck's view shows a great gap, or breach, 42 ft. wide, in the western curtain wall, which was afterwards filled up, but the filling is less than half the thickness of the original wall.

To the south-east of the castle is a picturesque stone-built house with many gables and chimneys, probably the successor of the house mentioned by Leland, on whose porch is a shield with the arms of Montagu quartering Monthermer. (fn. 9) It is now the residence of the lord of the manor.

There are no indications of a moat or true entrenchments of any kind, except on the north side, where there is a broad embankment about 6 ft. high, 220 ft. in length, but apparently not of early date.

The walls are now about 30 ft. high, probably little less than their original height without the battlements, and are 12 ft. in thickness, the masonry being excellent and with fine joints. The enclosed space, or ward, is an irregular oblong, the greater length being from north to south, with the corners (except at the south-east) cut off by angle walls. On the east side the length is 135 ft. 4 in., on the west 133 ft. 6 in., while the width is 90 ft. 8 in. at the north end, and 94 ft. 4 in. at the south. At the south-west corner is a single circular tower, set angle-wise, and the north-west and north-east corners have each a similar tower with a smaller one attached on the south-west and north-west sides, respectively. There is a small postern gate at the north end of the west curtain wall, but the main entrance, as already stated, is at the south end of the east wall.

The gatehouse follows the normal plan of the period, being a rectangle with a passage through the middle and with projecting half-round towers on each side of the entrance. The passage is entered through a porch beneath a drop arch of three chamfered orders, springing from clustered responds with moulded capitals, and was guarded within the arch by a portcullis, the grooves for which remain in the wall on either side. Further on are two other arches forming the abutments for outer and inner pairs of gates, beyond which is a round-headed doorway opening to the courtyard. The passage is vaulted throughout. The projection of the gatehouse is entirely towards the outside and adjoining it on the south is a semicylindrical tower similar to those flanking the entrance. All three bastions are entered from the courtyard by round-headed doorways, and are almost identical in plan, except that in the northern one there is a closet about 3 ft. square in the thickness of the south wall. The two lower chambers, or guard rooms, have groined vaulting in two bays, with cross ribs resting on moulded corbels, and contain each five loopholes, three in the circular front and the others in the side walls. The room in the south tower is nearly square and has two loops low down facing east and west and two others high up in the wall, but the vaulting has been destroyed, the corbels and springing of the ribs alone remaining. It is entered from the court by an arched passage at the east end of the south wall, twisted so as to bring the inner doorway to the middle of the wall of the chamber. Access to the upper floor of the gatehouse was by a flight of steps from the court in the wall north of the passage, here curved out; the doorway remains, but the steps have been altered. They led to an oblong apartment over the passage, lighted by a large window at each end, that facing east being still entire; traces only of the other remain. From this apartment doorways led to large rooms in the flanking towers, and from the southern one to the tower beyond. The windows in these rooms are tall, narrow openings with acutely pointed rear arches.

Each of the three circular corner towers is entered from the court by a round-headed doorway set across the angle leading to a straight vaulted passage giving into a circular chamber. In the south-west tower the chamber has two loops only, commanding respectively the western and southern curtains; a small vice in the thickness of the wall on the left of the passage gave access to a large square room which has a fireplace and mullioned window of two lights. Above this was a similar room, also with fireplace and window. These seem to have been the principal living rooms.

The north-west tower has four loops in the lower chamber, and on its south-west side is an attached smaller tower containing a rectangular chamber, formerly vaulted, with two loops, and between this and the main tower another still smaller attached tower, formerly containing the staircase to a room above, which had a fireplace and wooden floor. The north-east tower is very similar in plan and general arrangement, with loops commanding the north and east walls, smaller attached tower on the north side and upper room. The doorway leading into it has been rebuilt and the whole angle appears to have been refaced in modern times.

All the buildings inside the courtyard have disappeared, but on the east curtain are fragments of cross walls between which masonry is partially plastered, indicating that it was the east end of a large apartment. Several parts of the curtain inside have been stripped of their facing stones, leaving the rubble exposed. Most of the loopholes have two cross slits.

Latham's Hospital, which stands across the road on the south side of the church, was rebuilt in 1873–4 in the old style and is a gabled stone building facing three sides of a quadrangle, the fourth side open on the north to the road. The old gateway, dated 1601, has been preserved in the enclosing fence wall. On it is the inscription, 'Cast thy bread upon the waters.'

Place names which occur are Boyespital, Jordones, Alwoldeshallyate, Goldisplace, Childrebrigg, and Fladerhill.

In the 14th century there was a town at Barnwell with many tradesmen, and we find such names and descriptions as gardener, washerwoman, 'le roper,' weaver, 'barcar,' 'le woollemongere,' the smith, 'le parmenter,' the cobbler and the tailor in the deeds of the Duke of Buccleuch. There were also important mills at Crowthorp.

In 1921 the population numbered 167 persons.

Manors

A charter of Edward the Confessor confirmed BARNWELL ST. ANDREW to Ramsey Abbey as the gift of Ethelric, Bishop of Dorchester, (fn. 10) who died in 1034; (fn. 11) William I and Edward III also confirmed this grant. (fn. 12) At the Domesday Survey (1086) and again in the 11th century, the land of St. Benedict of Ramsey included six hides in Barnwell. (fn. 13) Between 1114 and 1130, Abbot Reinald granted 'as an inheritance' [in hereditatem] to Reginald le Moyne, his tenant in Barnwell, and to his sons, the lands which Reginald held of him in this parish and elsewhere for 100s. a year and the service of one knight's fee. (fn. 14) Reginald le Moyne was the Abbey's tenant in Barnwell from about 1110 and possibly as early as 1091. (fn. 15) Berengar, his son, (fn. 16) whose name appears as a witness to various deeds between 1114 and 1163, (fn. 17) was succeeded in or before 1166 by his son, another Reginald le Moyne, (fn. 18) who between the years 1184 and 1189 owed the service of one knight to the abbot for a fee in Northamptonshire. (fn. 19) He apparently had two sons, Berengar and Reginald, and was succeeded by his grandson Reginald, son of Berengar, who was dead in 1248 when William of York, Provost of Beverley, was guardian of his son and heir Berengar. (fn. 20) In 1267 Berengar, who had attained his majority before 1264, (fn. 21) was keeper of the peace in Hunts. (fn. 22) and in 1270 he was one of the collectors of the 20th in that county. (fn. 23) Protection for four years was granted him as a crusader in the same year. (fn. 24) About 1266 he built the castle at Barnwell, and in 1276 it was declared that he was holding a market, fair and assize of bread and ale there without known warrant. (fn. 25) In the same year William de Godmanchester, abbot of Ramsey, bought back the manors of Barnwell, Hemington and Crowthorp and other lands from Berengar le Moyne, as it is said, for £1,666 13s. 4d. and for prayers for himself and for the souls of his father Reginald and his mother Rose. (fn. 26) The grant was confirmed by Berengar's widow Emma in 1286. (fn. 27)

Barnwell being held of the king in chief, questions arose about its alienation at this time without the king's licence. (fn. 28)

In 1329 John, son of Geoffrey of Southorpe, son of Rose, daughter of Berengar and Emma, and Walter Naunton, husband of Joan daughter of Margaret their other daughter, sued the abbot for the manor of Barnwell, which, as they alleged, had been settled on Berengar le Moyne and his wife Emma and their issue. (fn. 29) A verdict was given in favour of the Abbot, (fn. 30) and eleven years later John of Southorpe's son Robert released to Simon Abbot of Ramsey all his right in the manor.

After the dissolution of Ramsey Abbey Henry VIII in 1540 granted in tail the manor of Barnwell to Sir Edward Montagu, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, (fn. 31) who had been steward of the manor for 20 years. (fn. 32) Sir Edward also purchased from Ralph Agard in 1553 (fn. 33) another estate which had belonged to William Willington of Barcheston. A few months later he was imprisoned for his opposition to the succession of Lady Jane Grey. (fn. 34) Probably in confirmation of title Sir Edward Montagu, his eldest son and heir by his third wife, Ellen daughter of John Roper, attorney-general to Henry VIII, who succeeded him in 1556, (fn. 35) bought the reversion of the manor granted in tail to his father, from Queen Elizabeth in 1602 for £153 3s. 9d. (fn. 36) He seems to have made Barnwell Castle one of his residences, for he left to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton, Rutland "all my househoulde stuff in my Castell of Barnewelle." (fn. 37) By this lady he had seven sons, of whom the second but eldest surviving, another Edward, succeeded him in January 1601–2. (fn. 38) A settlement made by him rather more than two years later included the manor of Barnwell St. Andrew, as did others in 1611 and 1634. (fn. 39) In 1604 Sir Edward and other gentlemen of the county were put from the Justiceship of the Peace for favouring the Puritan ministers deprived of their livings. (fn. 40) Later on he made his peace with the king (fn. 41) and was created Baron Montagu of Boughton in 1621. (fn. 42) As a royalist he incurred the displeasure of the Parliamentary party and was imprisoned in the Tower. In consideration for his advanced age, he was allowed to withdraw to his dwelling in the Savoy, where, in his 82nd year and still a prisoner, he died on 15 June, 1644. (fn. 43) Edward his second surviving son, by his second wife Frances Cotton, succeeded him. He sat as one of Cromwell's lords in 1657. (fn. 44) Edward, his eldest son by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Ralph Winwood, (fn. 45) was killed fighting against the Dutch. On his death in 1683 he was succeeded by his second son Ralph, (fn. 46) who with his third son John settled Barnwell St. Andrew in 1704. (fn. 47) John succeeded him four years afterwards in his later titles of Marquis of Monthermer and Duke of Montagu, and died with no surviving male issue in 1749. (fn. 48)

In accordance with an Act of Parliament passed in 1723, upon the marriage of his elder daughter Isabella with the second Duke of Manchester, his entailed estates including Barnwell St. Andrew should have been divided between his two daughters and coheirs, Isabella Dowager Duchess of Manchester, then the wife of Edward Hussey, and Mary, who in 1730 had married George Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan. (fn. 49) Each sister had an only son named John. The late Duke had directed that this part of his inheritance should be kept undivided and pass to his daughter Mary and her issue, who were to pay to the Dowager Duchess and her issue a moiety of the rents and profits. (fn. 50) This arrangement was continued until the death of the latest survivor of the four, Edward Hussey-Montagu, Earl of Beaulieu, in 1802. (fn. 51) Mary the younger of the two sisters died in 1775, having survived her son five years, and in the following year her husband, who had borne the titles of Marquis of Monthermer and Duke of Montagu since 1766, (fn. 52) held a moiety of Barnwell St. Andrew in conjunction with their only surviving child Elizabeth and her husband Henry Scott, Duke of Buccleuch. (fn. 53)

The manor then passed with the Buccleuch title until 1913, when the present Duke sold it to Horace Czarnikow, who in 1920 sold the castle to Mrs. Bainbridge, now Mrs. W. H. McGrath. (fn. 54)

In 1086 there were two mills rendering 24s. in Barnwell St. Andrew. (fn. 55) A grant of two weekly markets, on Monday and Friday, and a fair on the vigil of St. Michael and the six days following was made to Berengar le Moyne in 1270. (fn. 56) This grant was renewed to the Abbot of Ramsey eight years later, when the market was to be held on Wednesdays only but the fair was to remain as before. (fn. 57) These privileges were disputed by the Abbot of Peterborough in 1279 on the ground of the harm suffered therefrom by his market at Oundle. A compromise was effected. Market, pillory and tumbrel at Barnwell St. Andrew were discontinued (fn. 58) and the men of Ramsey Abbey in that parish were appointed to come before the Peterborough bailiffs twice a year for view of frankpledge, the bailiff of Ramsey Abbey being allowed to sit with the others and receive half the fines or profits from the Abbot of Ramsey's villeins, but to exercise no other jurisdiction. (fn. 59) A custom called 'physsilver' or 'phisshesilver' was paid to the lord of this manor in the 13th century. (fn. 60)

Church

The Church of ST. ANDREW consists of chancel 27 ft. by 16 ft. 3 in. with north vestry and organ chamber, clearstoried nave 47 ft. by 18 ft. 6 in., north and south aisles, south porch, (fn. 61) and west tower 7 ft. 6 in. square surmounted by a broach spire. All these measurements are internal.

No part of the building is older than the 13th century, to which period the main portion belongs, and the plan remained unaltered until 1873, when the organ chamber was added in the re-entrant angle of the north aisle and chancel. (fn. 62) The original work began in the usual way at the east end about 1250, and progressed westward to the tower, the upper part of which, with the clearstory, is in the geometrical style of about 1290. It is not unlikely, however, that the building proceeded without serious interruption over a number of years, covering more or less the latter half of the 13th century, though the architectural detail of the chancel arch, nave arcades, south doorway, porch, and lower part of the tower is of the earlier type. The north doorway and the windows of the aisles are 14th century insertions, and in the 15th century the chancel was largely reconstructed, new windows being inserted and the upper part of the walls rebuilt.

The church is built throughout of rubble with ashlar dressings and has plain parapets and low-pitched lead roofs. The chancel is without buttresses and has an original string course below the sill level and a 13th century moulded priest's doorway with rounded arch on jamb shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The 15th century east window is of five cinquefoiled lights with four-centered head and transom at mid-height, but the mullions and tracery are modern (1851). The two-light window at the eastern end of the north wall was originally farther west, but was moved to its present position when the organ chamber was built. In the south wall are two 15th century windows, the easternmost, high up in the wall, of three cinquefoiled lights and Perpendicular tracery, and the other of two lights. The north wall is open at its west end by a modern arch to the organ chamber, and the roof is a modern one of three bays. The double sedilia, under the easternmost south window, belong to the 15th century reconstruction and have crocketed ogee canopied arches; the seats are level. The piscina is modern, or a restoration. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders supported by corbelled shafts with richly moulded capitals.

The 13th century nave arcades consist of three pointed arches of two chamfered orders springing from piers composed of four filletted shafts with moulded capitals and bases, except at the west end on the north side, where there is a plain circular pier with more simply moulded capital and chamfered base. The responds follow the design of the shafted piers. (fn. 63) The rood-loft doorway remains in position over the easternmost arch of the south arcade and part of the stairs at the end of the aisle. The clearstory has three pointed windows on each side, of two grouped lancets with quatrefoil in the head under a containing arch, and the parapet is carried on an original corbel table. At the east end of the south aisle is a trefoiled lancet, on either side of which internally is a crocketed ogee niche of 14th century date, which with the window formed a reredos to the aisle altar. In the south wall, in the usual position, is a plain pointed piscina with cusped bowl, and above it a small round-headed opening with sloping sill, which in spite of its height above the ground seems to have been a lowside window. (fn. 64) The two 14th century windows in the south wall are square-headed of two trefoiled lights, and there is reason to believe that the wall was rebuilt when they were erected. (fn. 65) The pointed west window of this aisle is c. 1280 of two elongated trefoiled lights with moulded jambs.

The south doorway is a very good example of 13th century work, of two moulded orders, the outer ornamented with dogtooth, on double jamb shafts with moulded capitals and bases, the inner shafts banded at mid-height. The porch has a wide gable with plain coping, stone slated roof, and pointed outer arch of two hollow chamfered orders, and large nail-head hoodmould with mask terminations, on shafted jambs with moulded capitals. (fn. 66) There is a sundial in the gable.

The north doorway is equally good 14th century work, of two moulded orders, on shafted jambs, the capitals carved with oak leaves on either side of a human head, (fn. 67) and the windows in the north wall are all pointed and of two trefoiled lights. That formerly at the east end of the aisle is now in the north wall of the organ chamber; the west window is of earlier type, of two plain lights with quatrefoil in the head. At the east end of the aisle, originally below the window, is a 14th century reredos consisting of three crocketed ogee trefoiled arches, the middle one wider than the others, with a band of quatrefoils and heads above, (fn. 68) and on the east respond of the arcade adjoining, at a height of 34 inches from the floor, a small projecting trefoil headed niche.

The tower is of three stages with moulded plinth and projecting vice in the south-east angle, but is without buttresses. The upper stage has a slight setback, and the bell-chamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil above, mid-shafts, and moulded jambs, the arches richly ornamented with dog-tooth and flowers in the outer order. The spire has plain angles and three sets of lights on each of its cardinal faces. The west doorway is of two moulded orders on shafted jambs with moulded capitals and bases, and above it is a window of two trefoiled lights. In the middle stage on the south side is a circular moulded opening enriched with dog-tooth and flower ornament. The tower arch is of three chamfered orders dying into the wall.

The font is of early 14th century date, and has a richly ornamented bowl with cusped and crocketed niches on seven sides, the west face being blank.

The oak pulpit is of Elizabethan, or early 17th century date, with arcaded panels; it stands on a modern stone base. The other fittings are modern.

The monument to Nicholas Latham (d. 1620), founder of the hospitals at Barnwell and Oundle, after removal from the chancel to the chapel in 1873, was re-erected on the north wall of the chancel about 1907. It is coloured and bears the bust of Latham, who is described as 'parson of this church only the space of 51 years.' On the south wall is a brass plate to John Orton, 'first warden of Parson Latham's hospital,' who died in 1607 'in the yeare of his age 101,' and another with Latin inscription, formerly in All Saints' Church, to the memory of Christopher Freeman (d. 1610), who is depicted kneeling with his wife and eight children at an altar. (fn. 69) In the south aisle is a floor slab to John and Robert Carter, who died in September and November 1698, and a painted board in the north aisle commemorates Elizabeth, daughter of William Worthington, rector; she died in 1665.

There is some old glass in one of the south windows of the chancel and in a window in the belfry. (fn. 70)

There are two bells in the tower, the first medieval, with the letter S three times alternating with a cross patonce and a mark generally ascribed to Richard Mellor of Nottingham (1488–1508); the second bell is by Thomas Norris, 1658. (fn. 71)

The plate consists of a cup of 1570, a paten of c. 1684, a dish of 1636, a flagon of 1869, a modern medieval chalice of 1871, and a paten of 1872. (fn. 72)

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (1) baptisms, marriages and burials 1558–1727; (ii) baptisms and burials 1727–1812, marriages 1727–53; (iii) marriages 1754–1812. In the second volume is a list of briefs 1741–3, and several lists of the 'warden, sub-warden, brethren, sisters and nurses of Mr. Nicholas Latham's Hospital in Barnwell,' 1744–50. The churchwardens' accounts begin in 1742.

Advowson

There was a priest in Barnwell St. Andrew in 1086 (fn. 73) but no direct mention of the church itself seems to be preserved before 1178 when Pope Alexander confirmed to Ramsey Abbey among many other of its possessions Barnwell with its church. (fn. 74) At that date, however, both manor and advowson belonged to the earlier Berengar le Moyne (see above) and the rights assured to the Abbot were those of overlordship merely. The advowson has followed the descent of the manor down to 1920, when Mr. Czarnikow sold the manor but retained the advowson. The rectory has also followed the same descent. A carucate of land and six acres belonged to it in the 13th century (fn. 75) and in 1535 its profits amounted to £17 12s. 6d. (fn. 76) The rector also received one sheaf from the tithes of the lord in Barnwell St. Andrew, the other two, formerly of Berengar le Moyne, being afterwards paid to the sacristan, who had a portion of £2 13s. 4d. in the church. (fn. 77) By an Act of 1830 all ancient tithes and glebeland in the united parishes of Barnwell St. Andrew and Barnwell All Saints were commuted for 31 acres 1 rood 2 perches of land annexed to the rectory and an annual rent of £440. (fn. 78) The parsonage house of the 16th century (fn. 79) was rebuilt by the Dowager Duchess of Buccleuch about 1820. (fn. 80)

There was a chapel in the Castle. (fn. 81) The church has always been dedicated to St. Andrew. (fn. 82)

Charities

Parson Latham's Hospital in Barnwell, founded and incorporated pursuant to the Statute 39 Eliz. cap. 5 by Deed Poll dated 21 February, 1 James I. (1604) and including the charity of William Bigley for the inmates founded by will proved in Prerogative Court of Canterbury 11 Oct. 1834, is regulated by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 2 Feb. 1923. The general property of the charity consists of the almshouse buildings, land situated in the counties of Huntingdon and Northampton and comprising about 350 acres, rent-charges of £20 issuing out of hereditaments in Pilton, Stoke Doyle and Wadenhoe and two cottages at Ringstead and Clapton. The Ringstead property consists of 109 a. 2 r. 12 p. of land with farm and cottages at Ringstead and a sum of £25 Consols. The Shelton property consists of 66 acres of land in Shelton in the county of Bedford. The endowment of Bigley's Charity consists of a sum of £1,755 6s. 7d. Consols which forms the Repair Fund and any income not required for repairs is invested in augmentation of the fund. Of the income from the Ringstead lands 43/44ths is paid to the trustees of the Latham and Bigley Educational Foundation. The land belonging to the hospital produced £462 10s. in 1923 and £224 17s. 6d. was paid to the inmates, £10 spent on medical attendance, and £7 distributed to poor of Rushden, Ringstead and Higham Ferrers. The stock is with the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds.

The Montagu Dole.—A sum of 6s. 8d. yearly is payable out of the estates of Lord Montagu for distribution to the poor. The origin of the charity is unknown.