A guide to the church of St Mary Whaddon

The Church of Saint Mary, Whaddon, stands on a slight rise in the centre of the village which gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon Wadune, meaning Wheat Hill.

There has been a church in Whaddon since at least Domesday when the names of priests Turbert and Ralph are mentioned in the Domesday Book. We do know that during the twelfth century, Hugh de Scalers, a member of the Norman de Scalers family, who owned of a large part of Whaddon for over 400 years, gave Whaddon church to Lewes Priory where Henry, his son, became a monk. The Priory later granted the church to King Edward III. [For history and information about Lewes Priory, see this web site.] In 1351 it was granted to the Dean and Chapter of St George's Chapel, Windsor, who administered the estates and appointed incumbents. The estates were turned over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1867. To this day the advowson (the right of presentation to a vacant benefice) remains with St George's Chapel. In 1932 the benefice was united with Meldreth but in 1952 this was dissolved and it was united with Bassingboum.

The present church is a very attractive building both externally and internally and is of various dates from the 13th to the 15th century. It is typical of churches in East Anglia being constructed of pebble and flint. Because of the low-lying countryside the square mediaeval tower with its battlements is easily seen through any trees and presents a lovely picture on the approach to the village from the A1198.

The church is in the Early English style of architecture; its outside cornices revealing many different carved faces, heads and designs beneath the battlements and beside the windows and doors.

The most ancient parts of the church that remain are the dog-tooth moulding on the chancel arch, which dates back to late thirteenth century and the north and south arcades of the nave, but even these are not in their original proportions as changes have been made to them.

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the church seems to have been entirely rebuilt; and contains examples of both Decorated and Perpendicular styles of architecture. The clerestory with quatrefoil windows and square surrounds was added and the arcades were altered by resetting the arches and lengthening the pillars. The arcade is of impressively tall Decorated octagonal piers, five bays long with double hollow chamfered arches. The aisle walls, with their tall and narrow two-light windows, their transoms and square heads filled with tracery show a transition from Decorated to Perpendicular. The tower arch goes with them and the whole west tower is Perpendicular. It has a stair turret higher than the battlements of the tower. A new three-light west window was put in and the chancel was rebuilt. The chancel arch has three-shaft responds, the dog-tooth moulding and some nail-head decorations in the capitals. The font, the chancel rood screen and the fitting up the church with oak benches, the roofs of the aisles and the roof of the nave, which is of oak with finely carved bosses of animals, birds and flowers, were all installed at this time. The chancel rood screen is oak. The divisions of the screen have simple tracery above the flattened arches and the lower panels are decorated with flowers and two carved figures rudely put out their tongues. There is a heavy oak cross on the screen which used to stand on the altar. One interesting feature in the nave is what is obviously a blocked doorway to the right of the rood screen. This could have been the entrance to a rood loft which the Reverend Clare, vicar of the parish from 1943 to 1952 and amateur historian, said that he had seen evidence of by indents for supports on the top beam of the screen.

The font, by the north door, is octagonal in shape and bears the arms of the de Scalers on the eastern face. It would appear to have been without a cover at some time as in a visitation in 1685 it was reported:

"At Whaddon the font wants Cover and Plugge ".

Left: the font Right: detail of the arms of the de Scalers family The font is listed the BAPTISTERIA SACRA INDEX. Follow this link for more information

A look up at the roof reveals carved bosses in the centre of the roof and carvings at the ends of the beams-all different.

In 1852 the condition of the church was recorded as poor and the "windows much mutilated and the west window was blocked. " Lead was stolen from the chancel roof in 1835.

By 1868, over £2000 was required for work on the restoration of the chancel, nave aisles, tower and the installation of an organ chamber. Further work was done in 1873. At the time the necessary work needed on the tower was left until a later date but a few years afterwards the structure of the tower showed signs of giving away and the upper part of the tower was taken down. For years afterwards efforts were made to raise the necessary funds for rebuilding the tower and eventually between March and September 1894 the work was carried out. The cost of the restoration was about £500. A look at the south side of the tower below the top window will reveal the change in colour between the original flint and stone and the new. New windows were also donated at that time.

Further work was carried out on the chancel in 1949 when memorial slabs were uncovered and the floor returned to its mediaeval level.

Clearly visible in the chancel are memorials, some with coats of arms, of influential members of the community. The first of these were the de Scalers. Sealers manor house stood south-east of the church, m the centre of the chancel is a marble slab of Thomas de Sealers and his wife - 1364 and beside the south wall that of John de Scalers - 1388.

The large tomb in the chancel is that of John de Scalers who died in 1467. At the restoration of 1868-69 the tomb was moved to its present position to make room for the organ and when the tomb was reset the panels on the west side were reversed. In 1949 it was found that the marble slab did not belong to it. Some of the brasses recorded were removed in 1643 and some were stolen in the nineteenth century.

In 1949 the Rev Clare reports having seen an indent under the choir stalls to John More who married into the de Sealers family -1493.

The Tempests followed the de Scalers as Lords of the Manor from about 1608 and a marble slab bears the memorial to Thomas Tempest 1644 and his wife Martha 1652.

The Pickerings bought the manor from Martha and four memorials remain from 1661-1732, each one bearing enough information to piece together their life story. There is also visible the memorial to Elizabeth Glover, companion to Dame Grace Pickering.

On the west wall is the heraldic hatchment of Philip Yorke KG, third earl of Hardwicke, who died November 18th, 1834 at the age of 77 years. His elaborate tomb can be seen in Wimpole Church. The hatchment was found by accident in the yard of a firm of builders and decorators by the Rev Clare in 1945 who recognised it for what it was. It was given to him by the owner and he had it restored and hung in the church

On the north wall there is a plaque to the Rev Allen Hurlock, for 55 years vicar of the parish, who died in 1853 and to his wife who died in 1845. In the north aisle is the tribute to the fallen in two wars and all around the church are to be found various memorials provided by the families to commemorate their loved ones.

Throughout the years there have also other been other gifts by parishioners of chalices, pattens, candlesticks and bibles, the earliest ones being from Dame Grace Pickering in the early 1700s.

The organ was built by John Snetzler, who was born in Germany. It is a very splendid organ and has been enjoyed by visiting organists over the years. It spent some time in the Royston Institute, now the Town Hall, during the restoration of 1868/9. It was bought through a music dealer in 1857 by Mr. Beaumont, a gentleman farmer, who lived in Town Farm. There is a strong local tradition that at one time this organ was in the Parish Church, now the Cathedral, at Manchester. However the archivist at the Cathedral was unable to substantiate this fact but the Cathedral organ was substantially altered in 1857 so who knows if a part of it found its way to our church! On the installation of the present organ an "old organ" was taken to London. Unfortunately details of the kind of organ it was no longer exist.

The clock on the south facing, wall of the tower is the gift of Dame Grace Pickering, second wife of Sir Henry Pickering, Baronet. Her will was proved in 1733.

I give and bequeath to the parish church of Whaddon ... fifty pounds of good & lawful money of England, fforty of it to sett up a good Clock in the steple of that church (if l dont happen to do it as I designe in my life time) with handsom Dialls each way, and the other ten pounds to keep it in repair and wound up as long as it will last and then I think the parish may afford to do it for themselves without thinking much of it.

Why has the clock only one dial in spite of her request? There is evidence in the tower that an attempt was made to provide a dial on the north side. Why the work was abandoned we do not know. Perhaps it was too difficult. When the tower was repaired in 1894 a new stone dial was given to the clock to replace the old lozenge-shaped dial which had been made of red wood and painted blue.

The bells in the tower bear the inscription MICHAEL DARBIE MADE ME 1671. However, Darbie's reputation amongst bell founders was not very high and it is likely that he recast older bells to make the peal in Whaddon as it is known that there were bells here before the Reformation. The massive oak bell-frame (15th century) made of roughly squared tree trunks, is older than the bells and bears signs of having housed a peal differently arranged from later bells.

The coloured three-light east window by Gibbs 1868 was given to the church by the Beaumont family in 1868. It is to the memory of William 1856, Elizabeth 1866 and William jun. 1854. This was badly damaged by blast in the last war. It was repaired by W.H. Constable of Cambridge in 1948 and very little new glass had to be supplied. The face of Our Lady in the middle light, which had been badly cracked, is the original face.

The coloured window on the south side of the chancel was donated by the congregation in 1869.

In 1948 Constables of Cambridge made up a quarry of pieces of ancient glass, found by a relative of Mrs Clare, in the ruins of Ypres Cathedral, during the First World War. This was set in the middle of the window on the south side of the chancel.

Outside in the porch are two ancient stones. These were unearthed from a rock garden outside the vicarage in 1943. The Rev Clare was told that whilst repair work on the chancel was being undertaken during the incumbency of Rev Ireland (1881-84), these two stone brackets which had supported the stone slab on the tomb of a Mrs Fitzhugh (1727) had had to be removed and were used as supports for a flat stone portico over the door of the vicarage. After the fire of 1904 when the vicarage was burned down, they were buried in the rock garden. The design of these stones with scrolls with facets instead of the usual roll are quite rare; the Rev Clare placed them in the porch.

Worthy of inspection is a large collection of carved heads of people and animals and other simple designs which adorn the cornices under the battlements and beside the doors and windows The ones on the south side are in the better condition; those on the north side being much weathered.

Sources

Victoria History of the County of Cambridge Vol. VIII
Cambridge Collection
The notes of the Rev Clare (Vicar of the Parish 1945-52)
Royston Crow