Report of the Meetings for 1894. 69 



11. — Church and Castle of Bothal. By the Hon. and Eev. W. 

 C. Ellis, M.A., Eector of Bothal. 



There are no records bearing on the Church in the parish 

 books. These begin only in 1678, and are very meagre. The 

 vestry accounts are of still later date, and are also very scanty. 

 In former days there was a pedigree of the Ogle family ou 

 the walls of the chancel. But when Mr Hopwood came to 

 the living in 1845, he had the chancel fresh plastered, and the 

 pedigree disappeared. In the course of the work an older 

 pedigree was found beneath the existing one ; one was in red 

 and the other in black. Hodgson says that it was not of 

 any value, nor of much interest. The present Church was 

 restored in 1887 by the Duke of Portland, and the chancel 

 at the same time by the Eector. 



All that was done to the Church was to remove the plaster 

 on the walls ; to put in new stone where wanted ; carefully 

 distinguishing the new work by the modern finish ; to put 

 down a new floor, and to put new timber in the roof where 

 it was wanted. Almost all the main beams were sound, 

 except at the ends. They are of oak, and so hard that they 

 blunted or broke the carpenters' tools. 



The chancel had more done to it. The south wall was so 

 much out of plumb, and the mortar was so rotten, that it 

 had to be taken down ; but it was put up again, stone for 

 stone, as it had stood before. Part of the north wall was 

 treated in the same way. A new floor was put down, and a 

 new roof was put up, corresponding with the ancient gable. 

 A new east window was put in, conforming with the period 

 of the rest of the chancel, instead of a modern copy of the 

 east windows in the aisles, which had been put in by Mr 

 Hopwood; this window is now in the vestry. 



The east window has been very effectively filled in with 

 stained glass by Messrs Atkinson of Newcastle; the middle 

 light being in memory of the family of Sharp, which has 

 supplied farmers on the estate and churchwardens to the 

 parish as far back as the registers go, upwards of 200 years. 

 Wherever there was new work, it has been carefully shown. 



Worked in as rubble in the chancel walls were found remains 

 of a Norman and an Early English Church, besides remains 

 of Saxon crosses, somewhat in the Eunic style. These Saxon 



