A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



che earlier church from which the present building 

 has developed. Considerable repairs were made in 

 1 62 1, especially in the south-west part of the church 

 and the tower, and the whole building was ' thoroughly 

 restored' in 1874. Records of the former repairs are 

 preserved on two stone tablets, one in the west wall of 

 the tower, on the inside, and the other at the south- 

 west angle of the clearstory, outside. The former gives 

 the names of the ' overseers of the new work and 

 patentyes of his Majesty's letters patent granted for the 

 same. May xii, 1 62 1,' while the latter records the gift 

 of zs. 6d. to the work. On the south clearstory is the 

 date 1 62 1. 



The chancel has no features earlier than the fifteenth 

 century, though its walls may be older. The east win- 

 dow of four lights is of late fifteenth-century style, and 

 the south-east window, of three lights, is probably of 

 the same date. The north-east bay is blank, having 

 been masked by a north-east vestry, the entrance door 

 to which, and the arched head of a recess in its south 

 wall, like that at Sutton church, are still to be seen 

 on the outside. In the western bay of the chancel 

 are three-light north and south windows of poor style, 

 which are probably fifteenth-century work remodelled 

 in the seventeenth century. At the south-east are the 

 remains of sedilia and a piscina of which the basin and 

 drain are old, but the trefoiled head is apparently a 

 re-used piece of fourteenth-century window tracery, 

 since it is worked on both sides and has a glass-groove. 

 The nave with its aisles and the west tower are all of 

 fourteenth-century work, but have been much repaired, 

 the two western arches of the south arcade and the 

 south jamb of the tower arch, together with the whole 

 of the clearstory, having been rebuilt in the seven- 

 teenth century. The chancel arch is fourteenth-cen- 

 tury work, but has been much restored and the jambs 

 cemented over. 



The nave arcades are of four bays, with octagonal 

 pillars, moulded capitals and bases, and arches of two 

 chamfered orders. They are worked in Totternhoe 

 stone, the seventeenth-century repairs being in an 

 oolite of good quality, with details designed to har- 

 monize with the older work, and very good of their 

 kind, the capitals showing a very interesting attempt 

 at Gothic feeling. The masons' marks on this work 

 are worth noting. The aisles have lost most of their 

 original details, but their east windows are exception- 

 ally good specimens of mid-fourteenth-century tracery, 

 each of two lights, while at the west end of the north 

 aisle is a lozenge-shaped window with tracery, which 

 though now in modern stone, is a copy of a fourteenth- 

 century original, and notable for its unusual shape. 

 The remaining windows in the aisles are of late 

 Gothic type, and their stonework has been almost 

 entirely renewed. 



At the north-east end of the nave the upper and 

 lower entrances to the rood-loft stairs remain, and at 

 the south-east is a blocked squint. In the east wall of 

 the north aisle is a fourteenth-century image bracket, 

 and on either side of the east window of the south 

 aisle are contemporary canopied niches for the same 

 purpose. The tower, the oldest parts of which seem 

 to be contemporary with the nave, has an eastern arch 



with half-octagonal responds of which the northern 

 respond is original, and the southern belongs to the 

 repairs of 1 62 1. The west window in the ground 

 stage is modern, and there are traces of the former 

 existence of a west doorway below it. 



Externally the masonry of the nave and aisles is 

 chiefly modern, the south porch having been rebuilt in 

 1 62 1, while most of the facing is due to nineteenth- 

 century repairs. 



The font, which stands under the tower, is of plain 

 fourteenth-century work, and the wooden fittings of 

 the church are nearly all modem. The exceptions 

 are the base of a fifteenth-century screen at the west 

 of the chancel, and an octagonal pulpit with traceried 

 panels, a pretty specimen of fifteenth-century work in 

 good preservation. At the wall plate of the nave roof 

 is a line of egg and tongue ornament, evidently a relic 

 of the roof of 1 62 1 . 



At the east end of the north aisle is an iron-bound 

 wooden chest 6 ft. 8 in. long. At the south-east of 

 the north aisle is part of a fifteenth-century painting 

 of the martyrdom of St. Katherine ; the figure of the 

 saint, almost obliterated, stands between two large 

 toothed wheels, and in the foreground lie the dead 

 bodies of the philosophers converted by her arguments, 

 and martyred for their newly-adopted faith.'"'' 



There are five bells, the treble and third by Miles 

 Graye of Colchester, 1656, the second by Chandler of 

 Drayton Parslow, 1703, the fourth by Newcombe of 

 Bedford, 1614, and the tenor of 1829, by Mears. 



The plate consists of a communion cup and cover 

 paten of 1 660, the former inscribed ' O Lamb of 

 God be with us,' and the latter ' Lord, evermore 

 give us this bread,' and on the cup a crucifix is 

 engraved. There is also a modern plated flagon and 

 an almsdish. 



There are several gaps in the registers. The first 

 book contains all entries 1604-31, the second the 

 same 1653-65, and the third runs from 1 691 to 1698. 

 The fourth carries on the entries to 1736, and the 

 fifth contains baptisms and burials 1743— 18 12, and 

 marriages 1745—53. The sixth book contains banns 

 and marriages 1754-1 8 1 2. 



An interesting set of overseers' accounts for 1647— 

 94 is preserved, though in a damaged condition. 



The first mention that has been 

 ADVOWSON found of the church of Tempsford is 

 the grant of it in 1 129 to the priory 

 and convent of St. Neots by Robert de Carun on the 

 occasion of his grandson, Anselm, taking monastic vows 

 there."" In 1 291 Tempsford church was worth £9,,^'^ 

 and in 1 3 89 the right of presentation was in the king's 

 hands on account of the war with France, when 

 St. Neots, as an alien priory, became sequestrated.'" 

 At the Dissolution the living, which is a rectory, worth 

 at that time /2 8 1 7/. zd.,^"^ fell to the crown, which has 

 made occasional grants ;thus in 1680 Henry Coventry 

 received the next right of presentation to Tempsford,"" 

 and in 1686 James Halsal was presenting."" Except 

 for such grants the advowson has remained with the 

 crown.'"' 



Tempsford chantry was founded within the parish 

 church of Tempsford by Sir John Milton and Thomas 



l*"* Fisher, Coll. for Beds. pi. xciv, gives a 

 drawing of a fourteenth-century incised slab 

 in this church to . . . de Baldolc and Agnes 

 his wife. The slab seems to have been 

 once an altar slab, having the five crosses. 



™ Cott. MSS. Faust. A. iv. 



w< ?ope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 3 5 A. 



"5 Cal. of Pat. 1388-92, p. 20. 



"6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) iv, 198. Of 



this ^4 was the pension of the prior of 

 St. Neots. 



'"7 Pat. 32 Chas. II, pt. i, No. 16. 



'"8 Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 



1™ Ibid. 



