FLITT HUNDRED 



century design. The chancel arch is a round-headed 

 twelfth-century arch of two orders with a single line 

 of zigzag on the outer order, the springers being 

 modern additions giving it a slightly stilted form. It 

 rests on pairs of modern circular shafts with scalloped 

 capitals replacing wooden pillars of Jacobean date, and 

 flanked by small modern round-headed arches of two 

 orders which throw the chancel almost entirely open 

 to the nave. These latter take the place of square- 

 headed openings probably of the same date as the 

 oaken pillars. The present arrangement is, of course, 

 structurally sounder than the former, whose disap- 

 pearance must, however, be regretted for other 

 reasons. 



The nave is lighted by windows of two cinquefoiled 

 lights, one on the north and one on the south, of 

 fifteenth-century style. The north doorway of the 

 nave is blocked and is round-headed, of two square 

 orders. The south doorway has a plain four-centred 

 head of the fifteenth century, and opens to a modern 

 porch. 



The tower is of three stages, its embattled parapet 

 having been rebuilt, and has belfry windows of two 

 trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over and a west 

 window on the ground story of three trefoiled lights 

 with tracery. At the south-east is a stair turret 

 which projects as a half octagon from the wall and 

 dies into it below the belfry stage, being finished with 

 a pyramidal capping, at the base of which is an em- 

 battled moulding. The font is plain and twelve-sided, 

 and has a twelve-sided shaft with a base of fifteenth- 

 century date. The roof of the nave is of low pitch 

 with curved braces to the tie-beams resting on stone 

 corbels, the intermediates springing from the figures of 

 angels with outspread wings holding musical instru- 

 ments. There are carved bosses at the intersections 

 of the timbers, and traces of colour decoration are to 

 be seen on the principals. The pews are modern 

 imitations of former fifteenth-century seats, a little old 

 work being used up in them, and under the tower are 

 two ancient wooden chests. All the other wooden 

 fittings are modern. 



At the north-east angle of the nave, on the outside 

 of the wall, is a masonry projection some 3 ft. in 

 height, which may have been the base of the turret 

 containing the rood stair, but there is no evidence of 

 this within the church. 



There are five bells, the treble, second and fourth 

 bearing only the initials M.G. roughly scratched in. 

 These may denote Miles Graye of Colchester, but are 

 more probably the work of some lesser founder,-as it is 

 unlikely that so practised a man as ' Colchester Graye ' 

 would have produced such rough work. Each bell 

 bears the impress of three coins. The third bell is 

 by Richard Chandler, 1693, and the tenor by William 

 Emerton of Wootton, 1772. 



The plate consists of a communion cup of 1569 

 with a modern paten and a pewter flagon and plate. 



The first book of the registers runs from 1567 to 

 1733, and is the parchment copy made in 1598. The 

 second book contains all entries from 1736 to 1812. 



UPPER 

 GRAVENHURST 



Upper Gravenhurst had no parish 

 ADFOWSON church, and to supply the need of 

 the inhabitants a chantry was founded 

 before 1 1 89 for a priest to administer sacraments and 

 bury the dead. Licence was granted by the arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury and was confirmed by the king 

 ' for the easement of the parishioners because they 

 were wont to go to the parish church of Shytlington 

 which is a mile from the said church of Graven- 

 hirste.' ™ The first mention of the existence of the 

 chantry occurs some time between the years 1 189 and 

 1 1 95 when Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, granted the tithes 

 belonging to the chapel of Gravenhurst to Ramsey 

 Abbey." In 1369 licence was given to the inhabit- 

 ants of Gravenhurst to hear mass in the chapel there," 

 and in 1535 the salary of William Smith the chaplain 

 was 106/. 8a'.'' When the chantries were dissolved 

 by Edward VI, it was stated that the value of the 

 chantry of Upper Gravenhurst was 106/. 8</., all of 

 which was expended on the priest for his salary. 

 The ornaments and goods were worth 37/. /^. There 

 were two chalices, one of which, partly gilt, was 

 worth 40/., and the other, silver white, 20/., which 

 were then in the keeping of John Fawcett and 

 Thomas Barker, the wardens.'* Elsewhere it is said 

 that the net annual value of the parochial chapel was 

 Io8j. ^d., and that the chaplain, Jerome Johnson, 

 who was resident there, was thirty-six years old, but 

 ' meanly learned and had no other living.' " There 

 were also lands in Silsoe and Gravenhurst devoted to 

 the use of the chantry worth 69/. \d., and Henry 

 Grey and Edward Daniell were the patrons and pre- 

 sented the incumbent.'* The chantry, tithes and 

 lands attached were granted by Queen Elizabeth to 

 Theophilus and Robert Adams and to the heirs of 

 Theophilus in 1583," but a vicarage was instituted, 

 apparently shortly after the dissolution of the chantry, 

 as in 1605 it is stated that Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, was the patron of this benefice," to which a 

 curate ministered. By 1786 the presentation was in 

 the gift of the parishioners, while the great tithes still 

 belonged to Trinity College, Cambridge." At the 

 present day the rector of Lower Gravenhurst also 

 performs the duties of vicar of Upper Gravenhurst, 

 and he is elected to the latter living hy the parishioners. 



There is a Wesleyan chapel here erected in 1868. 

 The Town Farm is comprised in a 

 CHARITIES decree made at Bedford on 9 August, 

 1 1 James I by the Commissioners 

 appointed pursuant to the Act, 43 Elizabeth, cap. 4. 

 The real estate consists of the manor of Schepehoo and 

 55 acres let at £^2 16/. 



Under the provisions of a scheme of the Charity 

 Commissioners, dated 10 March, 1896, the charity 

 was divided into the ecclesiastical branch and the 

 general branch ; two-thirds of the net rents to be 

 appropriated exclusively to the ecclesiastical branch, 

 and one-third of the net rents to the general branch. 



In 1901 a sum of /303 arising from accumula- 

 tions of income belonging to the ecclesiastical branch 

 was expended in the restoration of the parish church. 



8" Chant. Cert. Beds. 4, No. 29. 



31 Cartul. Mon, Ramesei. (Rolls Sen), ii, 

 176. In 1246 Stephen Clopton, who took 

 sanctuary in Great Gravenhurst church ad- 

 mitted that he had broken the chaplain's 

 house at Gravenhurst. He was banished 

 from the kingdom and the parish was 

 fined(Harl. R.O. 38). 



"^ Line. £pis. Reg. Buckingham, fol. 

 84. The licence for use is ascribed to the 

 church of Upper Gravenhurst in F.C.H, 

 Beds, i, 324, n, 6, but it may very likely 

 have referred to Lower Gravenhurst, which 

 was built about this date. 



8S Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 198. 



335 



w Chant. Cert. Beds. 4, No. 29. 

 »6 Ibid. 2, No. 8. 

 '^ Ibid. I, No. 33. 

 '1 Pat. 25 Eliz. pt. 4. 

 " Blaydes, Beds. N. and Q. ii, 330. 

 "Bacon, Liber Reg. ^%6 ; hysons, Mag, 

 Brit, i, 89. 



