Archaeological Journal/Volume 2/Notices of New Publications: Notices of the Churches of Warwickshire

Notices of the Churches of Warwickshire. Deanery of Warwick. Nos. 1 and 2. St. Mary's, Warwick. H. T. Cooke, Warwick.

Much good may be expected to result from the architectural survey of England which is now in progress: although unconnected by any systematic plan, many interesting facts will be brought to light, and information collected which might otherwise have been lost for ever. The impulse seems to have been first given by the Oxford Architectural Society, who, in their prospectus, first issued in the autumn of 1838, observed that, "from the scarcity of records, existing monuments are the safest guides in the study of medieval architecture; but as they are widely separated, the labour of examination and comparison is so great, that, without some more systematic plan of operation than has hitherto been adopted, it can scarcely be expected that the task should be satisfactorily accomplished." It was therefore suggested that this inconvenience might be best obviated by the formation of local associations, having for their principal aim the collecting of drawings, and descriptions of the edifices in their immediate neighbourhood, which would thus form so many sources, whence the enquirers into the architectural antiquities of any particular district might derive precise and detailed information.

Numerous local associations are now diligently engaged in making careful surveys of their respective neighbourhoods, and publishing the results in different forms. Of these publications the Warwickshire Churches is one of the most creditable, alike to the members who have undertaken the labour, and executed it with much care, and to the spirited publisher, who has incurred the expense and risk of the undertaking. The lithographic views are very fairly executed, and give a good general idea of the building: the woodcuts of details are excellent, and the superior clearness of wood engraving appears to advantage by the comparison. The letter-press contains a very complete history of the celebrated church, and incidentally of the town of Warwick, and more research seems to have been used than in any other of the publications of the same class. The original documents here brought to light are curious and interesting. It appears that no less than eight parochial churches and chapels were merged in the collegiate church of St. Mary, at or soon after the time of its foundation, in 1123, by Roger second Earl of Warwick, the plan having been formed by his father, Henry de Newburgh, the first Earl, who did not live to complete it. Of these eight churches or chapels scarcely a vestige remains excepting the walls of St. Michael's chapel, now converted into "a blacksmith's shop and a dwelling-house," to the great disgrace of the good town of Warwick, and the chapel of St. Peter, over the east gate, which seems to have been effectually mutilated in 1800, under the name of reparation. This proceeding was exposed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1801, probably by the indefatigable Carter, whose taste and zeal were in advance of his age, and to whose spirited labours the present generation are indebted for much variable information. That there was a church on this site of St. Mary's before the Conquest is placed beyond a doubt by the mention of it in the Domesday Survey:—"its rise into importance, however, took place in the reign of Henry I., when Roger de Newburgh, earl of Warwick, made it collegiate, and incorporated it with the collegiate church of All Saints, at that time standing within the precincts of the castle." He then rebuilt the church, and the piers and vaulting of the crypt are of that date.

The Crypt, St Mary's Warwick A.D 1123.

A. Section of Norman Pier and Capital in Crypt.
C. Section of Decorated Capital

By a decree of the bishop of Worcester, dated at Hartlebury, Dec. 24, 1367, (41 Ed. III.,) it appeared "that the churches of St. John, St. Michael, St. Laurence, St. Peter, and St. James, all standing within the precincts of this town, the most wanted churchyards, and the rest were grown ruinous, and that the collegiate church had room enough to contain the inhabitants, and a churchyard spacious enough to bury their dead—and it was therefore ordered that, from thenceforth they should constantly attend at this church, and have sepulture in the churchyard here, all other places within the compass of the town, except the church and churchyard of St. Nicholas, being prohibited from having any ecclesiastical burial in them."

Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, began to rebuild the church, and his will, dated Sept. 6, 1369, contains the following clause:—"I will that my executors new build the quire of the collegiate church of Warwick, where I order my body to be buried." This design was carried out in the noblest manner by his second son and successor, Thomas Beauchamp, "who finished the quire 15 R. II. (1391), and newly built from the ground the whole body of the church;" but this building was destroyed by the great fire in 1694.

College Seal

A very valuable inventory of goods belonging to St. Mary's church in 1464 is printed at length, pp. 14 to 20. To make this more generally useful, notes have been appended. From the long list of books, jewels, and vestments here given, some idea may be formed of the richness of the furniture of churches at that period. The treasures were kept in the vestry, and the sextry above the vestry, in several receptacles, which are thus enumerated: "It. in the sextry above the vestrye, i old ark at the auter's ende, i olde coofrc ire(n)bounde having a large lok of the olde facion, and i lasse nyewer coofre havyng iij lokes, cald the tresory cofre, and certeyn Almaries."

Many of our old churches still retain the original vestry, and the sextry over the vestry, usually on the north side of the church. The Account Roll of the collegiate church for 1464—5 printed from the original in the possession of W. Staunton, Esq., contains some curious items, amongst which is one for strewing a church with straw and grass according to the season: "pro le strawynge ecclesie de Spellesbury cum stramine et viridi, secundum tempus anni."

On the 20th of August 1534, the common seal of the college was affixed to the deed by which the supremacy of Henry VIII. and his heirs was acknowledged. This was the speedy forerunner of its dissolution, which took place in the 37th Henry VIII., when it was granted by letters patent bearing date 15th May of the same year to the inhabitants of Warwick, by the title of Burgesses of Warwick and their successors. On the 5th September 1694 Warwick was visited by a destructive fire, which burnt a great portion of the town: the loss sustained being estimated at upwards of £90,600. In less than six hours it consumed no less than 250 houses of the principal inhabitants, (which must have been of wood) as well as "the ancient and collegiate church of St. Mary, into which as a place of safety the distracted inhabitants had thrown the most valuable goods so short a time would permit them to remove." The origin of the fire is unknown, but it is said to have been communicated to the church by means of some partially burnt articles which were deposited there for safety. The eastern portion of the building was fortunately saved, though nothing but bare and smouldering walls remained of the tower, nave, and transept, and thus the work of Thomas Beauchamp lasted exactly three hundred years, having been completed in 1394 and destroyed in 1694. Commissioners were appointed by the Crown to superintend and direct the rebuilding of the church; and it appears that an idea was at one time entertained of placing the work in the hands of Sir Christopher Wren. If this were so, the design was for some reason abandoned, as Sir Thomas Wilson was selected to erect the new structure; and to him must be attributed the censure and the praise which the fine proportions but incongruous detail of this singular building have so frequently and so loudly called forth. In one of the volumes of plans and drawings by Sir Christopher Wren in All Souls College Library, at Oxford, is a design (an elevation and a perspective view) for rebuilding the church at Warwick, it is however totally different from the present building.

"In the wall, on the south side of the choir, near the altar, or holy table, are four sedilia, not graduated, but on a level; the canopies do not project, but are merely recessed, and correspond in design so as to form a continuation of the panel-work with which the lower part of the choir is surrounded; the arches of the panel-work are foliated and cusped, and the design is finished by an embattled cornice. Eastward of the sedilia is a piscina." This is a valuable specimen of early Perpendicular panelling, and shews that the change of style rapidly introduced this corresponding change of ornament.

The vestry with the sacristy over it, and the chapter-house adjoining, appear to be all of the same age with the choir. Several of the ancient monuments were destroyed in the fire, but a record of them is preserved by Dugdale; the very fine one of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, (the founder of the choir,) and his lady, still remains in the centre of his building, with the effigies of the Earl and Countess recumbent on an altar-tomb; it has been engraved in Dugdale's Warwickshire, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, Nichols' Description of the Beauchamp Chapel, and Blore's Monumental Remains. Of the remarkable memorial which portrays the second Thomas Beauchamp, who died 1401, and his lady, an admirable representation has been recently given in Waller's Series of Monumental Brasses.

In the description of the church, it is remarked that the choir, which is stated to have been built by the second Thomas Beauchamp, A.D. 1392, would, from some of the forms and details, as the depressed four-centred arch of the large east window, (which form of arch is also apparent in the other windows,) and the panel-work with which the whole

Sedilia and Piscina.

of the east wall of the choir is externally covered, from the sill of the window to the apex of the gable, incline us to imagine that it was built at least half a century later than the time it is historically stated to have been erected; and it is not at all improbable that alterations may have been made by Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who by will founded the chapel of St. Mary," which is attached to the south side of the chancel It is with considerable diffidence that we venture to suggest a different opinion to that which is here expressed. The four-centred arch is no proof of late date, though it became much more prevalent in later times; it is found even in Early English work, as in the doorway of the City School at Bristol; the tracery of this east window is quite different from that of the Beauchamp chapel, and partakes more of the Decorated style; it is not of much later character than the works of William of Wykeham; for instance. New College Chapel, erected in 1379-86. The vaulting and pitch of the roof, the buttresses and pinnacles, are all quite different in the chancel and the chapel adjoining; even the panelling is of a different pattern, and to our eyes evidently earlier. The mouldings also are quite different. We see no reason to doubt that this chancel is the genuine work of Thomas Beauchamp.

Section of Mouldings of the East Window of the Chancel.

Section of Mouldings of the East Window of the Beauchamp Chapel.

We cannot conclude this notice without heartily wishing success to the labours of the Warwickshire Society, and hoping that their example will be followed in many other counties, with equal zeal and ability.