All Saints Church in Oakham is a long term supporter of the Church Mission Society (CMS). It has recently been allocated two new mission partners, both working in Myanmar (formerly Burma). CMS have requested that the church does not publicise these links, as the partners work in a dangerous and sensitive situation. Nonetheless we pray for them and support them as best we can.
Very recently, after a service of Morning Prayer in which the mission partners were remembered, I happened to look at a plaque on the wall of the chancel just behind the pulpit, over one of the clergy stalls. The plaque’s location, and the plaque itself are shown in the photographs below.
The typography of the plaque makes it quite difficult to read, which is presumably the reason I have never done so in the past, despite the fact that I have sat in front of it on numerous occassions. But on reading it, I noted that the church in 1906 already had a link with Burma. The plaque reads as follows.
To the glory of God and in memory of Henry Arthur Jerwood, scholar and prefect of Oakham School; a faithful and beloved curate of this parish and a zealous missionary. The lamps in the chancel and sanctuary are erected by his schoolfellows, friends and parishioners. He died serving in obedience to his Master’s call at Mandalay on March 26th 1906.
Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar, 600km north of the capital Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and is the centre of a largely Buddhist area. Our current mission partners are thus not the first links that the church has had in that area.
Henry Arthur Jerwood
Can we say any more about Henry Jerwood? His basic biographical details can easily be traced on Ancestry. He was born in 1878, the eldest child of Rev. Thomas Frederick Jerwood (1846-1926), Rector of Little Bowden and Dorothea Elizabeth Longsdon (1853-1942) who were married in Yorkshire in 1877. The couple had a number of other children, amongst them Helen Dorothea Jerwood (1880-1965), who will be mentioned below, Rev. Frederick Harold Jerwood (1885-1971) who was to become Chaplain at Oakham School, amd Major Hugh John Jerwood MC (1890-1918) who was killed in action. The latter had a son, born in 1918 after his death – John Michael Jerwood (1918-1991), a businessman and philanthropist, who was to become a significant benefactor of Oakham School, and a number of the school facilities bear his name.
St. Nicholas, Little Bowden, Northants
Oakham School
Henry Arthur attended Oakham School, as his father had done before him, and his brothers were later to follow him there. He matriculated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1897, taking his BA in 1902 and his MA in 1905. He took some time out just before he graduated to fight in the South African (i.e. Boer) War from 1900 to 1902 with the Suffolk Regiment.
Clergyman and Missionary
After graduation, Henry Jerwood attended the Clergy Training School in Cambridge (the early name of Wescott House) and was ordained deacon in 1902 and took up the curacy at All Saints church in Oakham, a town with which he would have been very familar from his schooldays. The chronology of his training and ordination as deacon and priest is not wholly clear from the sources. In 1905 he applied to become a missionary to Burma. We can trace his short career there through the pages of the Quarterly Paper of the Rangoon Diocesan Association (RQP), a nationwide organisation that supported the work of missionaries in Burma, and was affiliated to the Society for the Promulgation of the Gospel (SPG). These are all available as pdfs in the SOAS missionary archive. As an aside, those who, like myself, dabble in historical matters, are hugely indebted to the patience and the perseverance of the archivisits who made such material available. In RQP 34, June 1905 we read the following under the heading Reinforcements, which says something of the military mindset of the organisation.
…….The Rev. Henry Arthur Jerwood, B.A., of Sidney Sussex ‘College, Cambridge, and the Clergy Training School, was ordained in 1902, to the Curacy at All Saints, Oakham, in the Diocese of Peterborough……
The Rev. A. Jerwood, at present an assistant Curate at Oakham, will join Mr. Fyffe at Mandalay~ a man stout and , vigorous in body and stout of heart, who went to South Africa when the war broke out, and did his part there man fully, and will carry to his work in Burma the same vigour he gave to South Africa and Oakham.
In the next edition (RQP 35, September 1905) we read that, as a consequence of Jerwood’s departure, Rev H J C Knight, the Commissary of the Rangoon Diocesan Association (who recruited for the Association and was living in Jesus Lane in Cambridge), preached at All Saints on Sunday July 30th. The collection of £3 4s was given to the R.D.A.
Then in RQP 36 from December 1905 Jerwood’s arrival in Burma is noted, under the heading News from the Front, again another military metaphor.
The newcomers have arrived, and are settling down to work, the Rev. H. A. Jerwood and Mr. Hart with Mr. Fyffe at Mandalay, the Rev. R. J. Stone at Bishop’s Court as Chaplain, the Rev. R. G. Fairhurst at S. Luke’s, Toungoo, and the Rev. W. H. C. Pope at Rangoon .
We also have the following description of the work in Mandalay,
The Buddhist Field – The Winchester Brotherhood has been founded at Mandalay, on the general lines of the Indian Community Missions, for systematic study of Buddhism and work in the field. The Head, Rev. R. S. Fyffe, has at present only one Brother (Rev. H. A. Jerwood). These two men are the only English Clergy for Missionary work in the chief town of Upper Burma, a city of 180,000 souls. They need at once two men of (if possible) a studious type, of patience, hope, and brotherliness. There is work to do while learning Burmese. The Brothers have passage and outfit paid, maintenance, lodging together, and £40 a year.
The mention of Jerwood in RQP 37 for March 1906 is very brief and simply says that he had taken over the role of Principal at the School run by the Winchester Brotherhood from Mr. Hart, who arrived in Burma at the same time as he did. Jerwood died on March 28th 1906. We read his obituary in RGA 38 June 2006, written by the Commissary Rev H. J. C. Knight.
Though most of our readers will have read the Bishop’s notice of Mr. Jerwood in the Mission Field for June, our R. Q. P. ought to have some notice of him. He was born on February 25th, 1878, the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Frederick Jerwood, Rector of Little Bowden. He must have owed much to his home. On hearing from Bishop Montgomery that he had fallen asleep, his father was able to write “we hope to send another son.” and assuredly in homes that can speak thus:
“The father’s passion arms the son, And the great work goes on, goes on.”
All his school days were spent at Oakham School; thence he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. While yet an undergraduate he served in the S. A. war. On his return he graduated, entered the Clergy Training School, and was ordained to Oakham in 1902. Last autumn he went to Burma, calling at Delhi {where his sister was working under S. P. G. in the Cambridge Mission), and other Brotherhoods, and joined Mr. Fyffe at Mandalay in December. On the 28th March last he passed from us. The cause of his death was a rare type of paralysis – nothing climatic. The Bishop and the Rev. R. J. Stone, who was with him at the C. T. S., were in Mandalay at the time. His body rests near the graves of the Colbecks.
We had looked for great things from his ministry in Burma. His qualities of simple manliness, unaffected and robust piety, a very-single-hearted devotion, unselfishness, courage and affection, drew men to him. These, and his unfailing cheerfulness, promised much for our Winchester Brotherhood. He went out “for life,” and so his home gave him. His letters from Mandalay were always touched with humour, and were full of hope and determination. It is easy to pray “Thy will be done,” while we have no disappointments or reversing of our purposes; but it is hard really to bow to the surrender of such a man. When Bishop Maples was drowned on Lake Nyassa. on the very day of his arrival as Bishop of Likoma, Augustine Ambati wrote, “God liked to take him, to make white (i.e., consecrate) so the waters of the lake.” Even so may Mr. Jerwood’s death in Mandalay be one more consecration of the city. To his friends – there and here – it will be one more tie binding us to the missionary spirit, and the forward march of the Church. It is good to know that Mr. Garrad, whom God has moved to carry on his torch, will be, we believe, in every way a brother to Mr. Fyffe. Those who loved H. A. J. will pray “The Lord bless his going out and coming in. ”
H. J. C. K.
The sister in Dehli that is referred to is Helen Dorothea. At the time she worked for the Cambridge Mission of SPG, but was later to work for the East India Company in Dehli. She remained in India all her life, dying in 1965.
Some final thoughts
Interesting as it is to find that All Saints had a link with Myanmar one hundred and twenty years before our current one, and to read Arthur Jerwood’s interesting and ultimately tragic story the aspect that has struck me most in the preparation of this post, is how very different our current Christian culture is to that of 1906. As noted above, military metaphors are often used in the RQP, and indeed the whole publication shows an extremely ordered and extensive organisation that itself has a military flavour. The form of Christianity that one finds in its pages is a very muscular and forceful one and whilst one can admire the earnestness and zeal of those determined to bring the gospel to those who had never heard it, the tone of the publication reflects the colonial era of its time, and the implicit superiority of European (and particularly British) civilisation and culture to that of the “natives”. Howerver, whilst I find this aspect more than a little repellent, I do wonder if we have lost something over the last century, in terms of our zeal and enthusiasm for the mission of the church, both at home and overseas. The words of Revelation 3.15-16 come uncomfortably to mind.
ANNE Barroness HARRINGTON, by Indenture bearing date 20th June 1616 assign’d a Rent Charge upon he Manor of Cottesmore in perpetuity for the annual payment of THIRTY-TWO pounds to the Vicar of the Parish Church of OAKHAM, and the Overseers of the Poor of the said Parish being Tenants or under Tenants of any of the Lands parcel of the Manor of the said LADT HARRINGTON in Oakham Lords-hold payable at the four usual quarterly days, in the south porch of the said Parish Church of OAKHAM. – The said LADY HARRINGTON gave a small Library for the use of the Vicar.
The inscribed board in the vestry of All Saints church in Oakham (photograph by Richard Adams)
Anne, Lady Harrington
Anne Keilway was a daughter of Robert Keilway of Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire. She married John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton, in 1573. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, she was appointed as a Lady of the Bedchamber and was made Governess to Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James 1, travelling with Elizabeth in 1613 to Heidelberg for her wedding to Frederick V of the Palatinate. Anne died in May 1620. The younger Anne is depicted on a memorial to her Father in Exton parish church (right).
The Harrington bequest
In 1616 Lady Anne Harringtom made a two part bequest, which is recorded on a an inscribed wooden board in the vestry of All Saints Parish church in Oakham shown above. This involved an annual bequest of £32 to support the poor of the township of Oakham Lordshold, and the bequest of a small library for the use of the vicar of All Saints church. This post describes the second part of the bequest – what was to become known as the Oakham Parish library. The support for the poor of Oakham is addressed in a related post.
The Oakham Parish Library
In 1616 Anne bequeathed a collection of books to All Saints Oakham, and these formed the core of the parish library. a number of volumes were added to the library over the years, mainly service books and bibles, This collection, numbering 115 volumes was transferred in October 1980 on indefinite loan into the custody of the Department of Special Collections of Nottingham University Library. The Oakham Parish Library is well described in the paper “Oakham Parish Library” by Anne Herbert. This paper is however not easily available (unless one has a University Library access or is prepared to pay £35 for a copy), so I quote below the most relevant passages.
……Until their removal to Nottingham the books were housed in two oak presses 176 cm. in height, 183 cm. in width and 39 cm. in depth, with three shelves apiece and a central vertical divide of a later date. The craftsman ship is rather crude and lacking in decoration with the exception of a single strip of carving along the top of each press……
…..Oakham parish library …… comprises almost exclusively works of theology with a sprinkling of history, mainly ecclesiastical, and canon law…… It is strongest in the Greek and Latin fathers-Athanasius, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, John of Damascus, Origen; Augustine, Gregory, Hilary, Jerome, Tertullian……. But the medieval schoolmen, the Protestant reformers and pre-Reformation theology and law are also represented….
…..The books were originally shelved with the spines innermost but there is no evidence to suggest they were ever chained. All but the late additions to the library have fore-edge numbers and some also have author and title information on the fore-edge…..
…..A printed book label, which survives in 46 of the volumes, pasted at the base of the title-page, commemorates Lady Harington’s bequest and bears the inscription ‘Ex dono Dominae ANNAE HARINGTONAE Baronissae….
…..The books are for the most part fairly uniformly bound in calf decorated only with fillets round the edges of the covers. The incunables and early sixteenth century volumes, however, have blind-stamped leather bindings over wooden boards…..
….Oakham parish library seems to have been rather neglected durng the subsequent centuries. There is very little documentation relating to its establishment or history-no extant loan records and little evidence that it was ever used by the incumbents of Oakham for whose benefit the books were originally given…..
In an appendix to her paper, Herbert lists 67 books that belong to or were contemporary with the Harrington bequest, the remaining items being later additions to the library. The library is also discussed by Aaron T Pratt “A Baroness and her books” which contains a photograph of the printed book label shown to the left, and also some examples from elsewhere that show how the books might have looked on their shelves.
The library at the University of Nottingham
81 items from the Oakham Parish Library are listed in the Nottingham University Catalogue. As Herbert states that 115 volumes were transferred in 1980, it is likely that some catalogue entries relate to multiple documents – most likely those referring to bibles or prayer books.
ANNE Barroness HARRINGTON, by Indenture bearing date 20th June 1616 assign’d a Rent Charge upon he Manor of Cottesmore in perpetuity for the annual payment of THIRTY-TWO pounds to the Vicar of the Parish Church of OAKHAM, and the Overseers of the Poor of the said Parish being Tenants or under Tenants of any of the Lands parcel of the Manor of the said LADT HARRINGTON in Oakham Lords-hold payable at the four usual quarterly days, in the south porch of the said Parish Church of OAKHAM. – The said LADY HARRINGTON gave a small Library for the use of the Vicar.
The inscribed board in the vestry of All Saints church in Oakham (photograph by Richard Adams)
Anne, Lady Harrington
Anne Keilway was a daughter of Robert Keilway of Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire. She married John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton, in 1573. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, she was appointed as a Lady of the Bedchamber and was made Governess to Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James 1, travelling with Elizabeth in 1613 to Heidelberg for her wedding to Frederick V of the Palatinate. Anne died in May 1620. The younger Anne is depicted on a memorial to her Father in Exton parish church (right).
The Harrington bequest
In 1616 Lady Anne made a two part bequest, which is recorded on an inscribed wooden board in the vestry of All Saints Parish church in Oakham shown above. This involved an annual bequest of £32 to support the poor of the township of Oakham Lordshold, and the bequest of a small library for the use of the vicar of All Saints church. This post describes the first part of the bequest. The library bequest is addressed in a related post.
The Harrington Charity
As set out on the board in the vestry of All Saints church shown above, the original bequest was for £32 per annum to the vicar of All Saints and to the Overseers of the Poor, to be distributed to the poor in the township of Oakham Lords-hold. The distinction between Oakham Lords-hold and Oakham Deans-hold is an ancient one and in well described by T H McK Clough in “Oakham Lordshold in 1787”. The distribution was to be made on the quarter days from the south porch of the church. In 1915 the administration of the bequest was formalised by the Charity Commission. The Trustees of the Charity were to be the Vicar of All Saints, and four others appointed by the (then) Urban District Council. Procedures for meetings of the Trustees and for their appointment are also set out. The income is specified as £32 per year from the Earl of Gainsborough, which shall be spent as follows
As set out on the board in the vestry of All Saints church shown above, the original bequest was for £32 per annum to the vicar of All Saints and to the Overseers of the Poor, to be distributed to the poor in the township of Oakham Lords-hold. The distinction between Oakham Lords-hold and Oakham Deans-hold is an ancient one and in well described by T H McK Clough in “Oakham Lordshold in 1787”. The distribution was to be made on the quarter days from the south porch of the church. In 1915 the administration of the bequest was formalised by the Charity Commission. The Trustees of the Charity were to be the Vicar of All Saints, and four others appointed by the (then) Urban District Council. Procedures for meetings of the Trustees and for their appointment are also set out. The income is specified as £32 per year from the Earl of Gainsborough, which shall be spent as follows.
I. Grants or contributions for or towards the the provision of Nurses, and of medical and surgical assistance for the Sick and Infirm, including medical and surgical appliances, medicines, and comforts or necessaries : II The supply of (a) Clothes. Linen. Bedding, Fuel, or Food or other articles in kind (b) Temporary assistance in money by way of loan or otherwise. III Weekly allowances. being in no case, except with the approval of the Charity Commissioners, less in value than 1s 6d a week or more than 3s a week, during the pleasure of the Trustees, to or for the benefit or persons qualified, as aforesaid, and not in receipt of Poor-law relief other than medical relief, who have attained the age of 60 years, and become wholly or part unable to maintain themselves by their own exertions, in augmentation of any means of support possessed by the beneficiaries – which shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Trustees to be reasonably assured. and to be sufficient, when so augmented, to enable the beneficiaries to live in reasonable comfort.
The Minute Book 1925 to 2000
A minute book for the Harrington charity has recently come to light, during a clear out of old financial documents. this runs from 1925 to 2000, and contains some interesting information on the development, and the running down of the charity over that period. In this section we will look at the general trends over that period. In the following section we will look in more detail at the entries for 1925.
The annual entries in the minute book are largely routine, reporting the appointment of trustees, and giving a list of those to whom payments were made. Each year from 1925 to 2001 the total payments were close to the income of £32. There were a few other points of interest however. In 1933, it was decided to make payments directly to individuals rather than requiring them to congregate in the Church School – which had replaced the south Porch of the church as the distribution centre at some point. In 1935 grocery vouchers worth 2s 6d and redeemable at G. W. Peesgood, were also distributed alongside the cash dole. In 1954 enquiries were made as to whether it was possible to support those outside the Lordshold area, which seem to have been inconclusive. No meetings were held in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and the final meeting in 2001 discussed the possibility of amalgamation with the Morren charity. It also resolved to request the last three years payment from the Exton Estate (still of £32 / year). How these two issues were, or were not resolved is not recorded. Note however that the distribution in this form is not a good match with that specified in the 1915 document – and indeed there are no indications that regaulr weekly payments were made over the period.
The minute book also enables us to look in more detail at some aspects of the dole. The figure to the right shows the number of recipients of the dole over the years. It can be seen that this falls from just under 90 in 1925 to around 60 by 1930, and remains at that number until 1960, when a gradual decline sets in. Up until 1930, different amounts were given to different people – either 2s 6d, 5s, 7s 6d or 10s. From 1933 a standard amount was paid. this was 10s to each recipient to 1960, and then increasing gradually as the number of recipients fell from then on. In the mid 1990s £8 was paid to each four recipients.
The number of recipients of the Harrington dole from 1925 to 1997
Value of the average dole between 1925 and 1997 in today’s prices, using three different inflation measures.
But how much were such payments worth in todays prices? There are various ways of calculating this as set out by the Measuring Worth website. The right hand figure shows the value of the average dole payment from 1925 onwards at today’s prices, as calculated using price inflation, labour cost inflation and income inflation. The last two are probably the most relevant to this study. These show that the average dole payment in the 1920s and 1930 was worth somewhere between £100 and £200 in today’s terms – not a massive amount, but perhaps something like the Winter Fuel allowance.
Using the same method, the value of £32 in 1603 when the charity was set up was £127,000 based on labour cost inflation and £228,000 based on income inflation. On the assumption that there were around 100 recipients of the dole, this gives the worth of an average payment of between £1000 and £2000 in today’s terms, which would be quite substantial.
The 1925 Dole
We now look at the information for the 1925 payments in more detail. This year is on the limit of the 100 year period usually applied to the release of individual names, and the entries in the minute book may be of interest to Family Historians.
The 1925 pages have been scanned and transcribed, and both the scan and the transcriptions are shown below in pdf viewers. The original writing is not easy to read, so I can’t be certain about the accuracy of the transcripts – but I have done my best! In general terms, the large majority of the recipients were women, usually identified as Widows.
Brooke Rd Cold Overton Rd Cross St Crown St Gaol St Gas St John St Johns court Jubilee Buildings Mill St Mount Pleasant New St Northgate St Park Lane Pullins Yard Simper St South St Westgate
1 7 3 5 4 7 10 7 3 3 2 2 5 1 1 10 5 10
A breakdown of the streets where those who recieved the 1925 lived is given to the left. Most of these are shown on the map from 1910above. Some of these streets no longer exist, specifically those streets in the area between New St., Melton Rd. and the railway line – Cross St., Gas St., and Simper St., with John St. being much curtailed. Others cannot be precisely located – Pullins Yard and Johns Court, although they are likley to be in the same area. Bedehouse Row on the map is referred to as Westgate in the minute book. In total 58 of the dole recipients (around two thirds of the total) lived in the area bounded by South St, Gaol St., High St., Melton Rd. and the railway.
In the north transept at All Saints church in Oakham, there is a large wooden chest, shown in the photograph above. This is the Oakham Parish chest, which is encompassed by iron bands, with three locks. It is well described by a framed description close by, written by an unknown author, and dated 2007.
The earliest Parish Chests are of Norman or even Saxon date. In the early 16th century the Vicar General, Thomas Cromwell issued a mandate to the effect that every parson, vicar or curate had to enter in a book every christening, marriage and burial in his parish, with the names of the parties. In addition to these records documents relating to the day to day running of the parish would have been stored in the Chest, including the Churchwarden’s accounts, Removal and Settlement Certificates Poor Rate and Poor Law records.
The parish was to provide a `sure coffer’ with two locks, the incumbent having the custody of one key and the Churchwarden having the other. _ The safety of the documents was assured by there being two locks and therefore the opening of the Chest had to be approved by the incumbent and the Churchwarden together. The chests were usually made of oak, early ones having been `dug out’ of a substantial log. Later chests became more refined being made of boards secured with iron nails. Some were decorated with iron banding. These were common from the early part of the fourteenth century. Some had slots pierced in their lids possibly to receive monetary offerings.
An injunction in the thirteenth century was that in every church a chest should be provided fastened with THREE keys, to be kept by the Bishop, the Priest and a religious layman. It will be noted that the Parish Chest here at All Saints, Oakham has three such fastenings. Whilst an exact date cannot be made as to its origin it would appear that this Parish Chest may date from the early years of the Church.
By the mid-1500’s the parishioners in every parish of the land were instructed by law to provide a strong chest with a hole in the upper part thereof, and having three keys, for holding the alms for the poor. Another chest may have been used to keep safe the church’s plate and this or the first chest would also double up as a place where the parish registers and other parish documents could be kept safe. In some places only one chest would have sufficed for both purposes, while in other parishes two or more may have been used.
So there is a possibility that the three locks might indicate a 16th century rather than a thirteenth century date.
Of course, confronted by an old oak chest, the immediate question that comes to mind, is what mysteries does it still contain. The Oakham chest opens without much effort, although the lid is a bit weighty, so that question can easily be answered. And the mystery turns out to be quite mundane as can be seen from the photograph below – a crown of thorns, presumably for the Holy Week liturgy and an assortment of large and votive candles. Pretty much the sort of stuff that would be found in a cupboard in any parish church! The mysteries are long gone (and probably deposited in Leicester Archives).
In the monograph “Oakham Lordshold in 1787”, Clough (2016) considers the map of the town of Oakham in Rutland produced for Lord Winchilsea in that year. This is the earliest map to show significant detail of the urban topography of the town, and from it Clough was able to infer some aspects of its late Anglo-Saxon / early Norman topography, in particular the existence of two enclosures encompassing the castle and the church, and the castle and a large portion of the town. In this post. I take his considerations somewhat further and, by considering the likely Anglo-Saxon road network around Oakham, infer some further features of the Anglo-Saxon urban topography.
Oakham connections
Cox (1994) in his extensive survey of Rutland place names, identifies a number of settlements in the Oakham area that were likely to have been in existence in the sixth and seventh centuries i.e. early on the Anglo Saxon era. These are as follows.
Place names ending in -ham, meaning village or estate. These include Oakham itself; Langham and Wymondham to the north west; Greetham and Grantham to the north east, Empingham to the east and Uppingham to the south.
Place names ending in -dun meaning a large hill, of which the only one in the vicinity of Oakham is Hambleton.
Place names associated with the Anglian tribe of the Hwicce of which Whissendine to the north of Oakham is the only one locally.
The villages of Brooke, which has an early attestation, and Braunston, which incorporates an early form of Anglo-Saxon name and has possible Roman antecedents.
The -well names meaning spring, and in particular Ashwell, although this might be slightly later than the others.
The major settlements in the wider region either with proven continuity since the Roman period or are of an early form- Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln and Stamford.
In what follows we presume that in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods, Oakham had road / pathway connections to these early settlements that are, broadly, the predecessors of those we see today at least out of the settlements themselves. Country roads are very conservative topographical features and change little over the centuries. Within, and on the entry to settlements, they would however have been more prone to change, because of building and commercial developments. In these terms we will consider seven such roads that converge on Oakham and in particular we attempt to trace the “natural” course of these roads into and through the town, again assuming that these are the courses that would have been followed in the Anglo-Saxon period, rather than the courses that have developed over the centuries.
But first a broader point is worth making. Oakham was in the ninth and tenth centuries was in many ways at the centre of the Danelaw, with roads passing through it that connected Leicester in the west to Stamford and Lincoln in the east, and Northampton in the south with Derby and Nottingham in the north. As such, it is likely to have been of some strategic importance, particularly during the period when King Edward and Lady Aethelflead finally defeated the Danish armies in the area between 910 and 920.
The Anglo-Saxon roads
The roads that we are considering are shown in Figure 1 on a copy of the 1787 map as given in Clough (2016). These are as follows.
Figure 1. The proposed early road layout
Road 1 from Belton and Braunston (and beyond that Leicester) that runs up what is now Braunston Road and West Road (formerly known as Cow Lane) and joins Road 2 to the west of Oakham.
Road 2, the current Cold Overton Rd from Knossington, runs in a west to east direction, across what would become many centuries later the railway crossing and into Oakham. If the line of the road is continued, it runs along Dean Street (A) towards the church (B), and not along High Street. This straight alignment is very clear from the satellite view of figure 2. I will argue below that High Street was a relatively late development and was laid out in the Norman period. I have then shown the road running to a point in the current market place (C) in front of the castle (D) although this last stretch is conjectural.
Road 3 is the road from Melton Mowbray (and Derby and Nottingham beyond) through Wymondham and Langham. The modern approach to Oakham is via a sharp 90 degree turn along the railway down towards the level crossing. It will be seen below that this route was actually in place in the 16th century at the latest, so it is not a modern development. However, here we take the natural line of the road to continue from the north of the area marked as the Parks (E) towards the sharp kink in the modern Northgate (F) and then following Northgate and Church Alley to a junction with Road 2 in the Market Place. Again, this natural course is very obvious on the satellite view of Figure 2. This seems a much more natural route into the centre of the town.
Road 4 is from Ashwell and Greesham (and beyond that Grantham) that is taken to follow the existing course of Burley Rd. east of the castle to a junction with Road 5.
The course of Road 5 from Stamford and Empingham has changed significantly over the centuries, as it was moved to loop around Catmose Hall. Clough conjectures that it used to entire town through either or both of Bull Lane (G) or Tanners Lane (H) to the north of Bull St. We choose the latter course here as it allows this road to meet those from the west in the Market Place.
Road 6 from Uppingham and Preston follows its modern course to the end of Mill St. (J) and then cuts across to meet the other roads in the Market Place,
Road 7 from Brooke and Riddlington follows the current course of Mill St. to a junction with Road 6 (J).
Figure 2. Satellite views of the western and northern approaches
The Saxon / early Norman enclosures.
Figure 1 also shows two enclosures. The black dotted lines is a (very) conjectural boundary of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, based on the discovery of boundary ditches at K, L and M summarised by Clough. The purple solid line is the enclosure surrounding the castle and the church identified by Clough, largely on the basis of the flooded ditch at N (that has also been identified in archaeological investigations). Taken together these two enclosures would seem to represent the extent of the Anglo—Saxon and early Norman settlement. The strategic and defensive position of the castle (and in particular the Motte in the south east corner P) adjacent to the meeting point of the roads through the town is very clear. The most striking point about the proposed reconstruction is the absence of the High Street – its anomalous orientation with regard to the other roads suggests it postdated the original road layout. South Street was however likely to be in existence early as it marks the southern boundary of the enclosure. Note its original course ran straight from the west to the east, and did not diverge to the south east at its eastern end.
Changes in the Norman period
Figure 3. The post-conquest road layout
Figure 3 shows the road system and enclosures in the later Norman period. Clough identified the enclosure outlined in green that contains the castle and the portion of the town to the south. He speculates that the pattern of enclosures was changed when the manor was relinquished by (probably) William II and divided between Lordshold and Deanshold (the Dean referring to being that of Westminster Abbey), with the results that the church and the castle holdings were separated. This enclosure was again identified on the basis of a flooded ditch at Q. Clearly the function of this enclosure is very different and seems to be about controlling the movement of people and goods through the town (presumably for taxation purposes). It is like that this is the period when the current High Street came into existence. The Speed map of 1611 (Figure 4) shows “Bargate” at R, (built into the current Flores House) where presumably people and goods were assessed . The road system has also been changed to ensure all traffic flows along High Street. In the west, Road 3 was rerouted, probably in the first instance to follow the current line of Park Lane (S) down to Road 2. At some point the area named as the Parks was enclosed (both routes are shown on the 1611 map), and the route would again have been changed to run around this area, resulting in the modern road configuration (T). The current traffic chaos around the level crossing on the Cold Overton Road thus has its genesis many centuries ago! The combined roads 2 and 3 were then rerouted along the new High Street, rather than down Dean Street. To the east, it is likely that the Stamford Road was rerouted to come into town via what is now Bull Lane.
Figure 4. The Speed map of 1611
Loose ends
In this final section we note a number of what might be called loose ends in the above argument – the lack of destinations for one of the identified roads; the lack of direct roads from a significant place in the locality and the nature of the town “gates”.
A road to nowhere
Road 2 approaches Oakham on a straight route from the west, and within the town becomes Dean Street. But where was it coming from? There are no settlements out in that direction that can be confidently given an early date. Two thoughts come to mind – either that it was part of a somewhat roundabout route to Leicester, or that it was the route to what can be surmised to be early fortifications of the Rutland border to the west (where a number of names indicate beacons). There are no doubt other possibilities.
The route to Hambleton
There are clear indications in Domesday that the major settlement in the area at the time was Hambleton, and it was suggested above that this settlement was of an early date. As far as can be ascertained from the fairly recent maps that are available, the route there was a 90 degree junction of the Stamford Road (see the 1900 Ordnance Survey map of Figure 5). However the map shows a pedestrian way to the west of the junction that cuts of a corner and is a much more natural way to Hambleton. It seems possible that the Stamford Road bifurcated at that point with branches to Empingham and Stamford to the north and Hambleton and Ketton to the south, but that this junction was supressed during the enclosures. So Road 5 might better be referred to as the road to Hambleton, Empingham and Stamford
Figure 5. The road to Hambleton (from 1900 Ordnance Survey map
The gates
“Gates” is an ambiguous word. It can either refer to a physical gate to the town, or be a derivation from the Norse -gata simply meaning road. Bearing this in mind, Clough identifies two gates – an East gate at the entry of the Stamford Road into the enclosure around the present Bull Lane, and a West gate – the Bar-gate mentioned above. The road system was clearly arranged to direct all traffic through these, and resulted in quite a small central enclosure.
Now, whilst no south gate has ever been identified, from the earliest maps, there is a Gibbet Gate shown on the Speed Map on Stamford Road (Figure 4). This is someway outside the enclosed areas, and is this case the word gate probably simply defines a road rather than anything else. albeit one leading to a somewhat grisly destination.
The name Northgate, however, appears on a number of maps. On the Speed map this is positioned somewhere near the railway crossing, and on later maps, the current Northgate is known by either that name or by Northgate Street. Again, this could either refer to an actual gate to the town, or simply a way to denote a road. But if there was an actual North Gate, where was it? In my view, the most likely position is at the current sharp junction of the modern Northgate – F in figure 1, on the original Melton Road and at the possible confluence of the Saxon town and Castle / Church enclosures. A modern photograph is shown in Figure 6 below – taken from the east showing the possible location of the north gate (the thatched cottages) and the line of the road from there to the castle.
Figure 6. The possible location of the north gate
References
Clough T. H. McK. (2016) ” Oakham Lordshold in 1787 – A map and survey of Lord Winchilsea’s Oakham estate” Rutland Local History & Record Society, Occasional Publication No 12
Cox B (1994) “The place-names of Rutland” English Place Name Society
In August 1860 the Rev. Thomas James., M.A.- honorary canon of Peterborough, vicar of Theddingworth, and one the secretaries of Architectural Court of the Archdeaconry of Northampton delivered a lecture to Oakham Literary Institute at the Old Castle Hall of Oakham, on ” Gothic Architecture,” particularly with regard to the history and arrangements of the Church and Castle Hall in Oakham (1). The transcript of his talk can be found here. The speaker was described as “an accomplished ecclesiologist and erudite and painstaking antiquary” and was clearly a major proponent of gothic church architecture in the area.
In his talk he mentions two speculations that I wish to consider briefly in this post. Firstly he stated that there was “a cupboard in the eastern wall, behind the altar, which might have been used as a receptacle for relics, or for receiving the stoup of holy water which stood at the chancel door.” Secondly, with regard to the clergy vestry he said, obviously referring to some past time “…the vestry was two storied, in all probability it was formerly used as the dwelling of an anchorite, that being a prevailing custom at one time. There was a similar instance of a two storied room attached to the church at Barnack, near Stamford“. We consider each of these two statements below.
The altar cupboard
The east end of the church was extensively modified by Gilbert Scott in 1858, but probably only from the bottom of the east window upwards, and it would seem, from the description by James, that the altar cupboard, whatever it was, was still in place in 1860. The area was further extensively modified in 1898 when the current Reredos was installed , and the walling and flooring renewed. However there is still a slot behind the altar which almost certainly was created to mark the position of the cupboard (figure 1). So what was it – a reliquary, a place for storage of holy water, or perhaps an aumbry, where the consecrated bread and wind would be kept? There are as far as I know, no historical mention of any relics in All Saints, but a church of its size and significance may well have been graced with them. There is of course evidence of relics at the priory cell at Brooke to the south of Oakham and the Reliquary can be seen in Rutland County Museum. If it were an aumbry for consecrated bread and wine or a storage place for holy water, then it would need to be opened fairly regularly, and its location behind the altar, which would have been standing against the east wall would have made it relatively inaccessible. So it is possible that it was a reliquary, which would not have been opened regularly, but this must remain as speculation.
Figure 1. The slot in the wall at the east end marking the position of the “cupboard”
The Vestry
The vestry is thought to have been built around 1480 at the same time as the adjoining Lady Chapel, although this is not certain. It is certainly tall, and could have accommodated a second floor, although there is no current structural evidence for that. One potential feature could be consistent with the idea that and Anchorite hermit (or an Anchoress) resided there, is that there is a blocked up “window” structure in the wall between the vestry and the Lady chapel, which could possibly have been used by the resident hermit to observe the celebration of the mass at the altar below (figure 2). As it stands, the lower edge of this recess is rather too low for it too have been at the level of the floor above, so this might have involved a step down, or perhaps was first built to match the height of an earlier structure on the site of the current vestry. So this perhaps goes some way to bolstering the claim made by Wood, but again there is no certainty.
a
b
Figure 2. The blocked up window structure. a – from the Lady chapel; b – from the vestry. The bottom edge is at the same level in each case.
So to conclude. Whist the presence of relics and hermits in All Saints is a possibility, this is far from certain. As with many Victorian ecclesiologists and antiquarians, the Revd. James may well have let his speculations outrun the evidence.
Additional Note (29/11/24)
After reading the above blog, the Vicar of Oakham, Revd. Stephen Griffiths, sent me the photograph shown in Figure 3 below. This shows two blocked up windows on the east side of the Vestry. From the inside, the lower window corresponds with a recessed cupboard in the wall, which has the appearance of a door, and from the photograph, there seems to be a break in the stone work beneath the window that might indeed suggest it was originally a door. The upper window is similar in form to the stair windows in the tower. Taken together they perhaps suggest a separate entrance with access to an upper level in the vestry. How this relates to the issues addressed in the above blog is not, however, at all clear. All a bit of a mystery.
Figure 3. The east side of the vestry (photograph by Revd. Stephen Griffiths)
In this post we will consider how bus and train transport in Oakham has changed from the 1960s to the present day, for both good and bad. To do so, we will use a variety of historical resources, primarily old bus and rail timetables. We will look at four time slices – at the state of the railways in the early 1960s i.e. before the Beeching cuts; at the bus services and train service provided in the late 1960s, after Beeching but before bus deregulation; in the late 1990s after rail privatization and bus deregulation; and the current situation. The time slices chosen have in effect been determined by what information is available. However, between them they give a clear picture of how bus and train services in Oakham have developed (or perhaps degraded) over the last 50 to 60 years.
Sources and limitations
For the early 1960 rail services we use the following sources:
London Midland Region timetable for 1963 and 1965 (personal collection);
These are quite comprehensive and give a full coverage of the rail services at that time, which is of course before the Beeching Report and associated closures. The sources for the late 1960s are both taken from Timetable World:
London Midland Region timetable for 1969;
Bus timetables for the late 1960s.
Whilst the rail timetables can again be expected to be comprehensive, the bus timetables are probably less so. Finding services through Oakham requires a search of the index for bus companies operating in the area. It is possible that I have missed some potential sources of information, although I believe I have captured most of the main services. What I have almost certainly missed are any very local services operated by small operators in the Oakham district, which simply do not appear on the Timetable World web site. The bus timetables are from the years 19868 and 1969 with one exception from 1973 (for a Saturday only service). For the late 1990s we obtain information from the following sources:
Railtrack Great Britain timetable for 1999 (from Timetable World);
Great Britain Bus Timetable 1999 (personal collection).
The Great British Bus Timetable is a compilation of services from across Great Britain. It admits that it excludes local operators and services of a purely local nature, so again the bus information might not be fully comprehensive here. For the current situation we used information for bus and train times that is available on the web as follows:
In the analysis that follows, we will identify bus and train operators by a two letter code.
BL – Blands of Cottesmore – a local bus company based in a village to the east of Oakham.
BA – Bartons or Barton Tobin Hood – a large regional bus company based around Nottingham, but with a garage in Stamford.
BR – British Rail – the National pre-privatisation rail operator.
CB – CentreBus – an East Midlands regional operator.
CC – Cross Country Trains – the current franchise operator of trains through Oakham, with a wide nationwide network.
CT – Central Trains – a previous operator of trains through Oakham, based in Birmingham with a wide regional network across the Midlands.
EM – East Midlands Railway – the mainline train operator serving the East Midlands cities, that runs occasional services through Oakham (and is, bizarrely, the firm responsible for running the station).
KI – Kinchbus – a small Loughborough based bus company
LR – Lincolnshire Road Car – a large regional company in the 1960s, primarily based, as might be expected, in Lincolnshire.
MR – Midland Red Leicester – the regional operator of the very large Midland Red network that operated buses across the wider Midlands area.
RC – Rutland County Council – which currently operates a small number of services for which no franchise partner could be found.
UC – United Counties Omnibus Company – a large regional company primarily based in the Northampton area.
Analysis
In what follows we consider the public transport services through time in four categories:
Local interurban services to Stamford, Melton Mowbray and Uppingham;
Regional services to Peterborough, Leicester, Nottingham, Grantham and Corby;
Long distance services to Birmingham, Cambridge and London;
Miscellaneous services for which information is incomplete – very local services, long distance coaches etc.
For the first three categories we present the data in tabular form in a consistent format, and then discuss how these have evolved over time. Discussion of the latter category is inevitably rather more diffuse due to the lack of much historical information.
Local interurban services
Tables 1 to 3 show, in standard form, the bus and train services between Oakham and Stamford, Melton Mowbray and Uppingham. Journey times and number of journeys / day are shown. Clearly there are both train and bus options to Stamford and Melton Mowbray, but only bus options to Uppingham. The bus journeys in 1969 and 1999 were provided by major bus operators for which Oakham was at the edge of their operating area – United Counties in Northampton, Lincolnshire road Car, Bartons in Nottingham, Kinchbus in Loughborough. Currently they are provided by more local operators – primarily Blands, but with Rutland County Council running the current Oakham to Stamford service. The bus journey times and service frequencies have remained similar over the period (although note that the former can vary significantly depending on what villages are served on the way between urban centres. The loss of Sunday services is obvious from the data in the tables. What is not so obvious is the fact that evening services on all the bus routes have been significantly cut over the study period.
By contracts the train services have seen major improvement. The Leicester to Peterborough shuttles stopped at all the village stations before Beeching and the journey times between Oakham and Melton Mowbray and Stamford were of the order of 20 minutes. By 1969 these stations had closed and the journey times significantly reduced. This reduction has continued up to the present with faster stock being introduced on the line and, most significantly, the number of journeys has increased by a factor of two with the introduction of hourly through Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport services. These improvements have however resulted in a significant loss of connectivity to the villages where stations were closed in the 1960s.
Table 1. Oakham to Stamford
Uppingham to Stamford via Ridlington, Wing, Oakham (Railway Station Crossing), Exton, Whitwell, Empingham and Great Casterton. UC also operated service 280 with one return journey on Fridays only from Oakham to Stamford vis Edith Weston.
Oakham to Stamford via Whitwell, Empingham and Great Casterton.
Oakham to Stamford via Whitwell, Empingham and Great Casterton. BL185 has one service from Monday to Friday and four on Saturday. RCR9 has five services Monday to Friday.
Leicester to Peterborough East via Syston, Frisby, Melton Mowbray, Saxby, Ashwell, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Luffenham, Ketton and Collyweston, Stamford, Helpston and (for some journeys) Peterborough North.
Leicester to Peterborough via Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough. Also, two early morning / late evening EM services from Nottingham to Norwich calling at Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough (not included in table).
Table 2. Oakham to Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray to Oakham (Station Approach) via Whissendine, Ashwell and Langham. Also, four journeys / day Oakham to Langham only.
KIRF (Rutland Flyer) Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham, Oakham and Cottesmore; BA2 Uppingham to Nottingham via Oakham, Langham, Whissendine and Melton Mowbray.
BLR1 Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham, Oakham, Langham and Whissendine; CBR2 is Oakham to Melton Mowbray via Exton, Cottesmore and Whymondham. Also, one BLR4 service per day Melton Mowbray to Peterborough via Oakham and Uppingham (not shown in table).
Leicester to Peterborough East via Syston, Frisby, Melton Mowbray, Saxby, Ashwell, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Luffenham, Ketton and Collyweston, Stamford, Helpston and (for some journeys) Peterborough North.
Leicester to Peterborough via Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough. Also, two early morning / late evening EMT services from Nottingham to Norwich calling at Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough (not included in table).
Table 3. Oakham to Uppingham
Uppingham to Stamford via Ridlington, Wing, Oakham (Railway Station Crossing), Exton, Whitwell, Empingham and Great Casterton.
KIRF (Rutland Flyer) Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham, Oakham and Cottesmore; BA2 Uppingham to Nottingham via Oakham, Langham, Whissendine and Melton Mowbray.
Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham, Oakham, Langham and Whissendine
Regional interurban services
In this section we consider the evolution of services from Oakham to the major surrounding conurbations of Peterborough, Leicester, Nottingham, Grantham and Corby (Tables 4 to 8). With regard to Peterborough and Leicester, the same remarks can be made as in the last section in terms of the rail services, with steadily decreasing journey times and a major improvement in service frequency. For both towns there have only ever been occasional and sporadic bus links, addressing specific leisure, employment or educational needs, with long journey times. Direct services to Grantham were an early casualty of service rationalization and were not provided after the early 1970s.
In the early 1960s train services were provided from Nottingham to Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Corby, Kettering and beyond. Services on this line were a major casualty of the Beeching closures and there are now only very limited rail services to both Nottingham and Corby. Whilst there was quite a good bus service from Oakham to Nottingham in 1999, operated by Barton, this did not last and there are now no direct bus services to that city. There are, however, regular services to Corby that run through Oakham to Melton Mowbray. In 1999 these were provided by Kinchbus and marketed as the Rutland Flyer. Now the service is operated by Blands. Journey times are of the order of 40 to 50 minutes.
Table 4. Oakham to Peterborough
Melton Mowbray to Peterborough via Langham, Oakham, Uppingham and South Luffernaham.
Leicester to Peterborough East via Syston, Frisby, Melton Mowbray, Saxby, Ashwell, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Luffenham, Ketton and Collyweston, Stamford, Helpston and (for some journeys) Peterborough North
Leicester to Peterborough via Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough. Also, two early morning / late evening trains from Nottingham to Norwich calling at Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough (not included in table).
Table 5. Oakham to Leicester
Saturdays only. Oakham (Station Road) to Leicester via Braunston, Knossington, Cold Overton and Melton Mowbray.
Leicester to Peterborough East via Syston, Frisby, Melton Mowbray, Saxby, Ashwell, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Luffenham, Ketton and Collyweston, Stamford, Helpston and (for some journeys) Peterborough North.
Leicester to Peterborough via Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough. Also two early morning / late evening trains from Nottingham to Norwich calling at Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough (not included in table).
Table 6. Oakham to Grantham
Oakham (Railway Station) to Grantham, calling at Cottesmore, Greetham, Market Overton and Thistleton. Also 3 journeys from Oakham to Cottesmore only.
Table 7. Oakham to Nottingham
Nottingham to Uppingham via Melton Mowbray, Whissendine, Langham and Oakham.
Nottingham to Kettering, via Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Gretton, Corby and Kettering, Two or three of these were from Nottingham (and beyond) to London St Pancras.
Nottingham to Norwich calling at (Leicester), Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Stamford and Peterborough (early morning and late evening only)
Table 8. Oakham to Corby
Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham, Oakham and Cottesmore.
Corby to Melton Mowbray via Uppingham and Oakham
Nottingham to Kettering, via Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Gretton, Corby and Kettering. Two or three of these were from Nottingham (and beyond) to London St Pancras.
Melton Mowbray to London St Pancras calling at Oakham and Kettering.
Long distance services
The three long-distance services we consider are Oakham to Birmingham, Cambridge and London (Tables 9 to 11). All of these are rail based. The first two reflect the changes described above to the Leicester to Peterborough services with a significantly increased number of services and steadily reducing journey times. The London situation is very different. When services ran from Nottingham to London via Oakham in the early 1960s, there were four trains to and from London each day. After Beeching these were withdrawn completely and it is only in recent years that one journey, from Melton Mowbray to London has been reinstated. Thus whilst there has been considerable improvement in east / west connectivity, north / south connectivity has been reduced to a nominal level.
Table 9. Oakham to Birmingham
Birmingham to Cambridge / Norwich via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough
Table 10. Oakham to Cambridge
Birmingham to Cambridge via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough.
Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough. Birmingham to Cambridge / Stansted Airport via Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Stamford and Peterborough
Table 11. Oakham to London
Nottingham to Kettering, via Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Manton for Uppingham, Gretton, Corby and Kettering. Two or three of these were from Nottingham (and beyond) to London St Pancras.
Melton Mowbray to London St Pancras via Oakham and Kettering
Other services
When looking at the information available from the sources listed above, it is clear that there are two broad categories of bus service that are not fully represented – very local services in and around Oakham and the nearby villages; and long-distance coach services. With regard to the former, it is known that local companies such as Blands provided specific services to places of work and education and indeed that still continues in the latest timetable. These are usually one or two journeys a day with no wider public transport relevance. Als Rutland County Council operate a minibus Rutland Hopper service around the town to out-of-town stores and local villages.
It is also clear that some long distance coaches operated through Oakham, but these are not easy to find, usually occurring in specific operators timetables. For example, in 1968 Barton operated a long-distance coach service between Corby and Glasgow (presumably for steel worker s to visit families), with daytime trips on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, and overnight trips on Friday and Saturday, that picked up and dropped off at the Crown Hotel. Similarly in 1969 Trent Motor Traction, based in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire ran weekend services from Derby and Nottingham to Southend on Sea, Cambridge and Clacton that ran through Oakham, picking up and setting down at the Market Place. There were no doubt other similar occasional services.
Conclusions
So what can one conclude from the data presented above? Firstly with regard to rail services, it is clear that there have been major improvements in connectivity to the east and the west, with reducing journey times and increased frequencies. That being said, current reliability and punctuality is poor and requires improvement. Services to the north and south have however seen major degradation and are now only represented by one journey a day to London. With regard to bus services, in some sense these have seen little change, with journey times and frequencies on most routes remaining broadly constant, at least on weekdays. That being said, there have been some losses – to Grantham and Nottingham in particular, Sunday services are non-existent and evening services have been severely cut back, Perhaps more importantly the service times and frequencies that were acceptable in the 1960s now simply represent a very basic service that is not attractive to most car-owning travelers.
Three recent blog posts here, here and here, contain transcripts of newspaper reports that describe the restoration of All Saints Church in Oakham in 1858, under the direction of Gilbert Scott. It is clear from these reports that at the time the church was in a very bad state of repair and most of the restoration was concerned with repairing defects, particularly to the roofs, renovating historical features and replacing much of the internal furnishings. However there was one major area of the church where significant work was carried out that went far beyond simple repairs – to the chancel and to the east end in general. In his condition assessment Scott (1) wrote
The chancel has a roof of modern date concealed by a flat plaster ceiling which cuts across the chancel arch. The same roof extends over the north chancel aisle, thus deforming the east end, by placing two divisions under one gable. The north aisle has most beautiful oak panelled ceiling, which happily conceals its roof from within. The south aisle of the chancel has modern roof, of the very meanest description, so that in the interior of the chancel and its aisles we have first a plain flat plaster ceiling to the chancel itself; then to the north aisle a beautiful oak ceiling, showing the manner in which the ancient builders treated their work; and on the south aisle the roof of modern hedge-carpenter, such as would disgrace a cart-shed.
It is not altogether clear what is being described here, particularly in the first sentence, and this is the aspect of the work that will be considered in this post. First of all, let us consider the current (2024) state of that area of the church. A plan is given in figure 1 and shows the chancel, with the 13th century Holy Trinity chapel to the north and the Lady Chapel (built around 1480) to the south (the chapels are the north and south aisles referred to in the above quotation) (2). Figure 2a,b,c,d shows views of chancel and the chapels from the west end of the church. The chancel arch, referred to by Scott can be seen in figure 2d. It can be seen that the chancel itself is higher than the chapels to either side and certainly higher than the chancel arch, so the ceiling that Scott took exception to has been removed.
Figure 1. Plan of the east end of the church
a
b
c
d
Figure 2. a – North aisle / Holy Trinity chapel; b -Chancel; c – South aisle / Lady chapel; d – view from nave showing chancel arch.
Photographs of the east end of the church from the outside are shown in figure 3. There is no natural viewing point to take an overall photograph and the view is obstructed by trees in the churchyard, but, despite the odd perspective, both chapels and the chancel can be seen. The change in stonework around and above the chancel window shows the rebuilding of the 1850s.
a. Lady chapel and chancel
Chancel and Holy Trinity chapel
Figure 3. The east end of the church
Happily we can gain an understanding of what this end of the church looked like before the restoration from an 1851 model kept in the church (3). This is in a glass display case, currently in the north transept, and was not altogether easy to photograph, largely because this entailed standing on a pew, turning through ninety degrees and trying to photograph something in a glass case next to a window, with multiple reflections. Nonetheless, a rather poor quality photograph is shown in figure 4. The caption on the display case reads
In loving memory of Mary Grinter who passed to her rest on 10th February 1950. Age 87 years. This model was made by her father John Pitt Coulam (1833-1898)
Figure 4. The 1851 model
Figure 5. Photograph of the east end of the church showing the roof line of the 1851 model.
The east end in this photograph can be seen to be very different from the photographs of figure 3. Figure 5 shows the 1851 roof line from figure 4 superimposed on the photograph of figure 3b. And from this one can understand what Scott meant. The chancel seems to have been reduced from its original height (which the height of the chance arch suggest was similar to today), and a pitched roof added over both the north aisle / Holy Trinity, chapel and the chancel itself. Thus, the two chapels indeed share a gable, and the roof / ceiling of the chancel would cut across the chancel arch in a very un-elegant fashion. The window at the east end would also seem to have been deliberately lowered to fit into the new arrangement. Figure 6 shows, in an edited version of figure 2b, how Scott would have seen the interior of the church, with the top of the chancel arch blocked, a lower flat ceiling in place, and a smaller east window
Figure 6. The chancel as would have been seen by Scott, with chancel arch blocked, lowered flat ceilingand smaller east window
Scott’s work changed all this, restoring the chancel to its original height and adding sound roofs and spectacular internal ceilings. A new east window was inserted, which, the 2003 church guide (3) tells us, was criticised at the time for being of “decorated” rather than “perpendicular” form. Funny what folk get upset about.
So why on earth did this happen – why was the original rather elegant design of the chancel and chapel changed in this way, presumably sometime in the 15th to 17th centuries. I can think of two possible reasons. The first is wholly utilitarian – the chancel, and in particular the roof, may have been in a very poor state of repair, and required extensive renovation and repair. The arrangement criticised by Scott could have been a cheap way of making that end of the church reasonably sound, if rather ugly. The second reason has a more theological basis. After the Reformation, the Elizabethan settlement enforced conformity of practice – in particular taking down the altars at the eats ends of chancels and replacing them, for the purpose of celebrating holy communion, with a table placed lengthways in the chancel, around which communicants would have gathered, with the celebrant on the north (long) side of the table. The combined chancel and north chapel would thus have provided a typical Elizabethan “communion room”. A surviving example of such an arrangement can be seen locally at Brooke. (figure 7) where the spacious chancel is separated from a north chapel by a simple screen. This arrangement was only temporary and after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, with the Laudians in the ascendency, the altars at the east ends of chancels were reinstated with little opposition. Some clergy however continued to celebrate from the north end even with the altar in the new positions, and indeed, this is still the case in a few places.
Whatever the reason, I have to admit (albeit grudgingly) that Scott was correct in this case in his desire to restore the chancel to its gothic glory from what seems to have been a somewhat botched Elizabethan / Stuart arrangement.
One further point arises. In the north aisle / Holy Trinity chapel there is a large chest tomb, with no dedication, placed lengthways next to the chancel (figure 8). It is said in (2) to be early 16th century – perhaps around the time of the Reformation. The images of sheep bells or wool weights on the side have led to the suggestion that it might be the tomb of a wool merchant. In the chancel arrangement before Scott’s restoration this would have been very prominent – indeed in the centre of the gable, possibly between two altar positions. One can speculate that the tomb was either placed in this position deliberately or indeed whoever was responsible might also have rebuilt the chancel / chapel to give the tomb such a prominence.
‘Parishes: Oakham’, in A History of the County of Rutland: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1935), British History Online [accessed 21 October 2024].
Aston N (2003) All Saints Oakham, Rutland. A guide and history.
“Communion of the Saints” in a Baptistry in Padua (José Luiz)
On October 31st 2024, I gave a lecture at All Saints church entitled “A time to mourn, and a time to dance – the All Saints season through the ages“, which explored how the season between Halloween had developed over the centuries and millennia. This was part of a wider celebration of the festival of All Saints that included a musical concert; church tours; a tower climb, a pop up cafe and a number of services of worship.
In the church notices for the Sunday beforehand I wrote the following introduction to the talk.
The start of November marks the beginning of winter in seasonal terms, and is the time of a number of festivals and celebrations – Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Bonfire Night and Remembrance Day. In this talk I will explore how all these evolved through the ages from pre-Christian times, through the medieval period to the Reformation and from then to the 21st century. A few other festivals which haven’t made it to modern times will also be mentioned. There will be a large cast of popes and bishops, kings and queens, saints and sinners with a few fairies and witches thrown in. I will of course be using PowerPoint, the academics comfort blanket, with some audio tracks, so if nothing else the almost inevitable failure of technology may be entertaining. But I found putting the talk together really quite interesting, and I l learnt a few things that were new to me on the way, so hopefully others will find it interesting too – and possibly even enjoyable!
This web page contains links to a transcript of the talk, and a re-recording of the talk made after the event. The latter contains the PowerPoint slides I used; the former is just the text. The presentation does not include the audio clips I used in the talk – YouTube would not have allowed me to upload these for copyright reasons.
For those interested in reading further about the development of seasonal celebrations in England I would recommend the following book by Prof Ronald Hutton – from which I took much of the information for the talk.
In this series of three related posts, I present transcripts of the press reports concerning the re-opening of All Saints church in Oakham in November 1858. This is done primarily to make the source documents for that event available and easily readable, and there is no discussion of their contents. That will come later. The material is all found in the British Newspaper Archive and the archive OCR text forms the basis of the transcripts, although. As with any OCR text, this has needed considerable editing, which, as I am sure the reader will find, has been imperfectly done. The material presented in the three parts is as follows.
Part 1 contains the notice of the re-opening the from the Leicester Journal of 5th November 1858 and a report on the event itself from the Stamford Mercury of 12th November 1858. The latter contains the text of the report by Gilbert Scott that describes the state of the church before the restoration and what, in his view, needed to be done.
Part 2 contains a report of the opening from the Leicester Journal of 12th November 1858. This covers some of the same ground as the Stamford Mercury report, and whilst not including Scott’s report, does give details of the opening event, including the sermon that was preached.
Part 3 (this part) is from the Lincolnshire Chronicle of August 24th 1860, and gives the text of a lecture that was given at Oakham Castle entitled “Gothic Architecture” by the Rev Canon James, one of the principal proponents of the Gothic in the region, where the changes that were made to the church are explained and justified.
Lincolnshire Chronicle 24th August 1860
LECTURE AT OAKHAM. ON ” GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE,” by the RE V. CANON JAMES.
Last Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Thomas James., M.A.- hon. canon of Peterborough, vicar of Theddingworth, and one the secretaries of Architectural Court of the Archdeaconry of Northampton—a gentleman extensively known as an accomplished ecclesiologist and erudite and painstaking antiquary—delivered a lecture at the Old Castle Hall of Oakham, on ” Gothic Architecture,” with especial reference to the history and arrangements of the Church and Castle Hall in Oakham. The lecture was for the benefit of the Oakham Literary Institute —a young but progressing association, having for its object the advancement literature, art, and science, and the improvement the humbler classes of society. The weather, unfortunately, was of the most dreary and cheerless character, heavy searching rain descending during the whole of the day. Notwithstanding this very material draw back, a numerous and fashionable audience assembled in the Hall at the hour announced for the lecture at three o’clock. Geo. Finch, Esq., of Burley Hall, the owner of the Castle, presided on this occasion, and amongst the ladies and gentlemen present we noticed the following :—The Rev. W. S. Wood, the Rev. T. Byers, the Rev. J. E. Prescott, the Rev. J. M. Wingtield, the Rev. H. Jones, the Rev. C. Palmer, the Rev. H. J. Biggs, the Rev. R. T. King, tho Rev. Scudamore, Lord Campden, – Barnard, Esq., B. Adam, Esq., R. Harvey, Esq., J. Morton, Esq., H. Samson, Esq., &c, &c. The Oakham brass band was in attendance, and intervals played selections of music.
The Chairman opened the proceedings by observing that they had met in that venerable fabric for the purpose of hearing a lecture from the Rev. Mr. James, on Archaeology, as more especially connected with the Church of Oakham and the Old Castle in which they were at that time assembled. The date of its erection, which they saw upon the wall, was, he believed, incorrect, the hall having, in all probability, been constructed about the time William Rufus. It was a remnant of time when the country, both as regarded laity and clergy, were intently interested in the Crusades to the Holy Land—at a time when the country groaned under the Norman tyranny, and the people were the victims of regal despotism and of feudal violence. that age, the custom was to wear long-pointed shoes, and as the people had a very peculiar art of interpreting Scripture, they connected the prevailing fashion with the text, that ” No man can add one cubit to his stature,” and during the reigns Kings Henry the Second and John, the populace were firm believers in the long-pointed shoes as having something to do with religion. (Laughter.) But, happily, these ages of darkness and superstition had long since passed away, and the country no longer trembled ‘neath regal tyranny or baronial oppression. (Hear, hear.) Civil and religious liberty now prevailed through the length and breadth our highly favoured land, and all that now remained visible of these dark ages were splendid specimens of architecture. He would only mention that four out of the possessors of the Castle in which they were assembled had been executed for high treason ; the first was the Earl of Kent, in the reign of King Edward the Third, the second, the Duke Buckingham, in the reign Richard the Third; of whose fate Shakespere had informed them when he w rote :
“The Duke of Buckingham, my lord. Then off with his head “
— a second Duke of Buckingham in the reign of Henry the Eighth; and the fourth, Lord Thomas Cromwell, beheaded in the year 1540. He could only say that he sincerely trusted that the present and future possessors might never meet with a similar fate. (Loud cheers.) He might go much further in referring to the history and associations of Oakham Castle, but he would not intrench upon the province so erudite and able lecturer as Mr. James, who was, he was quite sure, much better qualified interest them. He begged to introduce to the meeting Mr. James. (Loud applause.)
The Rev. T. James then entered upon a most elaborate, instructive, and interesting lecture on the character, progress, arrangement, and utility gothic architecture, divided as it were into two parts, the first being illustrated by references to the Castle of Oakham, and the second descriptions of the church which has been recently restored, and which is one the finest specimens of gothic architecture to be found among the churches of England. The Committee of the Oakham Literary Institute desire to publish the lecture in its entirety for the benefit of the society, and therefore, their request, we only present our readers with a brief outline of Mr. James’ paper. He commenced by observing at one of their architectural meetings, a gentleman had accosted him by the enquiry whether he was Mr. James the architect and of course he told him, as he now told them, that he was not Mr. James the architect or the architect either. He much regretted that in undertaking a subject of such magnitude his knowledge of it was so superficial ; and he might as well tell them at the outset that he should in the course of his lecture draw largely upon the researches which the eminent knowledge of his friends (Mr. Poole and Mr. Hartshorn) had enabled them to make ; and he did this with the more confidence because he should not think for one moment of placing himself on a level with those gentlemen. As its name implied, architecture was the mistress art. With the gentleman who addressed him as an architect, many believed that the name architecture was derived from its connection with arches; but this was not so, although it might be said to begin with the arch. In fact, there could be architecture without the span of the arch stretching from pillar to pillar. The lecturer referred to some diagrams illustrating the early and progressive styles architecture, commencing with the stones placed one” upon another as at Stonehenge, next the Saxon, then the Norman, and finally the Gothic. These styles he lucidly described and illustrated. He observed that the various styles of architecture, more or less, ran into one another. It was quite impossible for anyone to say —here the Norman ends, and here the Saxon begins. Our forefathers never paid attention to styles—they went on building, putting the very best materials they could find into the best possible forms, just the same as they used to write, without any regard to the rules of grammar. Mr. James then pointed out that the arches of the windows inside the Castle Hall were round, while outside they were pointed. Oakham Hall marked the transitional period in architecture. It was the site of a Royal Hall, for a hall at Oakham was mentioned when King Edward the Confessor made his survey. Referring to the remarks of the chairman, the lecturer gave some interesting details of the early possession of the Castle of Oakham. Of these he made special mention of Walcheline de Ferrars, a younger son the Earl of Derby, lo whom Henry II. granted the manor, and created Baron of Oakham. This same Walcheline de Ferrars was a bit of poacher and a bit of a roystjer, having displayed a fondness for hunting the Royal game, while many time he Old Hall in which they sat had been the scene of feasting and merriment. De Ferrars joined King Richard I. in his crusade to the Holy Land and was last heard of the romantic siege of Acre, where he died. Alluding to the fact that four possessors of the Castle of Oakham had been executed for treason, the lecturer said it was not at all improbable that more than these had been guilty of treasonable practices, although they were not perhaps detected
Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason? When it doth prosper, Men don’t call it treason.
After describing the persons through whose hands the Castle of Oakham successively passed until it came into the possession of its present most worthy and respected owner, Mr. James said it had been supposed some that the Castle was a chapel to some great building, but that was a most erroneous impression, formed through a notion that the piers and arches were peculiar to ecclesiastical edifices. They were not so, the Gothic in olden times being the prevailing style for buildings domestic as well as ecclesiastic. Oakham Castle Hall regarded as the finest domestic room in England, and, in »’* probability, it was the finest part of the Castle. They must not suppose that the ancient Castle was fortified with keep, bastions, and towers, as in the neighbouring Castle of Rockingham. Oakham Castle never had any defensive works, except the outer wall. The entrance door in the hall, he observed, was not now in the proper place. It was mentioned in Wright’s History of Rutlandshire that the door was in the corner, but it had been removed to the centre of the building- At the end of the hall which he stood the King’s chamber, all probability, existed, and he had been told Mr. Heneage Finch that in dry summers—which, of course, this was not —traces of buildings were to be found on the west as well ** the east side. Mr. Heneage Finch had also told him that remembered a tower on the east wall, and there probably existed the postern which connected the Castle with the town. Mr. H. Finch also remembered a round tower on the westside. The lecturer next went on to describe the purposes for the hall had been used in olden times and gave a graphic word picture of what he supposed it to be in the days of Walcheline de Ferrars. There, in all probability, a sort of rough justice was administered the Baron, and there also the reveling and feasting took place. They must imagine the hall cleared of its present furniture, and substitute stout oaken benches for seats, with boards placed upon plain for tables, the only deviation from the arrangement being an arras of tapestry at the west end, where the lord sat. The windows were unglazed; the fire was placed on a raised platform in the centre of the hall, the smoke escaping by the windows after the fashion prevalent in the cabins of the Irish. In the evening the custom was to put wooden shutters to the windows, which it would be observed be admirably shaped for the purpose, and this they did at an early hour, showing that in those days they were supporters of the early closing movement. (Laughter.) The hounds crouched by their masters’ side, and their hawks perched above their heads. Here they quaffed wines from Greece and Cyprus and feasted upon lamprey and herring pies. The ladies and gentlemen sat at tables alternately, and it was the height of refinement then to eat off the same plate. (Laughter.) The only knife used was the claspknife, which the gentleman most likely took unsheathed from his girdle, and napkins would be in considerable request considering that large proportion of the food had to taken with the fingers. He (the lecturer) observed that it was well known that finger napkins were commonly used as early as the 13th and century. The chief Personages in those days sat at the upper end the table, and the humbler ones at the lower end—the salt cellar—which by way ought to spelled with the s and not the c—dividing the upper and under crusts of society. (Laughter.) He had thus endeavoured to introduce a few somewhat interesting details with the dry dish which he had to place before them; and determined to do so as soon as he knew he was to speak in hall, which was to them all so rich in association. (Applause)
Chancel, showing pulpit, screens between side chapels, choir stall, altar and reredos (from 1898), prayer desk and lectern
The lecturer then proceeded to the more direct portion of his subject, pointing out on the diagrams the three styles of c architecture, viz., Early English, 13th century”; Decorated. 14th century; Perpendicular, 15th century. The first or early English arch they would observe was round, from one centre, the second or decorated arch, sprung from two centres; and the third arch he believed came from four centres- These styles were all to be found in the church of Oakham- enumerated the different parts of the church in which the three styles of Gothic architecture were observable, specially, remarking upon the pillar-shafts in the chancel, which were the 14th century, while the capitals and bases were Tudor work, at least 150 years later. The lecturer quoted some elaborate remarks of the Rev. A. Poole’s on this subject, as also an translation from the Latin, referring to the transfer of Simon de Langham (who was not very popular) from the see of Ely to Canterbury. About the middle the 16th century, strict attention to ecclesiastical architecture ceased, and modern commenced. People had their attention occupied in ways. Gothic architecture was essentially un-Romish in its character, and he believed there was only one church in Rom which affects this style. The great Papal Church of St. Peter’s at Rome is in the classic style of architecture, and not in the Gothic, to which it is totally opposed. If faith were judged by architecture, then it would be more proper to condemn St. Paul’s than Westminster Abbey, for the former was far more in the Romish style. (Hear, hear.) He then adverted to the arrangements of Oakham Church and congratulated the inhabitants on the good feeling they had manifested in the restoration of the church. They had now obtained a building most suitable for the proper and reverential worship of Almighty God. No square room could ever have been appropriate, or of half so much utility. They had a church of which they ought to be indeed proud, and any apology for a beautiful structure would very much like Bishop Watsons apology for the Bible. He contended that Gothic churches had tendency to produce devotional feeling in the hearts the worshippers. Alluding to the arrangements of Gothic churches, the lecturer said originally the porch of the church was intended for the unbaptised, the nave for the great body of the people, and the chancel for the clergy for the celebration of the Holy Communion; the upper part being the presbytery, and the lower part was apportioned to the choir. These churches were built in the form of the or the Greek cross, plans which he pointed out to the audience. minutely referred to the general arrangements and particular features in Gothic churches, ably associating his remark with Oakham church. He alluded to its condition before its restoration, and said in that respect its history was the history of nearly every church in the country. Pleasantly touching upon bygone days when it was said that old ladies sat in church with their umbrellas up, and the pulpit to the last in mourning for George III. Mr. James drew attention to two plans—one of the church before the restoration with its high boxed-up pews, and the other since its improvement, remarking that they had, indeed, much cause for thankfulness and congratulation at such a pleasing change. As they entered the church they would observe the font, emblematical of regeneration; at the east end the altar, devoted to tb second and higher sacrament, not shutout from the laity. reverently guarded the pulpit on the north or gospel side (called from the Gospel being read on the north side of the altar) not hiding the Communion table ; the Bible desk or lectern standing facing the people in order that all might hear the words addressed to them ; the Prayer desk more lowly as in accordance with the spirit of prayer, and not facing the as if the supplication was to them and not to God ; the congregation seated themselves in the nave in open and uniform seats that there should be no distinction in God’s house ; and so there might be no distraction all looked to the east, from where the Sun Righteousness arose. (Hear). And while on subject he might observe that the practice of placing the altar the east end of churches was copied from the Primitive and not from the Romish church. The altar in most Romish places of worship was placed at the west end, as at St. Peter’s Rome. Some slight divergence from the east was observable in the chancel of Oakham church, for which several reasons had been given, but they were not worthy of credence. The triple divisions of nave, chancel, and altar were still preserved but no rood screen now shut out the laity—it was open alike to all. (Applause.) It was held by some that the multiplied pillars in gothic churches were an obstruction to properly seeing what was going on, but he thought broken church induced feelings more reverential, more solemn, and more able for worship than would be produced by four square walls like a concert room. (Hear, hear.) In speaking of the costly decorations in Oakham church, the lecturer mentioned masks, &c, to be found there; and also, a very curious representation of a fox running away with a goose on its back followed the disconsolate goslings, and a man running after Reynard with a broom in his hand. All the carving in the church with one exception—which he had himself detected was of the 14th and 15th century. He mentioned that a cupboard in the eastern wall, behind the altar, which might have been used as a receptacle for relics, or for receiving the stoup of holy water which stood at the chancel door*. This receptacle was often confounded with the piscina, —which as they were doubtless aware of had a drain connected with it — used for washing out the chalice from the communion table. The tower of the church was what is called engaged tower from the fact of the east side being within the church. On the exterior there were figures in niches in the toner, which in days of fanatical excitement were rarely spared. The vestry was two storied, in all probability it was formerly used as the dwelling of an anchorite, that being a prevailing custom at one time. There was a similar instance of a two storied room attached to the church at Barnack, near Stamford. Of Gilbert Scott he must say that had carried out the work restoration in the most Conservative spirit, preserving thing interesting and valuable, clearing away only what was unseemly and unnecessary. The restoration committee did everything in their power to promote the work, and they the satisfaction of having their labours crowned with success. He had the more pleasure in speaking upon this subject, ‘ much as he was asked to take part in the work, which, the exception of his own church, afforded him more pleasure than any labour he was ever engaged in. (Applause.). There were yet a few matters to be done to place the church in finished state which they all desired to see-; and he felt sure that the energy and liberality of private individuals would not leave them long to wait. (Hear, hear.) Among other matters, he should like to see two official pews for the church wardens, who held a high and responsible office in the church (Hear, hear.) Oakham Church, as a whole, was very effective and beautiful, and there could be no better proof than that of its architectural excellence. The various styles in the combined to make one effective whole, and he quite with Mr. Scott that it ought not to be spoiled by superfluity ornamentation. (Hear, hear.) After some further observations, Mr. James concluded by reiterating the pleasure b received from being permitted to take part in the work restoring that noble church, which he regarded with unmitigated satisfaction.
The Rev. W. S. Wood (headmaster of Oakham Grammar School) as president of the Literary Institute, proposed a vote of to the Rev. Mr. James for his able lecture, and the vote was accorded with acclamation.
The Chairman, in announcing that the meeting was closed, expressed the great interest and gratification he had received from the lecture which Mr. James had just delivered to and for which they all thanked him so much. He (the Chairman) was glad Mr. James had set him right as to the date of the hall, which would be 1100. In the other remarks made relative to the hall, it appeared that he was in the main correct. Mr. James, to whose valuable and zealous labours in the work of restoring the church he could bear testimony, had given them a most complete history of Gothic architecture. – many valuable interesting details of that old hall and their noble church. He was very glad that its arrangements more after the Primitive than the Romish Church, although if the Papal church erred in no graver matters than its architecture, it would be well (Loud applause.)
The band then played the National Anthem, and the company left the hall.
* There is a similar receptacle in the east wall, behind the altar, in the parish church of Navenby by Lincoln.
Engineering, history and ecclesiology 
