St Mary's Kempsford and St Ann's Whelford
Halfway around the world we have watched our athletes see the fruition of their years of training with success in the Olympic Games. A tally of gold medals not seen for 100 years has put Great Britain back on the athletics map of the world, particularly in cycling and sailing. We are, it seems, good in certain disciplines and pretty mediocre in many more. On top of this many of the Olympic team did not win medal glory, but like their more successful team mates, trained hard and gave the best they could.
This picture of dedicated hard work, with a will to succeed and facing the inevitable, that not all can win is a metaphor for the lives we all live.
Most of us can never hope to be the big winner, but plod along the path of life doing the best we can, providing for ourselves and families, ensuring that they are clothed, fed and housed.
It seems to me that this is probably a good reflection of the lives of Christ's disciples before they were drawn to Him. They were ordinary men doing ordinary things with their lives, expecting nothing more than a simple life stretching ahead of them.
Yet they were inspired by Christ to reach out, to seek more for themselves and all of mankind. They took a huge risk to follow Christ, to leave all they had behind and trust in God to provide, and so began the belief system we all subscribe to today. To live for what you believe in takes courage and stamina, an ability to face criticism and perhaps ridicle, but that small band of men rose to the challenge and experienced a different way of life.
Many young people will be inspired by the success of our athletes in Bejing and show that they have the personal strength and dedication to work hard to be in the next or subsequent Olympic Games. They willl face trials and tribulation along the way and most will not rise to be medal winners, but they will have tried their best and that cannot be taken away from them.
Can you do the same with your faith, try your best, stand up to your critics and detractors and your faith and beliefs in our modern world?
John Crew
Reader
Conservation and cleaning of the Victorian painted schemes in Kempsford Parish Church, Gloucestershire
The painted tower ceiling in St Mary’s Church records some of the most important families of the middle ages and their association with Kempsford and its castle. Little remains of that association today except the church and the shields on the lierne-vaulted roof beneath its tower. One of its most striking features is a circle of Lancastrian Roses, celebrating Kempsford as the birth place of the man who was to be the first Duke of Lancaster.
The shields bear witness to the power and wealth of an age and the relationships through marriage of great families. Also on display is the association between the church and manor of Kempsford with Leicester and the three dioceses it has been part of over time. The Arms of St Edward the Confessor mark the reign in which the church was founded.
The vaulting is itself 15th century but the paiting was undertaken in 1862 by the Rev H F St John and Vernon Bembow. It is not known whether they over-painted some of the arms that existed prior to that date but they certainly introduced two that post-date the vaulting: the arms of the diocese of Gloucester and those arms impaled with the diocese of Bristol. Only the four outer shields are carved and of those one requires its own story.
First, some history. In 1283 the manor of Kempsford was inherited by Maud de Chaworth from her father and passes to her husband Henry, the third Earl of Lancaster. Their son, Henry Grosmont, inherited the manor of Kempsford from his father as well as succeeding to the earldom in 1345. In 1351 Henry was created the first Duke of Lancaster 'in recognition of astonishing deeds of prowess and feats of arms'. Henry grants the manor of Kempsford in 1355 to the hospital of the Annunciation at Leicester, which holds the manor until 1548.
The first Duke died at Leicester Castle in 1361 without a male heir, his son, Henry, having drowned in the river at Kempsford. The inheritance passed to Henry's daughters, Blanche and Maude. Lancaster was part of Blanche's dowry when she married King Edward III's son, John of Gaunt, in 1359. Maude died without children in 1362, and her portion of the inheritance passed to her sister Blanche.
John of Gaunt was created second Duke of Lancaster by Edward III in 1362. When Edward III died in 1377, his ten-year-old grandson, Richard II, came to the throne. Although Richard was heavily influenced by his powerful uncle, John’s fortunes changed. His son, Henry Bolingbroke, made an enemy of King Richard II, and was banished. In 1399, upon the death of John, Richard II confiscated the Lancaster inheritance but in the same year Henry returned to England. Supported by leading families, he regained control of Lancastrian strongholds and captured Richard II. The king abdicated and Henry Bolingbroke was crowned Henry IV on 13 October 1399.
The stories of the alliances between the people associated with the above brief history are many and varied. Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Hertford and 4th Earl of Gloucester Henry, Duke of Lancaster; Sir John Cornwall; Patrick de Chaworth; Robert, Earl of Gloucester; John de Welles, Baron Welles; the Earldom of Leicester; Alan la Zouch; Thomas de Spencer; Earl of Gloucester; Ralph de Morthermer, Earl of Gloucester and Earl of Atholl and Hugh de Audley, first Earl of Gloucester are all associated by marriage with the people once associated with Kempsford and whose arms can still be seen.
The remaining arms tell the story of the parish’s ecclesiastical relationships. Kempsford is in the province of Canterbury and the diocese of Gloucester. Prior to the creation of Gloucester diocese by Henry VIII, Gloucestershire formed a part of the diocese of Worcester. Between 1836 and 1897 the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol were merged.
Kempsford’s heraldic ceiling intertwines power, wealth, people and place. Its colours have dulled over time and the parish is exploring the possibility of a Grant to conserve and clean the ceiling and reversing the mistake made in the 19th century which I alluded to at the beginning. The arms of Sir John Cornwall should be Ermine a Lion Rampant Gules crowned Or a Bordure engrailed Sable Roundelly Or. It appears that owing to damage the carving of most of the Lion Rampant had disappeared and the restorers instead painted a gauntlet. The arms were then named Plantagenet! The possibility of reversing this mistake is exciting.
We are currently raising funds for a detailed conservation survey to be undertaken by Peter Martindale Conservation prior to any decision.
The Revd David Ackerman