28. St. Mary’s Church
The church occupies a central position in the village and is central to the history of the village.
The Victoria County History states that the first recorded mention of the church is 1291. The first Rector took up his post in 1301.
The Victoria County History also states that the baptismal font is probably 12th C. This makes the font between 100 and 200 years older than the church.
This must mean that the font is Anglo Saxon and that it was located within an Anglo Saxon church which was demolished to make way for the Norman church built at the close of the 13th Century. This reasoning rests on the validity of the VCH’s assessment of the Font’s age as 12th C. Kelly’s Directory of 1941, states that ‘the Harley Font is very old, possibly Saxon’. It does not venture a date, but it does support the view that the font is Saxon.
There is another factor which points to the VCH’s estimate of age of the font as being too late. Margaret Gelling (Place names of Shropshire) maintains that the name Harley is mid Anglo Saxon which is 750 to 850 AD or thereabouts. On the probability that this is the period when the Saxons arrived and named Harley, this may well be an indication of the true age of the Harley font. This assumes that the Anglo Saxons built a church early in their occupation. According to Domesday they built a Mill, so this is probably a safe assumption. Domesday is said to be a record of late Saxon villages but this is not necessarily the case, depending on the longevity of the structures in question.
It has been noted that Domesday did not record a church in Harley, but to believe that the village did not have a church prior to 1291 when the Norman church was completed, is inconceivable. Domesday is 205 years before 1291 – the period when the Anglo Saxons were ‘merging’ with their Norman conquerors. Both were Christian. Therefore they would without doubt have had a church, and the church would have been Anglo Saxon, unless the Normans demolished the Saxon church and built an earlier Norman church. This does not seem feasible.
Baptismal fonts are often the oldest parts of the church. The earliest surviving Saxon fonts are 8th – 9th C. They are round, simple, tubs, not decorated, and are carved from a single block of stone. They are often raised on later pedestal and separate bases, giving a mismatch between plinth and bowl.
In the early church, total immersion was practiced. The fonts were bowl or basin shaped and the bases were set at or below floor level in the church. The reason for the mismatch is that they were repositioned and provided with supporting plinth and base. Therefore for a Font to have a supporting plinth and base means that it was probably located in an earlier Saxon church.
Later Saxon fonts, approaching the Norman era have simple abstract rope or spiral patterns.
An internet search of ‘Norman Baptismal Fonts’ shows that Norman Fonts are completely unlike the Harley font. The variety of Norman fonts is enormous. Some are decorated with mythical beasts, others with religious figures. They are occasionally round and flat, often square, but are never bowl or tub shaped. Some are extraordinarily sophisticated, and are characterized by lavish decorations.
There is a much smaller collection of Saxon fonts online as these are much rarer.
Nearly all of these are a close but not an identical match with the Harley font. They are usually slightly tapered cones with flat bases. Harley is a rounded tub.
The absence of any diagnostic ornamental motifs make any such fonts difficult to date This has led to their general attribution to the later Anglo Saxon or early Norman period.
The attribution of fonts to the 12th C is common but does not guarantee correctness.
The style of decoration and its meaning is useful in distinguishing between Anglo Saxon fonts and Nornan fonts, Norman fonts have straight line geometric decoration in many cases.
This form of straight line decoration would never have been used in Anglo Saxon times as they believed that only the devil could move in straight lines.
The Harley font is a simple, plain tub, carved from a single block of stone, and mounted on a later plinth and base. All factors considered it is surely Anglo Saxon rather than Norman.
For further consideration, the following is a selection of images of Saxon fonts all of which bear comparison with the Harley font, although they are not identical.
1. Hurstbourne Tarrent, Hampshire. Described as Saxon. A basic Tub shape.
2. St. Michael’s, Tidcombe. Believed to be Saxon. Plain, no decoration A Saxon village.
3. St. Nicholas, Boarhunt Large Tub Font, no decoration. Carved from chalk. All the hallmarks of a pre Norman Anglo Saxon font.
4. All Saints Crondall. Slightly elongated tub. Undecorated. Late Anglo Saxon
5. Church of St. Mary, Potterne, Wiltshire. Dates from the 9th Century. One of the oldest in England. Plain round bowl with a Latin inscription on the rim.
6. St Mary’s Turville. A plain undecorated bowl. Vicar of Dibley TV fame.
The following Photographs are of Anglo Saxon fonts and Norman fonts showing the difference.
Church history and architecture from 1291
The Lord most likely to have funded the building of the Norman church is Richard de Harley, b.1255 d. 1316, aged 61. He came of age in 1276 and became Lord of the Manor from that date. So in 1291 he was 36 and was Lord of the Manor for 40 years.
The Church records state that:-
First recorded in 1291, the church was largely rebuilt in1845/6. Before 1845 it consisted of a Chancel, Nave, Western Tower, North Aisle and Porch. After demolition the only portion remaining was the lower part of the Tower. The Tower was then rebuilt in the early 16th C. replacing a smaller tower of 13th C date, built during the Norman period.
Church Records
The first stone built Norman church would have been built just before 1291. The first Rector was Richard de Kynsedeleye from 1301. The following notes refer to the 1845 rebuilt church taken ad verbatim from church records with additions.
The Tower, is in three stages. The lowest stage is in late Perpendicular style with a west facing window of 3 lights. The higher second stage has round headed lancet windows on three sides. The highest stage has 4 cusped round headed windows of 2 lights, and a belfry. The top of the tower is battlemented with a pyramidal roof.
The Chancel and Nave and Porch were rebuilt in local stone to the designs of Samuel Pountney and J. Smith of Shrewsbury. The dimensions of the new church are virtually the same as the old. The only plan shape we have of the old church is shown on the 1735 Map.
The Chancel above the altar contains a reproduction of the former east Lancet window and has three superb small representational mainly black and white drawings inset into a complex geometric framework in full colour. It is by David Evans of Shrewsbury, a well-known glass stainer of that period.
The oak wainscot box pews date from the 18th century. It is said that when the church was rebuilt the pews were moved to the sides of the nave to provide room for benches in the centre aisle.
On either side of the chancel arch are two hatchments of the Harnage family. It was the custom in the 17th and 18th centuries, on the death of a person of importance, to set up a hatchment bearing the coat of arms of the deceased, over the entrance to the house. It remained there for twelve months and was then taken down and displayed in the church.
The Harnage family originated in Harnage village, two miles to the north west of Harley, but in 1542 Thomas Harnage purchased Belswardine from Sir John Dudley (afterwards the Duke of Northumberland), and the family remained there until about 1890. There are also two memorials on the north wall of the chancel.
According to tradition, it was the custom for Harnage family burials to take place at Leighton church, as it was said that at one time Belswardine was part of that parish.
It appears that on one occasion, in taking a corpse across the River Severn to Leighton , the coffin was upset into the river. After that the Harnages were interred at Harley.
The old font was replaced by a modern one in 1845, but was back in use by 1912.
The 1845 Victorian font was repositioned outside on completion of the disabled access in 2010 and is now positioned near to the Porch.
The church in Much Wenlock is 13th century, and is standing on the site of a 7th century Anglo Saxon church. Another local example of the persistence of use and long history of church sites.
On the clock face is a hexagram, ie. two equilateral triangles overlaid to form a six pointed star. This is often called ‘A Star of David’. This symbol originated in the middle ages as a magical style of decoration. It has no special religious significance but is found in some medieval cathedrals. It is a general sign of Judaism but has no biblical authority. It was used in Christian churches as a decoration many centuries before Jewish use. It appears on Jewish Synagogues, tombstones and on the flag of the state of Israel.
It has also been adopted as a symbol by the Freemasons.
The Monumental Brass
Many of the memorials in the old church were removed or destroyed when it was rebuilt in 1845/6, but a few have been retained.
One of these is a brass, located to the right of the altar. It shows a man in armour, his wife and 13 children, 8 boys and 5 girls. The heads of 3 boys and 1 girl are missing. The reason is not obvious but it does not appear to be deliberate mutilation. The heads are carefully severed by the engraver it would appear.
According to the church Register it is thought that the brass dates from c1480 and that it may be of Sir Richard Lacon (d.1503), Sheriff of Shropshire in 1477, and his family.
It is however difficult to reconcile the numbers of children on the brass with the records available. Five boys and four girls have heads and are intact.
The man and his wife shown are certainly not Richard and Elizabeth (Peshall) Lacon, who only had one son.
They may be Richard and Alice (Hoord) who married in 1462, Alice dying the same year. Another source states that they had three children, two boys and a girl.
Richard and his second wife, whose name is recorded as N.N.Lygon had four sons and three daughters. The Brass shows five boys and four girls who survived. This means that Alice had two boys and a girl with one boy dying at birth. As there is only time for one pregnancy Alice must have had triplets with two surviving. It seems highly probably therefore that Alice died giving birth.
Perhaps the headless children represent those that were still born or died in childbirth.
Sir Richard’s children by N.N.Lygon have been recorded as:-
- Edward Lacon b 1464
- Margaret Lacon b 1466
- Richard Lacon b 146
- Joan Lacon b 1470
- John Lacon b1472
- Miss Lacon b 1474
- William Lacon b1476
It is also recorded elsewhere that Richard left five sons, Two, it is said were confusingly called Richard and two William. So the accounts are not in accordance with each other and the above list does not verify this.
Nevertheless Richard Lacon (d 1503) is the prime candidate. Whether the wife in the brass is Alice or N.N.Lygon is open to question. Romantic speculation insists that it must be Alice.
The church Register says that a full account of the brass is given in the Shropshire Archaeological Society’s Transactions Second Series vol. vii pp 40
Sir Richard Lacon (d. 1503) and possibly his first wife Lady Alice Hood. They married in 1462 when Alice was 19. She died the same year. They had one child, another source says three. Approximate date 1475.
Extract from the Transactions dated 1889
A man in armour (of the Lacon family?) and wife c 1475
This is a skillfully engraved brass most probably executed by a school of engravers from Coventry.
The male figure is a Knight clad in complete plate armour. He is bare headed with his helmet tilted back. His shoulder pieces are heavily ridged and his gauntlets have large metal cuffs. His knees have protective plates and he is wearing spurs. He has a sword and dagger hanging from his belt. At his feet is a greyhound. An imposing figure.
His wife wears a butterfly wired head-dress. She has her head turned sideways in order to show it off. Her overgown is cut low at the neck and is edged with fur. Her long skirt is gathered up and hangs over her left arm. An elegant lady. Both figures are praying.
There are eight Latin verses which have been translated by the Rev J E.Field as follows:-
Rotting and wasting away is my flesh like dung in the furrow
That flesh upon heaven’s bright way may God’s breath upraise on the morrow;
Set it at His right hand, and the tear is banished forever.
Who so thou art that passeth this part, stay and read with contrition:
I am what thou shalt be and I once was like thee; bid for me thy petition.
Though my life by death’s hand be slain, yet my soul may Christ quicken again:
Though my dust in the dust may lie, let my spirit be wafted on high.
Below the inscription are the smaller effigies of eight sons (the heads of three lost) and of five daughters (the head of one lost) all in civil dress.
The shield is mentioned, in specialized heraldic language, saying that there are four quarters. In the first quarter is a bird; then the word Lacon.
The brass was formerly in the north aisle, but by the restoration (in 1845) it was moved to the Tower. Now it is by the Altar covered with a carpet.
There is no mention as to who the man and woman are, beyond saying, in the title, that the man is of the Lacon family. If the date of 1475 can be relied on, then the man must be Sir Richard Lacon (d.1503)
Note: – The above extract from the Society’s Transactions has been rewritten with slight amendments and additions to make it more readable. The untranslated Latin has been omitted.
The unaltered Latin piece is in the Appendix as is a black and white version of the Brass.