Churches
Related sites:
Arborfield Tithe Apportionment Map 1839
Photos of the old church
building, just before it became disused
Notes by Peter Ditchfield for a Berks Archaeological Society field-trip,
1922
Article in Berks Archaeological
Journal, 1934
Article on the old church
just before removal of Conroy Chapel roof, 1939
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References by Historian Leslie North
Leslie North published a History column in the Reading
Chronicle over the years. Here are extracts from some articles:
I have received a letter from a correspondent at Shinfield from which I
quote: “I understand that the Parochial Church Council propose to level
the graves in the churchyard of Arborfield Old Church, and ultimately to
pull down the chapel to window level on the grounds that it is a
dangerous structure. This is a picturesque relic and deserves a better
fate than demolition. Can you not bring your influence to bear to arrest
this, so that the chapel (the Standen and Conroy mortuary chapel) can be
partly restored and the graveyard maintained?”
Rumours Reach Sarum
Arborfield, like Hatford in western Berkshire, has two churches - one
old and one new, and in both the ruined ones, history is faintly sown.
Before the flint and stone building of St. Bartholomew, at Arborfield,
was erected - probably in the 13th century - there was a wooden chapel
here which had itself become ruinous soon after 1200. In 1222 rumours
reached the Dean of Sarum that things were far from satisfactory in that
part of his diocese over which the vicar of Sonning had a certain
ecclesiastical suzerainty. So the prelate journeyed on a visitation to
learn on the spot whether the rumours were founded on fact. They were.
He discovered that at Arborfield an old priest from Reading in the house
of the manor lord, Richard Bullock, who was serving the chapel, was
found not to know a complete word either of the Gospel or the Canon of
the Mass. The Bullocks ruled in this corner of the great forest for
centuries. One
was known as “Hugh of the Brazen Hand.”
Arborfield Old Church
Adverting to my note of last week, the rector of Arborfield has been
good enough to supply me with additional information about what is
locally proposed for dealing with the churchyard and the Conroy chapel.
The worst vandalism since the last war has been the opening of the
vaults in the chapel. These have recently been filled in and permanently
sealed. The Parish Council will clear the churchyard and the Parochial
Church Council have submitted a revised scheme to the diocesan
authorities which will not involve demolition of the chapel, except of
such parts of the structure
as are considered dangerous. The modified scheme is estimated to cost
between £129 to £150, to which subscriptions are invited.
Reading Mercury 27.8.60.
A Sad Story
The aged clerical custodian of the chapel - one is reminded of Keats’
beadsman in “The Eve of St. Agnes” - was forthwith deprived of his holy
office, and the vicar of the mother church of Sonning was called to book
for his laxity and indifference. It is a sad story, for the old priest
was blind as well as infirm and incompetent, and the swine were wont to
wander and grub in the sacred precincts. As to the Standen and Conroy
chapel, this was restored and re-roofed by Sir John Conroy about a
century ago when the roof of the church itself was taken off, leaving
the picturesque ruin we know to-day. A fine Standen altar tomb was
removed to the new church. What has transpired here during and since the
Second World War is perhaps the reason for my correspondent’s misgiving,
for vandalism has been rife; monumental slabs have been torn from the
chapel walls; only a part of the roof remains intact; and the churchyard
is a veritable jungle. I should perhaps add that as long ago as 1937 a
sub-committee of the Berkshire Archaeological Society met members of the
Parochial Church Council and offered to support any effort that might be
made to raise the sum necessary to preserve the ruined church.
Reading Mercury 20.8.60.
ST. BARTHOLOMEWS’ CHURCH (OLD)
Into my temporary possession has come a dilapidated book affording brief
but interesting glimpses of Arborfield’s past - the register of baptisms
and burials from 1805 until about 1830; kept by an illiterate parish
clerk, but bearing the name of the Rev. Henry Hodgkinson - for 42 years
rector here, dying 1839 aged 86. How this register came to me I cannot
now reveal. It will be returned to the parish charge from which it has
strayed; and at a most appropriate time, for this month marks the
centenary of Arborfield’s present church of St. Bartholomew.
In this church (transferred from its ruined predecessor near Arborfield
Hall) is a memorial to Mr. Hodgkinson and his wife; she died in 1804 in
her 29th year, giving birth to a son in the second year of their
marriage. What a parish tragedy! We can imagine the sympathy, the
condolences, the funeral attended by everybody locally who could attend,
from the Squire downwards. The tattered register has an entry concerning
“Sarah, wife of Mr. Hennery Hodgkinson. Rector of this parish, Feberary
26.”
Another sad record in 1816, when ten-years-old Daniel May -“killed”-was
buried. In 1819, “A Streang traveling woman found dead-aged 35.” Thomas
Murrell, “a very old man” and his funeral in 1805: I saw reference to
nobody over 90, few were elderly, mostly the deaths were of young people
and the very young. Among those “borned” and baptised were several
love-children, one or two “base-born.” I noted: “Oct. 29, 1815-William
s. of William and Mary Ennis-Travellers they said from
Salisbury......the child was born in Bare Wood Sept.18th”
In some instances, trades are mentioned - blacksmith, wheelwright,
miller, gardener, paper-maker, carpenter - or simply labourer. Names
like Corderoy, Brant, Mattingley, Wyndiatt, Pither, Freemantle,
Betteridge, Bint, are repeated often, as of families long established. A
special flourish as to the baptisms of the son and daughter of John and
Mary Simonds, whose family were resident at Newlands for centuries.
The ancient bells
Still in service at the new church, consecrated in 1863 by Samuel
Wilberforce Bishop of Oxford, are the recast ancient bells, two of which
date from 1220; bells that have for so long spoken of welcome and
farewell, joy and sadness, over the Arborfield countryside. There is
stained glass that was made for the old church in the 1780’s by John
Rowell, Reading man who kept to his grave the secret of making rich red
glass.
The unusual wooden font, carved from the solid and with a pointed cover
of oak, has been preserved: so, I understand, has the Victorian
hand-organ. Transferred to the new church is the handsome marble and
alabaster 17th-century tomb of William Standen and his wife Maria
(daughter of the noted Samuel Backhouse of Swallowfield), his effigy
recumbent in armour, she is holding a Bible and with at foot a bonneted
child.
But there remains only the barest skeleton of the church that, of chalk
and flint, arose about 1260; replacing a timber chapel that in 1222 was
a tumbled desolation overrun by cattle and pigs, but which had succeeded
a Saxon chapel. Doubtless the Bullock family were responsible for these
buildings; they were of Saxon origin, and Osmund Bullock, the first
recorded in 1190, gave John of Barkham charge. Several of the Bullocks
of Arborfield served as sheriffs in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries;
one was called, picturesquely, “Hugh with the Brazen Hand.”
Family in dispute
When, in the 16th century, Thomas Bullock sold the manor because of
debts (owed in part to the queen), the family opposed the sale strongly,
his uncle refusing to hand over the title deeds. They forced Thomas to
execute a deed of entail - which he later repudiated, proceeding with
the sale. Edmund Standen was the purchaser, but left Thomas in rented
occupation. William Bullock took the matter to law but was unsuccessful:
defying the Star Chamber, and encouraged by his tenants, he entered into
illegal possession of Arborfield. For his contempt of court he was sent
to the Fleet prison, remaining several years: at last he gave way,
returned to Arborfield - where his youngest daughter was born, a happy
consolation.
Thomas Bullock, by the way, willed much to his “well-beloved wife” Agnes
on condition that she kept herself “sole and unmarried”: she was to have
the upper parlour in the manorhouse, the chamber above, the “jake’s
chamber” (lavatory) and two butteries, the old dye-house to be her
kitchen; should she not want to stay, Barkham Farm was to be hers.
In bad repair, old St. Bartholomew’s had its roof removed in 1863. The
walls, when stripped of plaster, were found to have those painted
figures and designs that taught parishioners of things religious when
books were either beyond them to read or were not available. A faculty
was granted for converting the north aisle into two mortuary chapels, by
Thomas Hargreaves of Arborfield House, and Sir John Conroy of Arborfield
Grange.
Now even these chapels are ruins, only carved armorial bearings, some
defaced heads and monumental slabs indicating original purpose. One
inscribed slab declares:
“If God wills, Time cannot destroy us.”
Well, the church has been devastated by time, but what of the people
whose bones lie here?
The Conroy chapel was intended to preserve the memories of those of the
family who were “the only members for centuries buried out of Ireland.”
A tablet to Sir Edward Conroy, Bt., mentions him as “lineal
representative of the chiefs of the native Irish sept of O’Maolconroy,
Co. Roscommon in the Province of Connaught”: he married a daughter of
the Earl of Rosse. Another tribute is to Elizabeth wife of Sir John
Conroy, only child and heir of Major-General Fisher of the Royal
Engineers, “born 1791 in the Government House in Quebec.....and married
by special licence in Dublin Dec. 8. 1808.” bearing six children to him
and dying in 1861.
Yet another tells us that in the family vault in the churchyard rest the
remains of Sir John Conroy, Kt. and Bt., who, born in 1786 in
Caernarvonshire, died at Arborfield Hall in 1851. He was “created a
Knight Commander of Hanover by George IV and received many other
distinguished honours for his long and faithful services to their royal
highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and to the Princess Victoria,
who on her accession to the throne created him a peer of Ireland as soon
as the state of the peerage of that kingdom would permit.” The tablet
was erected by his wife and family.
This Sir John was one who, had his ambitions been realised, would have
ruled the country as joint Regent for a time. Equerry to the Duke of
Kent, when the duke died he became comptroller of the duchess’s
household: his daughter Victoire was one of the few children allowed to
play with the young Princess Victoria at Kensington Palace.
Conroy, conceited and ambitious, offended William IV by his attitude as
“a kind of prime minister” who joined with the duchess in a plot to
force upon Victoria an extension of the Regency and acceptance of Sir
John as her private secretary. But Victoria was hostile to the plan,
detesting Conroy: King William lived until she attained her majority,
much to his personal gratification: as queen, she pensioned off Conroy
with £3,000 a year and a baronetcy - but refused him an Irish peerage.
Released from the influence of the man alleged to have been her lover,
the duchess became a changed and better person. The disappointed Sir
John died at Arborfield.
Written in 1963.
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