Thaxted Parish Church

There has been a Christian church in Thaxted since Saxon times. The first documented reference to a church in the settlement is in the Liber Eliensis, regarding a gift of land in "Thacstede" to the abbey at Ely by a woman named Æthelgifu sometime between 981 and 1016. It states that the will, written in English, was kept in the church there as evidence.[4][5] An early church was said to have been dedicated to Saint Catherine and its foundations were reportedly found in the eighteenth century at Rails Farm, not far from the present church site.[6][7] There is also evidence that the current building stands on the site of an earlier church, and that traces of this church were found under the chancel.[6][7]

Why a modest settlement such as Thaxted in the fourteenth century should have embarked upon building such a grandiose structure has long been a matter of debate and conjecture.[8] A number of factors may have played a part: a dispute between the vicar and the monks of Tilty Abbey over tithes allowed the considerable sums previously donated to the abbey by the town to be diverted to the parish church, at a time when the town was beginning to prosper as a centre of the cutlery industry.[6] The inhabitants were therefore able to organise and contribute towards the financing of a major church building project, even if the support of rich benefactors was still necessary.[7] During the period when construction began, many small donations of land were made to the borough, which were immediately sold, presumably for the purpose of funding the new structure.[9][10] The appointment of four churchwardens is taken as an indication that the town was managing funds for construction.[10]

The construction was sponsored by a number of noble patrons descended from the Clare family who had held the manor of Thaxted since the Norman Conquest: Elizabeth, Lady Clare (1295–1360); Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1338–68); Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352–81); his grandson, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391–1425); and King Edward IV (1442–83).[6][7][11]

The current church was built over an extended period from the mid-fourteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century, probably on the site of an earlier church.[12][13] The earliest parts of the present building date from c. 1340 and substantial building works were completed by c.1510.[12] Foundations of the earlier structure were apparently discovered under the entrance to the Chancel.[7] Some have theorized that these remains, and the late construction of the Chancel, show that the older building remained in place until most of the new structure had been completed.[9][13]

The precise order in which the church was completed is hard to confirm, but the following is based on the survey by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments:[12]

1. nave with north and south aisles (c.1340 or earlier)
2. south transept and widening of south aisle (c.1360–1380)
3. south porch (c.1380)
4. north transept (c.1380–1420)
5. north porch and widening of the north aisle (c.1445)
6. west tower and spire (c.1475–1500)
7. chancel, north and south chapels, crossing arches and nave clerestory (c.1510)

It has been conjectured that the original plan for the building included a central tower over the crossing, and that this tower may have fallen.[12]

The building has been restored periodically, but, according to Pevsner, "care has always been taken and [...] not much has been changed".[14] As early as 1561, the Lord Treasurer was requested to provide funds to repair and maintain "such fair edifice, builded of good zeal and devotion of our Predecessors".[15][9]

Parts of the building were damaged by storms in 1757, 1763, 1764 and, most catastrophically, in 1814.[15] During the summer of that year, the spire had been partially dismantled by 45 feet (13.7 m) after being struck by lightning and scaffolding erected to support reconstruction. On 16 December 1814, a "hurricane" brought the scaffolding and 30 feet (9.1 m) more of the spire down onto the church roof, causing extensive damage.[16][17] The decision to rebuild the spire according to its original design was taken by the churchwardens in 1820 and tender notices appeared in the press.[18] Reconstruction was complete by 1822, with funds from Sir William Smyth.[19]

The arts and crafts architect, Randall Wells, undertook renovation work in 1909–10, removing cement rendering placed on the exterior during earlier restorations, and strengthening the foundations of the west tower.[20] Further restoration has continued with fundraising undertaken by the Friends of Thaxted Church.[21]

The church, and its vicars, has been at the centre of some controversies over the centuries. The vicarage had been endowed by the Bishop of London, Roger Niger, in the thirteenth century, maintained by the monks of Stoke-by-Clare.[22] The origins of the construction of the present church can be traced to a dispute in 1314 between the then vicar, William, and the monks of Tilty Abbey, who refused to support the benefice financially. The vicar sued but, threatened with excommunication, withdrew his suit and the increasingly prosperous parishioners resolved to support the church by other means, resulting in an influx of funds, including from Lady Clare, that allowed the rebuilding programme to begin.[23][7][11]

In the first decade of the fifteenth century, Thaxted became a hotbed of Lollardy and its vicar or curate, William, was persecuted for heretical preaching.[24][25][26] Several Thaxted residents participated in Oldcastle's Revolt in January 1411.[24] In 1430, a "prest of Thaksted" was burnt at Smithfield.[27]

In 1647, during the English Civil War, the appointment of a Laudian vicar, Samuel Hall, nominated by Lady Maynard who held the advowson for the benefice, was opposed by Presbyterian Roundhead supporters in the town and blocked by the Parliamentary Committee for Plundered Ministers. Opposition to the move and support for Rev. Hall resulted in an incident, described as a "great fight", in the church when some parishioners attempted to obstruct the sequestrators from ejecting their preferred vicar.[28][29] Hearings were held before the House of Lords and a Puritan candidate, James Parkin, prevailed, only to be himself ejected after the Restoration. He remained in the town, helping to establish the strong Dissenting presence in the town during the eighteenth century.[30]

In February 1848, Rev. Thomas Jee, Thaxted's vicar for over 40 years, was charged with assaulting Marian Harvey, the wife of his curate, Rev. Thomas Harvey. The Harveys were living in the vicarage with Rev. Jee but it seems the cohabitation had not gone well. When Rev. Jee refused to be bound over to keep the peace, he spent fourteen days in Springfield Gaol.[31] His return to Thaxted upon his release was greeted by a carriage procession.[32] A month earlier, Rev. Jee had received a nominal fine of one shilling for assaulting his physician, Dr. Barnes, at a dinner party at the vicarage in the company of the Harveys. Dr. Barnes, who described the clergyman of have an "excessively excitable temperament", had accused Jee of indecent misconduct with a ten-year-old girl, whereupon the vicar had seized a poker and threatened the doctor. The court found that Dr. Barnes had "gone out of his way to be vexatious and irritating" and had provoked the incident by his "gross accusation" against the vicar.[33] In a postscript, in April 1848, Dr Barnes eloped with the sixteen-year-old daughter of Rev and Mrs. Harvey, after the family had left the vicarage in Thaxted and moved to Bayswater. Barnes and Miss Harvey were tracked back to Thaxted and Barnes was charged with abduction.[34] Barnes was acquitted at the Old Bailey when it was ruled that the marriage was legal.[35]

In 1922, the Church gained national notoriety as the venue for the so-called "Battle of the Flags", after the vicar, Conrad Noel, hung the Red Flag, and the Tricolour of Sinn Féin alongside the Union Flag in the church. After a group of Cambridge University students took the flags down, a tussle developed over several years between supporters and opponents of the "Red Vicar". Noel was a Christian Socialist and defended his right to fly the flags, but eventually the church authorities ordered their removal.[36] The existence of a radical vicar supported by an essentially conservative town gave rise to the notion of "the Thaxted tradition" with a series of such appointments until the 1980s.[37] Conrad's successor as vicar was his son-in-law, Jack Putterill, whose sermons were highly political and who engaged with left-wing causes.[37]

In 1976, the vicar, Peter Elers, declared his homosexuality, which left the "community divided on whether sexual politics represented an extension of, or diversion from, Thaxted's long-standing progressivism."[38] A private ceremony to bless a female same-sex couple in the church was reported as a gay "wedding", resulting in an investigation by the Church of England and calls for him to resign.[39]

Thaxted Church has sometimes been described as the "Cathedral of Essex". At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was briefly considered as the seat of a new bishopric that was being planned to alleviate the burden on the Diocese of Saint Albans. In 1906, Bishop Edgar Jacob invited aspiring churches to submit applications.[40] Seven churches entered the race. Thaxted's suitability was hampered by poor transport communications and the reluctance of Lady Warwick to give up her patronage of the church living (advowson). The fact that it was the only candidate church that would not have required structural alterations to expand capacity speaks to the grandeur of the building in relation to other parish churches in the country.[40] Eventually Chelmsford was chose as the site of the new cathedral.