The SALTFLEETBY VILLAGE HISTORY Website

St Peter's Church and The Stump

One hundred and twenty five years ago, the congregation of St Peter's Church, Saltfleetby were facing a dilemma. The church building was in a very sad state, and they did not have enough money to build a new church. Added to that was the fact that the church was a long way away from the village. It would have been easy to give up. But the people of the Marsh like a challenge, and it was decided to move the church, stone by stone to a new site. Some glebe land was exchanged, more land was given. Fund raising began, helped by the photograph below, and a letter of support from the Archdeacon.

And so, on the second Sunday after Easter, in 1876 the last service was held in the old church. Just three weeks later the Bishop of Lincoln came to lay the foundation stone of the new building. Louth architect James Fowler was employed, and the original plan had been to move the church and rebuild it to exactly the same plan. The same ground plan was used, but the clerestory could not be rebuilt because too many of the timbers had rotted, and the tower was left behind to become the cemetery chapel.

When the building work was finished, the account sheet was audited, and the total cost of moving the church, and of building the bridge was £ 1780. The rector, the Revd Watson, invited the Bishop of Lincoln back to consecrate the new building, and to celebrate the first service of Holy Communion in the new church: - Written By Bridget Hill (Rector of St Peter's Church)

On this page you will find 'snippets' of News, Photos and Extracts from the Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire from times gone by. 

Read an article by Rev. Bridget Hill

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9OTH ANNIVERSARY OF SALTFLEETBY CHURCH: - From a newspaper article of the day.

If Westminster Abbey can celebrate its 900th anniversary, then St. Peter's, Saltfleetby, can mark its 90th, thought the Rector, the Extract from the Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire Rev. K. F. Jones. So in July, the church, rebuilt at the village cross-roads in 1877, will be the scene of celebrations. Already he has invited the Bishop of Grimsby, Rt. Rev. G. F. Colin to speak at Evensong on 23rd July. In this months The Marshlander, the parish magazine, he recalls that a full account of the rebuilding, transcribed by Mr. S. Welburn, was written by the Rector of the day, the Rev. W. R. Watson.

TOTAL COST

The total cost of the church built in only 14 months and including gate, bridge and path, was, £1,788 2s. 5d. But with proper pride the Rector- wrote, even before the gate was hung, no debt remained on the building”. Enthusiasm there plainly was. A triumphant entry records that collections on the day of completion amounted to £74 Is.6d. Enthusiasm could get its teeth into quite a few jobs today. Some still hanker after a re-built tower. But the cost? Or shouldn't other local needs, or wider human wants, have priority.

No harm in dreaming and seeing visions.

  BISHOP INVITED

Allowing for the onset of holidays, St. Peter's has invited the Bishop of Grimsby the Rt. Rev. G. F. Colin, to speak on 23rd July at Evensong, and so open the church's 90th year. The Bishop of Lincoln, who himself gave £50, laid the foundation stone on 23rd. May 1876. All along the intention was to make the new church an exact copy of the old, and this was achieved in the dimensions of the nave, aisles, porch and vestry, though the chancel is three feet longer-than before.

  A MISTAKE

A new high-pitched roof without windows was substituted for the old and dilapidated clerestory windows. This together with the absence of a tower has robbed the exterior of the more impressive appearance that it might have had. Over the tower a mistake was surely made. The Church Building society granted £85 on condition that the tower was to remain on the old site as a cemetery chapel; and this was apparently taken lying down. But for one thing with our wealth of places of worship, there was never any need of a cemetery chapel. “Indeed, with architect, workmen, and transport on the spot the tower, could have been moved far cheaper than at any time later. Moreover, there never seems the same incentive, or the money available for such a job afterwards. But the new church's rather undistinguished outside is partly offset by the unexpected spaciousness of the inside, in which the 13th century north and south arcades, sadly distorted by subsidence in the old church but now seen at their best, are a chief ornament.

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Newspaper article- 24/06/77: Church marks centenary on `new' site.

MANY READERS  will be familiar with St Peter's Church, Saltfleetby, standing separated from its spire at the Blacksmith's Crossroads in the village; 

The church was moved from the junction of Charles Gate and Saltergate in 1877 and the centenary of its occupation of the "new" site is to be celebrated at 7 pm on Wednesday - St Peter's Day. A service of thanksgiving and prayers is to be held and attended by the Ven. Bill Dudman, Archdeacon of Lindsey. The church has offered an open invitation. Of course, the church building originated much more than 100 years ago, over 1,000 in fact, and a pamphlet on this is being prepared.

But why did our forebears move the church, and why was the Stump left behind? The truth is that like nearly all churches, St Peter's had been put together piecemeal. At first, the church was a rectangle, then 'aisles, steeple, chancel, vestry and south porch was added without the benefit of a modern concrete float.

By 1606 Archdeacon Stow was complaining at the Easter visitation but John Squier, the cleric and the wardens were absent; Stow's comments appear in All Saints' registers.

In 1547 Cromwell ordered that registers of births, marriages and deaths in the parishes should be kept and in 1591 Elizabeth Tudor ordered that they should be bound.

They were to be produced for inspection, inter alia, at the Easter visitation in Louth when the whole of the Louthesk Deanery was (or should have been!) present.

In the 19th century things were getting much worse and buttresses were added' to prevent the church from collapsing. In 1872, James Fowler, FRIBA, Architect and Diocesan Surveyor of Dilapidations, submitted a report which meant: in effect, rebuild the church. Encouraged by the Bishop Christopher, Archdeacon Trollop (Lindsey) and Canon Pretyman of Great Carlton (Rural Dean) it was decided to rebuild but on a new and more central site, in fact the current one.

The church was taken down, stone by stone, carried to its new site where re-erection began in early May 1876, and completed so that the first ser­vice at the new site was held on 31 July 1877. Mr. Maxey of Louth was the builder but the members of the congregation gave their labours to speed the task and it was pretty remarkable to be completed in 15 months. Great interest was shown in Lincoln, Archdeacon Trollop being a regular visitor.  On one visit he complained of the amount of ale being consumed on the site and was immediately promised that not another drop of ale would be brought in.

It is said they had all they required secreted away!

The cost of the job was about £1,800 of which £85 was given by the Church Building Society on condition that "The Stump" remained as a Chapel of Rest in the cemetery.

The Rev William R. Watson, MA, Rector, 1856-­1906, found himself holder of unusual curse; church here, stump there.

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Extracts from the Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire

This Extract was taken from the Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire - 1885

The church of St. Peter was rebuilt in the year 1877; the old edifice, a building of the Lancet period, except the tower, which contains 5 bells, remains and is sometimes used as a mortuary chapel: the new church, situated about half-a-mile west of the old site, is an exact reproduction of the previous church, with the exception of the tower and clerestory: it is built of stone, in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles and a bell cot at the west end, containing 1 bell: the chancel seats are of carved oak and the church is fitted with open benches, seating 190 persons; the monumental memorials include early slabs inscribed to Maria, wife of William Pornard; and to Michael Gros, 1380; and a mural tablet with pilasters and weeping angels to John William­son, gent.1722, and Frances (Gonvill) his wife. The register dates from 1653, but there are two loose leaves of an earlier register, dated 1607.

This Extract was taken from the Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire - 1905

The church of St. Peter was rebuilt in 1877 at a cost of £1,831, on a new site, but the tower of the old church, which contains 2 bells, still stands, and is sometimes used as a cemetery chapel: the new church, situated about half a mile west of the old site, is an exact reproduction of the previous church, with the exception of the tower and clerestory: it is built of stone in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and a western bell cot, containing one bell: the chancel seats are of carved oak and The church is fitted with open benches: the memorials in the old burial ground include early inscribed slabs to Maria, wife of William Pomard; and to Michael Gros, ob. 1380; and a mural tablet with pilasters and weeping angels to John Williamson, gent. ob. 1722, and Frances (Gonvill) his wife: there are also mural tablets to the Oldham family of Saltfleetby House: there are 190 sittings. The register dates from 1653, beside two loose leaves of an earlier register, dated 1607.

In the above Extracts the entry's are almost the same except that in the1885 Kelly's, it states that the old church contained 5 bells and in the 1905 Kelly's it states 2 Bells.

I wonder if anyone can throw any light on this?

Thanks to Colin Vickers we now have some News Of what happened to the bells of St. Peter's : -

Colin says; "While Rummaging through my bits and pieces, I found this newspaper report which makes interesting reading. I believe Kath Chapman gave it to me several years ago. Unfortunately there isn't a date on the cutting."

THE BELLS OF St. PETER’S SALTFLEETBY

The following was taken from a newspaper article, no date on paper but the story says that the bell has been silent for almost eighty years. The church was moved in 1877 so this article was possibly written in the early 1950’s. (C.V.)

Residents of Lincoln’s newest housing estate – the Ermine – will soon be called to church by the exquisite tone of a fine medieval bell.

The bell, which has lain silent amid the ruins of the unused old church of St. Peter at Saltfleetby for nearly eighty years has been bought for the new dual purpose church building of St, John’s, and is at present undergoing renovation at Loughborough.

As St. John’s is not a suitable building to house a bell of this kind, an adjoining bell “cote” will have to be constructed.

When the old church at Saltfleetby fell out of use in 1877, because it would cost too much to restore, the tower contained two large bells and a small one. Later, the small bell was transferred to the new St. Peter’s church in the village, but it was broken. One of the large bells was also broken when someone tried to ring it with a blacksmiths hammer—so the two bells were melted down and made into one. It is now in the new village church.

At this time the other bell was left in the old tower. It was “discovered” by the curate of St. John’s the Rev. John Hodgkinson and bought for the new Lincoln church for £75, £10 of the purchase being returned as a donation for the new church. The bell has been paid for and the outstanding problem is to raise the money for the erection of a suitable “cote”, so that, when restored, this bell from Saltfleetby can ring out the call to worship for residents of the Ermine estate.

Now this article makes for another question:  Was it 2 or 5 as stated in the extracts from the Kelly's Directory's or 3 as this newspaper article says??

If it was 5, what happened to the other 2 Bells? Will we ever know?

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