The Benefice of Barlings, Diocese of Lincoln : Parishes of Sudbrooke, Stainton by Langworth, and Barlings with Langworth
The Church of St Hugh, Langworth
in the Parish of Barlings
Church of St. Hugh at Langworth
Langworth derives its name from “Lang-wath” meaning the long ford, which must have existed over the Barlings Eau (once known as the Langworth River) before a modern bridge was built in 1823. A “keeper” of a bridge at Langworth is recorded” as early as 1177. The Al58 Lincoln / Wragby / Horncastle / Skegness road was known in Roman times as The Salters’ Way. In 1267 money was given for a chapel to be built at Langworth and to sustain a chaplain therefor. Where this chapel was is unknown, but a site in the field behind the George Hotel has been suggested . In 1313 a hospital for lepers dedicated to St.Margaret was founded.
On 5th August 1897 the Revd. Samuel Wild was instituted by Bishop Edward King as Vicar of the Parish of Barlings,the Parish Church being St.Edward the Confessor about a mile and a half to the south of Langworth, and he decided with other parishioners that a place of worship was needed in Langworth. In July 1898 land was acquired in Barlings Lane and by a Deed of Appropriation in September 1899 an area was delineated as “the site of an intended new church to be called the Church of St. Hugh Barlings”. In October 1899 so much of the land as was “not appropriated for the site of the intended new church” was consecrated as “an additional Churchyard or Burial Ground at Barlings”. In the event, a new site for a mission church was selected in the centre of the village (about 100 yards to the East of the present church building),and the land in Barlings Lane used solely as a Burial Ground.
The Burial Ground in Barlings Lane showing the site of the intended Church of
St. Hugh Barlings in 1899
By November 1897 it had been agreed to purchase from Burton-by-Lincoln an iron building which had previously been used as an infants school. Land was leased from Edmond Turnor at one shilling a year. The original thirty five foot building was extended by fifteen feet to make a chancel, and the Mission Church was dedicated to St.Hugh of Lincoln by the Bishop of Lincoln on 13th January 1898.A Licence to hold Divine Service in “Saint Hugh’s Mission Church” was issued on 15th October 1898,but “the publication of banns of marriage” and “the solemnization of marriage” were not permitted in the building. A licence to hold weddings in Langworth (rather than in the Parish Church of St.Edward the Confessor Barlings) was not granted until 8th September 1962.
The altar table,oak cross and large candlesticks were made by the Vicar,the latter from two pieces of wood from the old churchyard fence at Barlings. Mrs M.L.Wayne presented two paintings to go in front of the altar, and the first set of hangings were made by Mrs Wild and Miss Kewney. The oak altar rails were made and donated by Mr.J.Rapsey,the choir stalls and vicar’s prayer desk made by Mr R.N. Lewis who also helped the vicar make the pulpit. The porch and belfry to the church,which could seat 100 people,were completed later in 1898. It was hoped that a Vestry would be added on the south side and a parish room on the north.
A Lych Gate for the burial ground was built by the Revd. Wild from designs of Mr Fowler of Louth,and this ground now contains the Village War Memorial in memory of those fallen in the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 World Wars. A Church Room, which was previously a hut on the searchlight site at Saxby,was erected in 1947 on the south side of the Mission Church.
In its golden jubilee year of 1948 further gifts were made to the Mission Church. St.Peter of Gowts in Lincoln gave a prayer desk,lectern and kneelers from the Mission Church of Holy Rood. Members of the congregation gave a new carpet and altar vases, while a lectern bible together with a prayer book and altar book were given in memory of lay reader Joseph Wilson Neave who died in 1947.
Hope had been entertained since 1918 and at the end of the First World War a building fund was started. Between 1926 and 1940 this lay fairly dormant. During the second world war ministry of the Revd.J.S. Capron,an annual gift day was established and this continued until the new church was paid for. In 1954 plans for a new church were prepared,but finance was inadequate to see them brought to fruition at that time. In due course, the church wardens were informed by Bishop Riches of Lincoln that he had been given the chapel of Walmsgate Hall near Louth (sold by the Dallas Yorke Family to the Haggas Family in the early 1900’s) by Mr J.T. Haggas of Ranby Hall (who had demolished Walmsgate Hall in the 1950’s,but left the Chapel standing).
The marrying of the hopes of the parish and the gift in the hand of Bishop Riches was completed in 1962, when the bishop himself dedicated the Church of St.Hugh at Langworth in the Parish of Barlings on 8th September 1962. The architects employed for this transformation and translocation were Messrs. Haines and Johnson of Brigg. The old Mission Church was used as a recreation room until it was destroyed by a fire in October 1964 that also badly damaged the Church Room. That was repaired and used for most village functions until the land was sold in 1966.
The loss of a son,Francis,aged 24 in 1899 (from fever while serving with the 10th Royal Hussars),decided the Dallas Yorke family,the then owners of Walmsgate Hall,to erect a Chapel in his memory dedicated to St Francis. The artwork,in the style of the time that some term “art nouveau”,was that of architect Henry Wilson (1864 – 1934). One description of the original Chapel runs :- “ it has a charming interior,with walls delicately patterned, trailing vines in the roof, which shines with gold, and a sanctuary canopied with a blend of blue and silver and gold, two silver candlesticks and a silver cross adorn the altar,and there is a font of bronze,shaped like a flower. Above the door is a plaque, bronze in colour, with the kneeling figure of a youth,in an act of dedication like a knight of old,both hands clasping the hilt of a sword,head slightly upraised,the son,in whose memory this chapel was built.” The correspondent noted that when moved to Langworth it was now “painted green,which I think spoils the effect”.
Another observer’s more detailed description,of the decoration
in its new location, referred to :-
“The richly embellished wooden canopy suspended above the altar. Carved gilded vines linked by sinuous tendrils form a border. The underside of the canopy is sprinkled with gold circles and bordered with spring flowers against a blue background. Bands of gilded chequer-work spring from each corner to converge on a central diamond-shaped medallion carved with plumes &and a tudor rose symbolising the young Dallas-Yorke’s regiment.
Some of the decorative details of this canopy recur in the richly painted chancel beam. Twisting lines of the golden vine extend across it between bands of red, green and gold chevrons and chequer- work
The two remaining beams spanning the simple tunnel vault of the nave are smoothly plastered and painted with circles, squares and interlocking zig-zags.
The sanctuary is paved with grey marble and the lower part of its walls clad with a more exotically veined green marble wainscot, which, like the marble steps of Wilson’s ideal church seems to evoke ‘a wave in a sea of stone’. It recalls, too, Lethaby’s descriptions of ‘pavements like the sea’, and suggests the ‘water of life’ flowing from the altar.
Suspended from each of the nave beams is a pair of hanging oil lamps. Each hangs from three ornate chains, and beneath each is a bronze globe evoking the earth. The lights would burn within bulbous glass vessels partly enclosed by swirling, lobed shapes of beaten bronze. The irregular forms of these glass shades would diffuse the beams of light in mysterious flickering rays.”
So subtle, however, was the illumination originally afforded by the lamps,that they were considered impractical and Wilson was told that “your artistic lamps draw out and lose all the light and we must worship in semi-darkness with shadows cast over everything. A small acetylene plant might help, unless you advise lighting from the side and doing away with the lamps which now shut out the Chancel and will hide the baldacchino when it comes.” The family’s line of sight was,of course,from sitting up in the Balcony !
Many parts of the Walmsgate Chapel have been preserved – sections of the gold decorations,the bronze font (a memorial to the sister of Thomas Yorke),the silver candlesticks and cross on the altar,and the memorial over the doorway to Haliburton Francis Dallas-Yorke. As mentioned above,there is a clear recollections that this memorial was bronze when at Walmsgate Hail, and no explanation found as yet as to why it was decorated with green paint in its new surrounds. Also retained are Henry Wilson’s superb doors with bronze handles,the hanging lamps,and the high altar with its suspended baldacchino. The marble floor of the chancel is now covered by a carpet. The organ,bell (recast by Taylors of Loughborough) and iron staircase were also originally in the Chapel. Wilson’s decorative scheme included the clear glass windows giving a brightness to the building,but the clear glass East Window has now been partly replaced by a stained-glass one. Lost during the re-building, were the coloured plaster decoration the Chancel walls and the decorated frieze around the top of the Nave.
The stone font just inside the front door comes from the old Mission Church. The older lectern bible,in the Authorised Version,is that presented in memory of J.W.Neave to the Mission Church. Also from the Mission Church came the Bishop’s Chair,the Processional Cross, and the Mother’s Union Banner. The NEB lectern bible was given in memory of Amy Robinson,altar cloths in memory of R. Hutcheson,and the Sanctuary and Vestry carpets by Lady Ann Bentick. Other gifts at the dedication in 1962 were the oak pulpit in memory of Mary Gertrude Pickering, the oak book stand, altar vases, electric clock and the churchwardens’ staves. The pews and pew fronts are of Japanese Oak made by Messrs Thimbleby of Lincoln. The matching wooden chairs were added in the 1990’s from the decommissioning of the chapel at St. John’s Hospital, Bracebridge Heath. The stained glass east windows depict St. Dorcas and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Originally by Victor Milner and dating from c.1902 they came from Cumbria and were installed in 1987 in memory of Ethel Mary Atkin.
Overall there is a slightly Italianate flavour.
Amongst other items worth particular note are :-
Sedilia with two seats. Such seats near an altar, almost universally on the south side, were for the ministers officiating at Communion to retire to during the singing of certain portions of the service. There are generally three - for the celebrant, epistoler, and gospeller. In English churches they are often occupied during the sermon. Sometimes movable,in this country they are more usually formed of masonry and recessed in the wall like niches.
Inscription above the Sedilia
“Beati : Quilli : Ke : Sosteranno · In · Pace · Ka · Da · Te · Altisssimo Sirano · Incoronati “
“Beati quilli che sosterranno in pace, ka de te, Altissimo, sirano incoronati”
“Happy are those who endure in peace for,by you,Most High,they will be crowned”
The language is in ‘vulgar’ 13thC Italian and the text is a quote from
St. Francis of Assisi’s 1225 “The Song of the Creatures” (also known as the “Canticle of the Sun”).
Piscina : a recess in the wall,with a shallow basin and drain,on the south side of the altar, intended to receive and carry away the rinsings. In the 14thC there were often two such basins and drains, one presumably for the rinsings of the chalice, and one for those of the celebrant’s hands. The drain is carried in the substance of the wall into the ground beneath. Sometimes,the piscina had a shelf across it,often of wood,half way up,believed to have served as a Credence - a small table at the side of the altar at which the Elements are prepared.
Baldacchino: the embellished wooden canopy suspended above the altar. In England,though examples up to the eleventh century may be found, it never seems to have been usual, and after that date were rarely incorporated. The word baldacchino is exclusively Italian. The best comparable word we have is ‘canopy’. The Latin term ‘ciborium’ (or canopy over the tabernacle) was occasionally applied to the structure in England.
Its decoration incorporates :-
Sanctuary floor : paved with grey marble(intended by Wilson as “a wave in a sea of stone”) it is now covered by carpet (following a previous incumbent slipping and falling),but its contrast to the veined green marble wainscot can be seen by looking at the contrasting marble colours used for the Font base and stem.
Altar Cross : some consider this the best Wilson ever made - broad and flat, effectively showing off the smoothly hammered surface of the polished silver. Its arms terminate in spreading fleur-de-lis with plain medallions at their centres,with the crucified Christ depicted with a conspicuously three-dimensional quality.
Altar candlesticks : standing on four-lobed bases raised on simple feet,these were designed by Wilson to accompany the Cross.
Plain White Nave Beam : was added as the nave is longer than in the original chapel. The first of the painted beams contains the holes from which two of the hanging lamps were originally suspended.
Organ : labelled as “Cassons Patent” it was made by the Positive Organ Company of London.
Pews : made of Japanese Oak.
“ A little building of the greatest charm : the Art Nouveau decoration is exquisite”
Henry Thorold
