Blunham Church

 

 
Blunham church seen from the west - March 2007

The Church Building

Blunham church is dedicated jointly to St.Edmund and St.James. The tower is Norman of about 1100, but much of the exterior work seems to be dated to 1583 (as per an inscription on the tower itself) and is an important piece of post-reformation architecture. The church also has two Norman windows and a late Norman west doorway. The chancel is 13th century, as is evidenced by the piscina and sedilia but the chancel windows are about a century later. The rest of the church is later - mostly Perpendicular in style (i.e. dated after about 1350), including the north and south chapels to the chancel; one of these was used by a brotherhood whose priest may have lived over the south porch, where traces of a room can be seen. The chancel roof has a collection of bosses showing angels, heads, an animal, a kneeling priest and griffins. The church also contains an alabaster sculpture of the Virgin Mary from the 14th century, though sadly, the head is missing. The poet John Donne was rector here between 1621 and 1626 and gave the church a chalice in the latter year. The church contains a number of monuments including a standing alabaster monument to Susanna, Countess of Kent who died in 1620. The mausoleum in the graveyard was built in 1805 for the Thornton family of Mogerhanger who have a number of memorials in the chancel.

In the nineteenth century a number of restorations were undertaken including the spire in 1807 by William Revitt and the gallery in 1813. The largest restoration, however, was in 1862 when the gallery was removed, as was the nave ceiling, the roof restored and new pews installed in the chancel and nave; the floor was also tiled and the north porch rebuilt. Stained glass by Ward & Hughes was installed in the east window in 1864. The belfry was repaired and altered in 1903 and a wooden reredos installed in 1904. The tower was restored by Arthur R.G.Fanning in 1910-1912 and a Clayton & Bell stained glass window fitted in the chancel in 1911 in memory of former rector Charles Henry Farmer.

Most of the notes on the structural history of the church can be found in greater detail in Bedfordshire Historical Record Society Volume number 73 of 1994 Bedfordshire Churches in the Nineteenth Century: Part I: parishes A to G, put together by former County Archivist Chris Pickford from numerous sources some held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service and some held elsewhere or published.

The Rectory

In 1927 the Rectory was valued under the 1925 Rating Valuation Act; the valuer found a substantial brick and tile residence comprising a hall, dining room ("big"), drawing room ("big"), study and kitchen downstairs with four bedrooms, a dressing room, bathroom and wc on the first floor and seven bedrooms on the second floor. Outside were a pantry, schoolroom, wc, garage, coachhouse, loose box, a five stall stable, harness room and store room, the latter five structures all being used for storage only. The valuer noted it was a "newish house well planned good garden…v. well built…v. big" although he has made a note "?floods". The living was only £136 per annum, quite low by the standards of the time; the property stood in just under six acres.

The incumbent of Blunham also ministers to the parishes of Little Barford and Tempsford (both since 1971) and Great Barford and Roxton (both since 1999). Each parish retains its own parochial church council, churchwardens and services, however. Mogerhanger|, once part of the parish became a separate ecclesiastical parish| in 1860.

Interior of Blunham church looking east around 1900 [Z50/19/3]

List of Rectors

- Thomas de Hanville;
- Walter Muschet - 1233 [in succession to Thomas de Flanville, appointed to another benefice];
- Stephen de Holewell - 1249 [subdeacon];
- Edward;
- (Stephen de Lond'; capellanus);
- Nicholas de Marleberg - 5 Aug 1271 [subdeacon; on death of Stephen de Lond', capellanus of Edward, last Rector; John de Seleston, capellanus presented by Henry de Hastinges, renouncing];
- Nicholas de Marleborg' - 9 Jun 1278;
- John de Sancto Walerico - 21 Dec 1286 [clericus; presented in minor age by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, vacant by lapse of 6 months from the time of commendation to Nicholas de Marlebge according to statute; custody committed to Philip de Waltham; instituted when of age];
- William de Boudon - 16 Apr 1308 [capellanus; on resignation of John de Sancto Walerico];
- Edmund Lestrange - 10 Jun 1336 [priest; on death of William de Boudon];
- William de Heuele;
- Peter Brown of Belgrave - 3 May 1349 [priest; on death of William de Heuele];
- John Stacy - 6 Mar 1386 [priest; on death of Peter de Belgrave];
- Roger Grey - 2 Dec 1394 [subdeacon; brother of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Ruthin; on death of John Stacy who died 18 Oct 1394 at Waterford, Ireland; dispensation to Roger Grey, clerk, son [sic] of Reginald Grey, Lord of Ruthyn, for defect of age];
- Giles Retone - 6 Jun 1408 [capellanus; on death of Roger Grey];
- John Gardiner - 15 Jan 1408 [Rector of "St.Mark's Otewych" [St.Martin Outwich?], City of London by exchange with Giles Reton];
- Thomas Felde - 29 Jan 1409 [Rector of Ross [-on-Wye] by exchange with John Gardiner];
- Thomas Crystmesse - 25 Aug 1419 [on death of Thomas Felde];
- William Grepnale - 12 Dec 1433 [priest; on death of last Rector];
- Thomas Boteler - 20 Jan 1462 [priest; on death of William Gropenale];
- Robert Browns - 1 Nov 1472 [on death of Thomas Botiller];
- Thomas Markham - 26 Jan 1476 [on death of Robert Browne];
- Henry Sleford - 27 Oct 1503 [priest; on death of Thomas Markham MA];
- William Witter or Wittown 1534 [rector in this year];
- Roger Tonge MA - 7 Jun 1542 [on death of William Wytton];
- George Joie or Joyce - 15 Nov 1549 [clerk; on death of Roger Tonget; died 1553];
- Barnard Standiforth - 1553?;
- Gabriel Power AM - 12 May 1554 [patron Robert Power, gentleman, by grant from William Grey; on deprivation of Barnard Standiforth];
- Edward Blenerhasset also Hasset - 13 Nov 1559; will proved in PCC 1570];
- Thomas Nortone - 20 Jun 1570 [clerk; on death of Edward Blannerhasset; buried 11 Mar 1621; will dated 25 Feb 1621, proved 9 Mar 1621; buried in chancel on north side near wife];
- John Donne DD - 14 Mar 1621 [Dean of St.Paul's, London; dispensation to hold the Rectory of Blunham; the famous poet];
- Richard Pearce - 1626;
- Timothy Archer DD - 11 Apr 1631;
- (John Willmer [died 1650; in absence of Timothy Archer];
- (John Goodman [died 1659; in absence of Timothy Archer]:
- Samuel Fowler - 13 Jan 1672 [vacant by death of Timothy Archer; ordained priest 3 Feb 1660 by Thomas Winniffe, Bishop of Lincoln; married Mrs.Ann Radcliffe at Flitton 21 Aug 1673; buried 1 Dec 1704];
- Richard Berrow MA - 16 Dec 1704;
- Ralph Hancock DD - 5 Dec 1728 [of St.John's College, Cambridge; chaplain to Duke of Kent];
- Philip Birt MA - 9 Mar 1741 [on death of Ralph Hancock];
- Hadley Cox MA - 8 Dec 1762 [on death of Philip Birt; had a general licence to preach on same day; dispensation to hold Silsoe Vicarage with Blunham dated 19 Jan 1763];
- Damuel Lawry MA - 19 Apr 1782 [on death of Hadley Cox];
- Robert Porter Beachcroft MA - 2 Jun 1806 [on death of Samuel Simon Lawry];
- Jacob Henry Brooke Mountain MA - 29 Jan 1831 [on death of Robert Porter Beachcroft];
- (J.G.C.Campion - Jan 1870 [licence [as curate?]]);
- Thomas Marlborough Berry MA - 9 Nov 1872 [on death of Jacob Henry Brooke Mountain];
- Charles Henry Farmer - Feb 1893;
- George Paul Davys - Dec 1910;
- William Henry Hopkin - Dec 1918;
- George Mostyn Prichard - Jun 1941;
- Theodore Charles William Cooper Teape-Fugard - Sep 1948;
- Gerald Claude Francis Edwards - 1954;
- Thomas Purchas - 1971
- David Kenneth Williams - 1981;
- Peter W.Ricketts - 1986;
- Richard D.Seymour-Whiteley - 1993;
- Barbara Ebeling - 1999