Church Heritage Record 632308

The church is medieval in origin; Simon de Beauchamp granted the advowson to Newnham Priory as part of his endowment of that foundation in 1166, and it remained in the hands of the priory until the Dissolution. In 1529 the advowson was granted to John Gostwick. He was a member of a local family who entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey in about 1514 and by 1527 ranked third in Wolsey’s household, with the office of Comptroller. After Wolsey’s fall in 1529 Gostwick moved back to Willington where he built himself a new mansion house (now demolished) and largely rebuilt the nearby parish church. He continued his career with the help of his former colleague Thomas Cromwell and his rise continued after Cromwell’s fall in 1540. Gostwick was knighted in 1541 and became High Sheriff of Bedfordshire and one of the county’s two MPs, as well as Treasurer of the Court of First Fruits and Tenths. He died at Willington in 1545, leaving an estate of fifteen thousand acres. Above his plain tomb chest in the church is a plaque dated 1541 which reads ‘This yeoman John Gostwick has built this place for those who have departed this life. Pray dutifully to the Father that it may be enjoyed by future generations.’ The Gostwicks remained at Willington until 1731, when the manor was sold to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. In 1779 it was purchased by the Dukes of Bedford, and remained a Bedford possession until 1902. Repairs were carried out in 1824 and 1826, and in 1835 the tower arch was enclosed with a partition. In 1847 the church was visited by John Martin, librarian at Woburn Abbey, who found the church in ‘a mournful condition’. A major scheme of repair and restoration took place in 1876-7, under the Rev. Augustus Orlebar (vicar from 1858-1912) and largely at the expense of the Duke of Bedford. The architect was Henry Clutton, who was extensively employed by the Bedford estate (including new churches at Apsley Heath and Woburn). A kitchen and WC were installed in the ground floor space under the tower in 2008, requiring the relocation of the font to the north aisle. The church is built of buff-coloured local stone with low-pitched roofs not visible from ground level. The roof coverings are apparently a mixture of slate, lead, copper and zinc (over the south porch). The plan (figure 1) comprises a west tower, a nave with a south porch and north aisle and a chancel with a north chapel which is a continuation of the north aisle. Despite its early origins, there seems to be general agreement that most if not all of the building dates from the early sixteenth century, perhaps incorporating some earlier fabric; certainly all the detailing looks Tudor. The west tower is of three stages divided by string courses and has diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet (rebuilt by Clutton in the 1870s). In each face of the top stage is a window of two lights under a square label. The west door has been blocked, and over it is a modern window of three lights. On the south side of the tower are a plain chamfered doorway and four small lights to the staircase. The nave is wider than the tower and its south wall has a central doorway with a fourcentred head and continuous jamb and arch moulds sheltered by a stone porch with square-headed side windows and an embattled parapet. The timber roof of the porch has moulded ribs, probably sixteenth century. The outer doorway has a depressed arch springing from moulded jambs; the arch mould is ornamented with a row of small diamond-shaped panels. On either side of the south porch is a tall window of four lights in two tiers; the lower lights have pointed cinquefoiled heads, the upper ones fourcentred heads and tracery with no cusping. The north wall of the aisle also has two windows, with the north doorway between them, which has a pointed head and moulded jambs and label. The windows are of three plain lights without cusping under a four-centred head. The clerestorey on this side has two-light windows with fourcentred heads and uncusped heads. Both the nave and the north aisle have embattled parapets, continued over the chancel and north chancel chapel, which are the same height as the nave but built of finer masonry. The south wall of the chancel has two windows of three lights, of which the middle is trefoiled and the outer two cinquefoiled under embattled transoms; the arches and labels of these windows are four-centred with Perpendicular tracery and the jambs are moulded. Between them is a small priest's doorway with moulded jambs, of which the inner order is four-centred and the outer square; in the spandrels are trefoils. Over the door on the outside is a quatrefoil bearing a shield in the centre. The north wall of the chancel chapel has two windows of three cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery over. Between these windows is a square buttress in three stages, and at the north-west angle a diagonal one. The east window of the chancel takes up almost the whole width of the wall and consists of five cinquefoiled lights with moulded jambs and main and secondary tracery under a two-centred arch and label. The east window of the north chapel is of three cusped lights with tracery.

Internally, the church has plain plastered and limewashed walls (although there are nineteenth century accounts of painted decoration under the limewash), with a partial timber dado and a stone-flagged floor with timber pew platforms. All the windows except the east window and one on the south side of the chancel are clear glazed. The tower opens into the west end of the nave by a tall arch in two chamfered orders, springing from responds with moulded capitals. The nave is separated from the north aisle by a three-bay arcade with moulded pointed arches springing from piers consisting of four half-round shafts attached to a square with the angles chamfered off, each shaft having a moulded semi-octagonal capital and base. In the east respond of the arcade is a rood staircase, with upper and lower doorways. Over the arcade is a clerestory of three windows of two uncusped lights each, with moulded jambs and fourcentred heads. At the east end of the aisle a pointed moulded arch opens into the northeast (Gostwick) chapel. The timber nave and aisle roofs are probably of the sixteenth century, though much repaired. The nave roof is of four bays, and the aisle roof seven; both have foliated bosses at the intersection of the timbers, and embattled wall plates. The chancel arch is pointed and chamfered and has shafted responds. It appears that the original intention was to vault the chancel in stone, and vaulting shafts remain at the northeast and southeast corners with grotesque faces at the bases. The timber roof is of three bays, with braces resting on carved wooden corbels. The chancel floor is covered with boldly patterned tiles in green, yellow and black, doubtless laid in the 1870s as part of Clutton’s restoration. On the south side is a doorway with an elaborate moulded surround. On the north side is an arcade of two bays, of four-centred arches with a central clustered pier and similar responds. This opens into the north chapel, which contains the Gostwick family monuments. The floor here is paved with a variety of old tiles, presumably laid in the 1530s, but some perhaps dating from the fourteenth century and possibly salvaged from Newnham Priory or another religious building. These are the only surviving medieval features. Post-Medieval, pre-Victorian features and furnishings include:  The tomb of Sir John Gostwick (d. 1545), a plain altar tomb chest set under the arch between the chancel and north chapel, with a separate stone panel containing a memorial inscription.  On the south wall of the chancel is a helmet, a modern replica of the funeral helmet of Sir John Gostwick, which he is alleged to have worn at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The original is now in the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.  The tomb of Sir William Gostwick (d. 1615) in the north chapel, a fine Jacobean tomb of alabaster and black marble, with an alabaster effigy in platearmour lying on a mattress under a wooden hearse-canopy painted to represent marble; the figure is attributed to Maximilian Colt, a Flemish craftsman who became King James I’s master carver. On the pedestal is an inscription to Sir William, who married Jane Owen. The timber canopy has recently been damaged and is awaiting repair.  The tomb of Sir Edward Gostwick (d. 1630) and his wife Anne, on the north wall of the north chapel, with two kneeling figures under canopies. Beneath these, the figures of five girls and two boys, also a cradle with an anchor of hope. The monument was made by Edward Marshall, who was paid £58 for it in 1633.  In the nave floor is a ledger slab to Robert Howgill, vicar, 1643.  Some of the bench ends in the nave are decorated with sixteenth century carved timber tracery and some of the ends may themselves be old. Victorian and post-Victorian furnishings include the following:  Most of the nave benches (with the exception of those noted above), which are Victorian and probably date from the 1870s. They have moulded top rails and panelled backs.  An octagonal stone font with carved decoration, probably of the 1870s. It was originally at the base of the tower, but was moved to its present position in the north aisle in 2008.  A stone and timber pulpit set against the east respond of the nave arcade, probably dating from Clutton’s restoration.  The chancel floor tiles; elaborate red, green, black and yellow tiles, some with incised decoration in the manner of the Aesthetic Movement and part of Clutton’s restoration.  A monument to the Revd Augustus Orlebar (d.1912) on the north wall of the chancel.  Timber choir stalls, timber with traceried backs and poppyhead ends, added in 1914.  The stained glass in the large five-light east window depicts the Ascension and is by Heaton, Butler & Bayne, 1885. A three-light grisaille window on the south side of the chancel in memory of the Revd John Scobell (d.1867) is by James Powell & Sons.  The present organ (in the northeast chapel) was made by Brindley & Foster in 1900 and imported in 2012 from Bushey United Reformed Church.  In the chancel is a large Gurney Stove, now disused