St. Peter and St. Paul: Carved figures at the West end of the nave This guide was written and illustrated by Stephen Knight 1996 Contact details: Vicar : Revd. Peter Green The Vicarage, 25 Oldridge Close, Holme Hall, S40 4UF Tel.: (01246) 558112; [email protected] Website : - www.oldbramptonchurch.org.uk A brief history of facebook.com/oldbramptonchurch Old Brampton Church A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 20 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 1 of 20 Exterior: The Parish – as it was until 1832…. …. and as it is now A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 2 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 19 of 20 A plan of the church interior as it is Contents:- now: St Peter and St Paul Old Brampton – an Introduction _________ 3 Twelfth Century: The Norman Church _____________________ 4 Thirteenth Century: The Church is enlarged _________________ 6 Fourteenth Century: The Spire is added _____________________ 8 Fifteenth Century: Bringing in more light __________________ 10 Nineteenth Century: Decay, repairs and improvements________ 12 Three Monuments _____________________________________ 14 The Porch and the Churchyard ___________________________ 16 The Church as it is now: ________________________________ 18 A plan of the church as it is now: _________________________ 18 St Peter and St Paul Old Brampton – an Introduction Old Brampton lies on the ancient road westward across the moors; for many centuries this was the only way from Chesterfield to Baslow and beyond. There has been a church here since 1100, lying at the centre of a large parish, as the map opposite shows. For hundreds of years the church was the focus of religious and community life for this rural area of villages and upland farms, and for the western edges of Chesterfield town. Then, in 1832, St. Thomas' church in New Brampton was built and took away the eastern and southern parts of the parish. The following pages show how the church has grown and changed over the years, and highlight some of its many interesting and enjoyable features. A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 18 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 3 of 20 Twelfth Century: Outside, the walls contain some of the largest stones in the whole building and around the arch is what must originally The Norman Church have been very fine carved decoration. What was The church stands right on the crest of the ridge running Brampton towards Chesterfield. As you walk towards the porch, the Church like in wide space, the forest of headstones and the surrounding the 1100's? As trees make a wonderful setting. In medieval times, there a new daughter would have been no headstones but a churchyard cross to church of the indicate consecrated ground. At that time, the churchyard parish of might be used for dancing, singing and games as well as Chesterfield, for burials. Many thousands of burials later, the ground level has risen so much that, where it meets the church, in out on the edge places it is more than four feet above the floor level inside. of the moors, it Many of the older headstones are beautifully carved and was probably lettered. All face east and look their very simple best in late morning when the sun indeed - a high, shadows steep-roofed the nave, a small lettering sanctuary, either square or apse-ended, and at the west end a low, strongly-built tower covered by a pyramidal and roof to throw off the rain. The tower housed one or more bells and the priest may have lived in an upper room. The south doorway was enriched with sculptured columns makes it easy to read. A good and carved decoration but everything else was extremely number of them date from plain. the 18th century and at least one, shown below, from the 17th. The finest stones, the pre-Victorian ones, are all in the southern half of the churchyard, which was always considered the best part to be in. A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 4 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 17 of 20 The Porch and the Churchyard Inside, the church was We take it for granted that churches should have a porch, much like a that little room attached rather oddly to one side - usually barn. There the south side - of the building and so useful for shaking were no pews. out one's umbrella. But though the shelter of the porch Tiny windows must have been deeply welcome if you had walked over in let in a dim light the rain from Cutthorpe or Holymoorside several hundred years ago, the porch had a much greater importance than and above were that. As the people's entrance to the building, it was here the huge, that the services of baptism and marriage began and it was roughly shaped also the recognised place where legal agreements were timbers of the signed and oaths sworn - in modern terms, the signing of roof. The rough contracts, perhaps. Hence the fine stone seats down each stone walls side at a time when, inside the church, most people had to were plastered stand. inside and out Our porch, which probably dates from the early 1300's and the roof (fairly soon after the spire), is unusual in having a roof of was probably fine stone covered with slabs. The heather thatch, arch which the cheapest and lightest material to hand. Near the spans the south doorway stood the font. The nave was apparently porch shows as wide and as long as it is today. A sculptured archway how would have led into the chancel; the crude round arch wonderfully we see today would have been hidden by plaster and skilful the was there to relieve pressure on the chancel arch below masons were it. There was probably a huge wall painting of the Last at finding a Judgement over the arch and other paintings on the side simple but walls and window reveals. In summer the church was graceful way cool and dimly lit, in winter it must have been dark, to support damp and bitterly cold, but it was the one place in the the parish where a large number of people could gather for stonework above. a common purpose and it must have played an immensely important part in their lives. A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 16 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 5 of 20 There are bits and pieces of Norman work in plenty of At the east end of the aisle, Godfrey Clarke (died 1734) Derbyshire churches but a real gem, both inside and and his wife Catherine, daughter of the Earl of out, is the little Steetley Chapel, north-east of Whitwell Chesterfield, are commemorated in and just north of the A.619 - it's well worth a visit if classical style, very correct and very you are passing by. restrained. Further down the aisle, in Thirteenth Century: exuberant contrast, is the other Clarke monument, dominated by The Church is enlarged two homely and well-built angels The simple and bursting with life in all its Norman details. The material is alabaster. church of Draperies, horns of plenty and the 1100's baskets of fruit abound, with three was coats of arms at the top, the central one shown here, and dramatically a splendid pair of skulls and crossbones at the bottom. transformed Gilbert Clarke put it up in 1673 for ten of his family who between had died during the century. 1200 and Below it, a great deal more modest, is the little brass 1300. The plate which commemorates Gilbert's great, great north and grandfather Nicholas, who founded the family's fortunes. south aisles It was he who bought the 700 acre Somersall estate and were added, built a new house there and he died in 1589, a year after the chancel the defeat of the Armada. was enlarged and soon after 1300 the tower was raised and the spire and porch were added. All over Derbyshire, and over much of England, the same things were happening. The population was growing and the church was becoming too small. The parish was large, extending in those days to include Walton, Loads and the present New Brampton, and everybody came to church, crowding in to stand shoulder to shoulder inside. The church now probably seemed not only too small but dark and primitive as well. People were more settled, there were wealthy families in the parish and A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 6 of 20 A brief history of Old Brampton Church Page 15 of 20 Three Monuments everybody wanted to contribute money or labour to enlarge and beautify the church, which was in every way Digging out a new grave one day early in the 18th at the centre of life in the parish. Century, the sexton struck something hard with his spade. In the drawing of the church on the left, the original It proved to be the magnificent stone grave slab of Matilda Norman building still shows through, but the north aisle Le Caus, now on the west wall of the nave, beside the arch has already been added and the chancel extended, with into the tower. Matilda belonged to a powerful family, larger windows. The south aisle is under construction. Only Lords of the Manor of Caushall (perhaps the site of the when the walls and roof are completed will the new aisle present Caus Farm in Ashgate?) and with extensive lands be opened up into the nave; the masons will skillfully insert elsewhere in the county and beyond.