Saint Peters
AMPTON
Iternal links
Home Page
Our Vicar
Contact us
Photo Gallery
A little of our history
**********
History
A building of some sort has probably existed on this site
since before Doomsday, but much of the present structure is early fourteenth
century with later alterations. The earliest description we have of
the inside is by Davy the nineteenth century historian, ' who spoke of
The Chancel as being ceiled, and containing
a communion table raised up one step and railed around, with the ten
commandments, the Lords Prayer, and Statement of Belief set on panels
over it.
The Nave he described as 37 feet long, 15 feet 7 inches wide, with the pulpit in the s.e. corner, of oak, plain and neat, with in the centre a large iron stove, and opposite the pulpit, a small lamp. At the west end stood the gallery, from which minstrels would have lead the singing during services, and beneath the gallery hung the Kings Arms." small but very neat". You can see the sockets for the gallery half way up the archway at the west end of the church.
On the gallery sat a barrel organ, and the font stood in front of the north doorway, which had been stopped up.
In 1848, the church was restored , by the Architect Samuel S. Teulon. He removed the inscribed panels from the east end and the gallery, and introduced seating for the choir in the chancel. The pews are probably his design. The organ, and the south window in the Chancel were probably introduced at the same time.
The chapel on the north side is of special interest. It was built to the memory of John Coket under a licence from the crown granted in 1479, to Thomas Heigham, John, son of John Coket, Richard Heigham, and Clement Clark, to found a perpetual chantry of one priest. See the inscription in the archway: "Capella Perpetue Cantarie Johis Coket." (roughly translated : perpetual Chapel for chanting for John Coket)
Coket was a wealthy sheep farmer, who dispersed a flock of twenty thousand sheep in his will, as well as setting up the chantry chapel in his memory. The cresting over the archway includes his merchant's mark.
The priest, paid for out of the income from lands left for the purpose, was responsible for saying prayers every day for the Royal Family, as well as for the soul of Coket, and for the well being of his family. He also had to say the services of matins, mass, vespers, compline and the other canonical hours every day, with "placebo", a "dirge", and a "requiem mass" for the souls of the departed, once every week. He was to live in a house opposite the church, on what was then the village green. Coket asked for the altar in the Chapel to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1488, Robert Rycheman, the parson of Ampton, was buried "in the chapell of oure blyssyd Lady beyng and edyfyed in the seyde chyrcheyerd of seynt Petyr", and left 6s 8d for a light to burn before an effigy of our Lady in the chapel.
The Chantry chapel as with all other similar chapels, was abolished after the Chantries Act of 1547 confiscated all lands given as such endowments. The chapel became the squires family pew , and sometime later, a chapel of remembrance. Mosaic figures commemorate
the use of Ampton Hall as a Red Cross hospital during the first world war, and of the death of Bernard Wickham in 1917, son of a
former Rector killed on active service. The Nave he described as 37 feet long, 15 feet 7 inches wide, with the pulpit in the s.e. corner, of oak, plain and neat, with in the centre a large iron stove, and opposite the pulpit, a small lamp. At the west end stood the gallery, from which minstrels would have lead the singing during services, and beneath the gallery hung the Kings Arms." small but very neat". You can see the sockets for the gallery half way up the archway at the west end of the church.
On the gallery sat a barrel organ, and the font stood in front of the north doorway, which had been stopped up.
In 1848, the church was restored , by the Architect Samuel S. Teulon. He removed the inscribed panels from the east end and the gallery, and introduced seating for the choir in the chancel. The pews are probably his design. The organ, and the south window in the Chancel were probably introduced at the same time.
The chapel on the north side is of special interest. It was built to the memory of John Coket under a licence from the crown granted in 1479, to Thomas Heigham, John, son of John Coket, Richard Heigham, and Clement Clark, to found a perpetual chantry of one priest. See the inscription in the archway: "Capella Perpetue Cantarie Johis Coket." (roughly translated : perpetual Chapel for chanting for John Coket)
Coket was a wealthy sheep farmer, who dispersed a flock of twenty thousand sheep in his will, as well as setting up the chantry chapel in his memory. The cresting over the archway includes his merchant's mark.
The priest, paid for out of the income from lands left for the purpose, was responsible for saying prayers every day for the Royal Family, as well as for the soul of Coket, and for the well being of his family. He also had to say the services of matins, mass, vespers, compline and the other canonical hours every day, with "placebo", a "dirge", and a "requiem mass" for the souls of the departed, once every week. He was to live in a house opposite the church, on what was then the village green. Coket asked for the altar in the Chapel to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1488, Robert Rycheman, the parson of Ampton, was buried "in the chapell of oure blyssyd Lady beyng and edyfyed in the seyde chyrcheyerd of seynt Petyr", and left 6s 8d for a light to burn before an effigy of our Lady in the chapel.
The Chantry chapel as with all other similar chapels, was abolished after the Chantries Act of 1547 confiscated all lands given as such endowments. The chapel became the squires family pew , and sometime later, a chapel of remembrance. Mosaic figures commemorate
the use of Ampton Hall as a Red Cross hospital during the first world war, and of the death of Bernard Wickham in 1917, son of a
The medieval coffin lid is a more recent introduction, and its provenance is not known.
The Coat of Arms, which now sits on a beam at the west end of the nave, is a rare fret work example on inch thick oak boards, thought to be the loyal arms for Charles the First. They would have originally sat on the Rood Screen, which once separated the Chancel from the Nave, with the "seals" on spikes, set below the beam. Another loyal arms, this time on Brass, and of the Hanoverian period, is fixed to the wall of the Vestry, itself built in the nineteenth century
The Hatchments, which hang in the base of the Tower, belong to the Calthorpe family, one time Lords of the Manor, whose family trust recently paid to have them restored.
More Monuments to the Calthorpe family survive in the Chancel. Sir Henry Calthorpe's of 1638, is by John and Mattias Christmas. Those in the nave to Dorothy Calthorpe, 1693, and to James Calthorpe, 1784, are not signed.
The monument to William Whettell 1628, also in the Chancel, is by Nicolas Stone.
The East window commemorates the great fire of 1885 wliich all but destroyed the Hall, but without loss of life, and depicts the Saints Edmund, Peter, Paul and Ethelreda, with attendant angels and Daniel in the Fiery Furnace, all in fifteenth century style. It is thought to have been made by Messrs Burlinson and Grylls
AMPTON PEOPLE
A church is the worshippers, rather than the building, and some of the people who have worshipped here are worth a mention:
Dorothy Calthorpe, who in 1693 set up the almshouses for six poor maidens, just along the street,. "A virgin votary is oft in snares, this safely vowed and made ye poor her heirs"
James Calthorpe set up a boarding school in 1692, in the house next to the church on the south side, endowing it with sufficient lands to pay for six poor boys from the local villages. The first pupils were taken in in 1712. They each received a thorough education, together with the day scholars who attended the school house, between 7am and 11am, and between 1pm and 5pm, six days per week, with three weeks holiday at Christmas, and one each at Easter and whitsun, and had to wear distinctive blue coats with a crest (look in the chapel for a copy ). Although the school closed down towards the end of the nineteenth century, the endowment continues to give bursaries to young people in further education, who live in the villages once served by the school. The Benefactors board at the west end of the Church records the Calthorpe family's good deeds.
Jeremy Collier was rector here from 1679 to 1684, and left the Church to become librarian at Grays Inn in London, owing to his opposition to increasing Protestantism in the Church Of England, Eight Bishops and four hundred clergy protested that they alone were the true Catholic Church of England, and they were thrown out of the Church, but began to ordain their own Bishops, of which Jeremy was one of the first. These "non - jurors" continued in schism during the eighteenth century.
William Wickham: Rector in the middle years of the last century, was a pioneer photographer and took many views of the village during his time here.
If you enjoy a visit to the church, please help us maintain the fabric of this fascinating church, by placing your donation in the box by the door
A.J.Redman 1994
References:
"The Buildings a/England", Pevsner;
"Suffolk Churches", Munro Cautley;
" Nineteenth Century Suffolk Stained Glass ", Birkin Howard;
"The Stripping of the Altars", Eamon Duffy
Return to the top of the page
External links
B-S-E
Cathedral