Saint Peters
Great Livermere
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A little of our history
**********
A LITTLE OF OUR
HISTORY
St Peters Church
Great Livermere
" A church with 12 acres of land, ten furlongs long
by eight furlongs wide, paying 12d in geld"
(Domesday Book)
A church has probably stood on this site since the
seventh century, when the itinerant preachers went
around the countryside gathering together groups
of people prepared to listen to the Good News
about Jesus Christ, spoken in their own language,
and to share in the breaking of bread, the forerunner
of our modern day communion services. They
might have built a simple wooden hut to keep out
the rain. Successive rebuilding as the original
became too small, eventually lead to the building
you see today, which for the most part dates from
the early thirteenth century. This leaflet will help
you to explore the building for yourself.
According to oral memory in the village, the upper
stage of the Tower fell down in a storm the night
before the marriage of the churchwarden's daughter
in 1871. Before that It had been a full stage higher,
with battlements, and a lantern on top, of ltalianate
design, erected to look well from the front rooms of
the manor house which stood in the middle of the
park, near to where a big cedar tree can now be
seen. The lower parts of the tower contain different
layers of flint, relating to the successive years of
construction, medieval building work tending to be
undertaken by the labourers after the gathering in of
the harvest each year. Our tower probably took a
decade or two to complete, and was probably
finished by the end of the 12th century.
The Bells, which now hang in a modern wooden
frame on top of the masonry tower, were the
lightest peel of five in the world when they were
cast in 1762, and are still rung on special occasions.
The ladder leading up to the ringing chamber is
seventeenth century, and you can see a date carved
on the side. Please do not attempt to climb it.
The word Nave comes from the Latin navis,
meaning "ship", relating to the proportion and
construction of the roof, in the form of an upturned
boat. From the end on the 12th century, all church
roofs had to be formed in this way, by edict. They
came to signify a vessel to transport the people of
God to heaven. It has always been the largest
enclosed public space in the village. On the walls
you can see paintings in the plaster, which date
from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the
north wall opposite the main door: the fragments of
St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, whose
protective powers would have been invoked by
people travelling out of the village, by opening the
door and saying a quick prayer before their journey.
Along behind the organ, " the three living and the
three dead", a medieval mythological story warning
of the dangers of a sinful lifestyle, and on the south
wall, next to the screen, a " noli me tangere" (Jesus
telling Mary not to touch Him, because he had not
ascended into heaven). Look for the eyes and the
hands, but please do not touch as they are very fragile.
A side altar dedicated to the Virgin would
have stood in front of the screen at this point, from
the middle of the fourteenth century. The washbasin
"piscina" and the safe for the storage of
consecrated bread and wine can still be seen in the wall.
The eighteenth century plaster ceiling is self
supporting, and conceals the thirteenth century
scissor trussed roof, which underwent major repairs
in 1981. The Screen itself dates from the middle of
the fifteenth century, and might once have been
covered in rich painted decoration, but was covered
over in the eighteenth century with the brown paint
you can see today. It was intended to separate the
village activities, which took place in the nave, from
the religious activity in the chancel, the space
beyond the screen, which takes its name from the
screen itself ( cancellis, meaning lattice, in Latin).
The pulpit, has three levels: the upper for sermons,
the middle one where bible passages are read, and a
lower one, from where the sexton could ensure that
all was done in decent order. It dates from the early
years of the eighteenth century, and was intended to
enable the priest to speak over the tops of the box
pews which formerly filled the nave, the remains of
which now line the walls. The present pews date
from 1897 and seat more people than live in the
village.
The Organ, which has the strength to fill the church
with beautiful sound, came here in the 1880's, but
has an otherwise unknown origin. It replaced the
minstrels' gallery, which formerly graced the back
of the church. The sockets can still be seen in the
stonework behind the organ. The doors at the rear
of the nave are French and were bought in the 1950s.
The Chancel is where the priest would have said
the Mass (in Latin), and the special services at
various times of the day. It was brightly coloured in
fifteenth century murals, the remains of which you
can see in ther upper parts. There might have been
a doom painting in the chancel archway, to remind
the parishioners of the dangers of an immoral
lifestyle. The sockets can still be seen in the
stonework where the rood screen would have been.
In the sixteenth century, the 'modern' service book
(forerunner of the Book of Common Prayer)
required the congregation to stand at a table laid
'table-wise' down the middle of the chancel, to
receive communion. The present arrangement with
a stone floor and raised steps dates from the 1860s.
In the back corner where the door to the vestry is
now, there used to be a tomb, described in a
contemporary account as "Somewhat raysed, with the
pourtrayture of a man armed and a women by him upon
it, an escutcheon underneath them, reaved... the
Bokenham arms above them... .a chevron entre, three
swanns haedes erased argent, and on the west and head
end of the tomb three coates."
The present arrangement of the choir stalls dates
from the end of the nineteenth century and used
benches which formerly stood against the walls of
the nave. The altar table similarly dates from this
time, and includes rails formed from parts of a
staircase balustrading, which might have come from
the manor house in the park. The arrangement is
intended to allow the services to be led by a robed
choir, and is typical of many Victorian re-orderings
completed to the guidelines of the influential
Tractarian movement. The congregation would
have listened to the service from behind the screen.
The altar rail arrangement dates back to Archbishop
Laud, in the seventeenth century, who decreed that
the altar table should be railed off from the body of
the church to prevent it being desecrated by dogs.
Under the altar are slate ledger slabs
commemorating the Claxton family (look for their
family crest containing a hedgehog). They were
lords of the manor in the seventeenth century.
Colourful kneelers in the chancel are a parishioner's
labour of love and chart the progress of the late
twentieth century. Do look at the other monuments
in the church. These include one to Tom Martin, a
famous antiquary in the last century, and another in
the chancel to M R James, an eminent theologian
and historian, credited with the invention of the
English Ghost story. He grew up in the rectory in
this village. In the Nave is the, memorial to Arundel
Coke, the last man to have been hung in Bury,
convicted of the attempted murder of his brother in
law, who had gained wealth trading in the South
Sea Bubble shares.
Outside in the churchyard, the graves to William
Sakings, falkoner to Charles the I and II, and James
II, and his wife Margaret and to their son
Edmund, born 1665 and died 1682, aged just 17.
They lived in a little cottage, which used to stand in
the piece of land behind where the bus shelter now stands.
Tom Taylor, an eminent designer who lived in the
village, painted the former village sign
commemorating William Sakings, which hangs at
the back of the nave.
Many other memorials in the churchyard are still
tended by the families who live in the village or
close by.
This church is still used for regular public worship
and for private prayer. There is a box for prayer
requests and books of prayers to help you.
Remember as you leave this place that it has been
used as a place of worship for over eight hundred
years, and is maintained not by a large wealthy
organisation, but by a handful of dedicated
volunteers, members of a thriving congregation, the
real church.
If you would like to know more about the Christian
faith or the church, the notice board by the entrance
gates has details of the people who would be willing
to help you. If you would like to give towards the
maintenance of the building, please place your gift in
the milk-churn next to the notice board, which is
emptied regularly.
Postcards of the church and notelets with scenes of
the village and the church are on sale at the back of
the church.
Jesus said, 'Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest'. Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 11 verse28.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life. Gospel of St.
John chapter 3 verse 16
The arm of God be about you
The way of Christ guide you
The strength of the Holy Spirit support you
(Celtic blessing)
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