St. Bartholomew's
Ingham
Iternal links
Home Page
Our Vicar
Contact us
Photo Gallery
A little of our history
**********
HISTORY
WELCOME to St Bartholomew's church Ingham where Christian worship has taken place for at least the last 600years. The church perched high on the top represents a change in the landscape, from the chalk lands further south, on which Bury is built, to the gravel and sandy areas to the North.
Ingham sits on a gravel terrace at the start of the Brecks, otherwise known as Britain's nearest thing to a desert. The land is free draining and sandy, more so the further you travel north towards Thetford, and the rainfall is the same as Jerusalem.
The church is named after the apostle, whom Jesus met under a fig tree, in Galilee and said of him" there is the Israelite who has not got a false bone in his body" ( St Johns gospel ch1 v50). He reputedly went to India after Jesus's resurrection, and preached the Christian good news to the Indian sub continent for many years until he fell foul of the King and was martyred by being flayed alive. His emblem in medieval art is a flaying knife or three, as in the case of Ingham. He has become the patron saint of butchers as a result of this, and curiously also, the patron saint of bee keepers.
Just why Our church should be dedicated to him is a mystery, almost as much a mystery as the life of the saint himself. It has been suggested that it could be because Ingham was the first stop on the road between Bury Abbey and Crowland Abbey, also named after the saint and a place of pilgrimage or that where bees were found nearby. This remains an ancient site of Christian worship what ever the cause of the derivation.
St Bartholomew's day is celebrated on 24th August in the Christian calendar. The church is a simple plan, with a chancel, nave and west tower.
The tower is older than the rest of the church walling, and dates from the middle of the 14th century. Note the carved heads as corbels on the east side of the tower. An illustration by Isaac Johnston dated 1818 shows the outside of the church to be remarkably similar to what it is today.
The windows in the nave and chancel might date from the same period as the tower, but the whole church was remodelled in the 1861, when the patron and rector, the Rev Benyan De Beauvoir employed a bevvy of London architects to remodel most of the churches in his estate, largely with his own money.
Before that, David Davy records the church in 1829 as having two windows in each of the north and south walls, with "modem " buttresses, with the whole outside "cast over' (rendered). Inside he describes the church as having a full set of pews " irregular and painted the colour of dull lead', with a pulpit in the north east corner, and a font under the tower at the west end. A minstrels gallery stood just in front of the tower with a barrel organ on it. The loyal arms of Charles the 1 hung in the chancel arch, and boards with the ten commandments, the Lords Prayer and creed, painted in 1771, stood in the chancel. The restoration of 1861 did away with all of this, and blocked up the windows in the north side of the
Chancel, to permit more space for monuments. The architect for the 1861
work was probable W. Habershon, who also repaired Culford church.
The earliest remains in the church are the font, probably Norman in date. The rood stairs and ledge for the rood beam, still visible in the north east corner of the nave, and the traces of fourteenth century silver stained glass in the south porch (now the kitchen), representing St Catherine, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and StJohn.
The Bells were renewed in 1860 in a new frame, all by G Mears of Whitechapel, London. The technical information is as follows:
Tenor: 12cwt Oqtr 27lb, F#
Fourth: 5cwt 3qtr 24lb G#
Third: 7cwt 1qtr 25lb A#
Second 6cwt Oqtr 23lb B
Treble 5cwt1qtr 15lb C##
One older bell was retained for chiming.
The 1861 pews and the pulpit were removed in 1986, and a vestibule added to enable the wider use on the church for a variety of community activities. The Nave is used now much as it was before the reformation, for a wide range of village activities, whilst the Chancel is
used for worship Sunday by Sunday.
The kitchen and toilet were added in 1989, largely through the efforts of village people, and local fund raising.
As you leave the building, do please pray for the people who worship here, and for the continuation of a christian witness in this place.
A.J.Redman
Back to the top
a.upson1@btinternet.com
or telephone
Tony 01359 269514
External links
B-S-E
Cathedral