Margaret
and I visited St Andrew’s Church, Thornhaugh last week with the Peterborough
U3A Churches and Teas group.
Thornhaugh
is one of those places that I’ve driven past many times (mainly on the slip
road heading north on the A1) but which I’ve never actually visited. At one
time, I guess, the A1 Great North Road would have passed closer to the
village or even through it and I suppose that the current village main street may have been the main east/west road.
It seems
that for many years, Thornhaugh was the bigger village between itself and
Wansford, but now it’s very much an undeveloped backwater.
The church
is pretty and well-kept and has a huge rectory next door (now a private house
and on the market when we visited).
The church
has a tower with a ring of five bells (a number of which were cast in
Stamford). The tower once had a spire which collapsed, taking out the entrance porch
and the south aisle. The church was rebuilt without a spire and also without a
south aisle.
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| View of the altar through the squint-hole. |
The church
has very little stained glass, which, on a sunny spring day, gave it a
wonderful sense of light and lovely views through the windows. There are some
interesting features, including a squint hole from the southern transept.
This gives
someone sitting in the transept a clear view of the altar and the vicar told us
that the squint hole allowed people a view of the communion ceremony. It was
believed (and still is in the Catholic Church) that the communion ceremony
turns the communion wafer from biscuit to the actual flesh of Christ. This
magical process is known as transubstantiation. The vicar said people wanted to
see this change in action and thus these squint holes were created.
It’s an
interesting idea and I like the thought of people wanting to witness this
mediaeval conjuring trick.
However,
there are other possible explanations. Another idea is that these spy holes
were to allow lepers (who were segregated due to the virulence of their
disease) to view the communion service and it’s also suggested that the holes
may have served the same purpose for extreme Christian hermits, who did not
want any contact with other people.
The squint
hole at Thornhaugh does give a very good view of the altar, so it hardly
requires a squint and because it’s sited in the south transept, it’s hard to
see how lepers or hermits may have benefited, unless they were able to enter
the church building.
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| Tomb of William Russell, Baron Thornhaugh. |
The other
interesting feature in the Church is the tomb of William Russell, Baron
Thornhaugh, who died in 1613.
Russell
owned land in the area and lived at Thornhaugh Manor (just up the road and now
a large farmhouse). He was the third son of the Second Earl of Bedford (Francis
Russell) and he began a number of projects to begin draining the Cambridgeshire
Fens. His son (also Francis) became the fourth Earl of Bedford and continued
the drainage work.
It’s thanks
to them that we now have such rich and productive farmland where I live now (on
the Bedford Level) and it was their ancestors, in the 19th Century,
who built the model village of Thorney for their estate workers.
There’s a
Russell Close in Thorney and also a Tavistock Drive and Woburn Drive – all names
with connections to the Russell family and dukes of Bedford.
Thornhaugh
also has memorial tablets to John Wing, a former rector and there’s a memorial
tablet to him in Thorney Church as well. As well as sharing benefactors, it
seems Thorney and Thornhaugh also shared rectors.
In the churchyard, there's a tall cedar of Lebanon (recently heavily pruned) and we collected some interesting cones and cups from around the floor.
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| Cedar of Lebanon (top) and the interesting cones and cups we were able to gather. |
