Visit to St Andrew's Church, Thornhaugh

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.

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.

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 19^th 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. 

Cedar of Lebanon (top) and the interesting cones and cups
we were able to gather.