THE HISTORY OF

THE PRIORY CHURCH OF ST.PETER, DUNSTABLE

 

From F A Fowler’s    

'The Priory Church of Saint Peter Dunstable- A Brief History'

 

 

Founding

(1110 – 1220)

THE PRIORY OF ST. PETER, DUNSTABLE, was founded by King Henry I in or about the year 1131. Henry had founded the town some twenty years before, and to safeguard its interests had built himself a house there. The establishment of a priory of Augustinian canons opposite his "palace" of Kingsburie completed his plans for the well-being of the town. Henry endowed the Priory with the lordship of the entire town and with all the privileges he had himself enjoyed when he held it in his own hands. These privileges were to be the cause of much trouble in later years and resulted in bitter quarrels between townsfolk and Prior.

Plan of original Dunstable

 

The building of the church and convent commenced soon after the granting of the charter and continued throughout the rest of the century. The church was built in the form of a cross with a great tower at the crossing and with two smaller towers at the west end. Progress was slow and it was some seventy or eighty years before the church was complete. We read of altars being dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, St. Frehemund, St. Nicholas and St. James in 1207 and on St. Luke's day (October 18th) 1213 the completed church was consecrated by Hugh II, Bishop of Lincoln.        

 

The first prior of Dunstable, Bernard, was, with his brother Norman (afterwards prior of St. Botolph, Colchester), closely associated with the introduction of the Augustinian Order into England. The church and monastic buildings were erected under his rule and that of his two immediate successors, Prior Thomas and Prior Richard. Prior Richard de Morins (elected 1202) was a man of considerable influence and ability. He ruled the convent for forty years and under him the Priory entered upon the most prosperous period of its history. He was commissioned by the Pope to preach the Crusade in 1212 and he attended the Lateran Council in 1215. It was he who commenced the Annales de Dunstaplia  which is not only the history of the Priory, but a most absorbing chronicle of the doings of Prior and townsfolk, local gossip and lawsuits, and of events in England and in Europe as seen from the standpoint of Dunstable cloister.

 

The Annals of the Priory also inform us that in 1220 the altar of the Holy Cross and All Angels before the Rood Screen and the altar of the parish in honour of St. John Baptist were consecrated.

 

 

A "Stormy" Decade

(The 1220s)

The beautiful Norman church was not destined to remain complete for long. In June, 1222, the roof of the presbytery fell, and a far greater disaster befell it in December of the same year when a violent storm which swept across the land brought down the two western towers. The fall of the northern tower ruined the west front; the southern one brought down the prior's house. The front was immediately rebuilt without towers. Its upper portion was designed with beautiful arcading and niches for statuary; the whole conception forming a lovely screen front with heavily buttressed turrets at the angles.

 

 

Ebb and Flow of Prosperity: The Priory during the High Middle Ages

(13th through 15th centuries)

In 1227 we hear of a chapel being founded in the churchyard dedicated to St. Martin and in 1228 mention is made of an existing Infirmary Chapel. In the same year the chapel of Our Lady was built at the extreme eastern end of the church in the cemetery of the canons. Its altar was dedicated in 1231 . In 1250 the canons built the inner gate within the court and placed ten tons of lead on the refectory roof. In 1251 the dormitory had to be rebuilt. In 1252 new workshops were built in the court for the carpenter and wheelwright, and in the same year the great stable was built. Within four years it fell and had to he rebuilt in 1258. In 1273 we learn that the vault of the north aisle became ruinous and that the parishioners restored it, a certain Henry Chadde bearing the chief expense. Master Michael made two large bells in 1277 and after his death, three more were made by his son. In 1282 the canons built a new body to the bakehouse and rebuilt the brewhouse wall. They placed a clock over the pulpiturn in 1283 and in 1289 completed two pinnacles on the front of the church, and the parishioners restored the north porch and re-vaulted it, half the expense being borne by John Durant, senior.

Impression and plan of the whole monastic complex

 

During the 13th and 14th centuries Dunstable was the scene of many Tournaments. Edward I attended those of 1279 and 1280 and Edward II in 1308. Edward III was here for the great tournaments of 1329 and 1341 with many of the nobility and as a result the hospitality of the canons was strained to breaking point.

 

 

The Canons of Dunstable

If the canons were not "of the world," they were certainly in it, and standing as the Priory did on one of the main roads to the capital, little of importance passed their notice. Although the Priory under de Morins gained importance and prosperity, his rule was not without troubles and disturbances, for although on the whole the canons lived amicably with the townsfolk, the unusual rights of the Prior were resented by the burgesses. He had the power to try offenders and to punish them. Assizes were held in the town and when the king's justices came, he sat with them as their equal. In 1228 there were riots over the payment of taxes. Outrages were committed and slanders levied at the canons, and the bishop came and solemnly excommunicated ten of the chief burgesses. They declared they would rather go to hell than pay the tax and they went so far as to ask the lord of Eaton Bray to give them forty acres of land where they might build another town and leave Dunstable for ever. They "simmered down" at length and peace was restored. De Morins died in 1242 and with his death the prosperity of the Priory came to an end.

 

 

The Life of the Priory

The canons of Dunstable were great sheep farmers. They possessed large flocks both in the neighbourhood and at Bradbourne in the Peak district where they owned the living and where three canons served the parish church and its four outlying chapels. Troubles befell in 1243 when large numbers of the Prior's sheep died in a severe winter. Then a succession of bad seasons and failure of crops led to great scarcity and the Priory began to get into debt. The poor canons tried every known means to solve the problem. They cut down their rations, reduced their staff, priors resigned or were deposed. But do what they would, they could never make both ends meet. This was not surprising, for situated as it was on the main road from London to the midlands, the Priory was a house of call for all comers--a sort of free hotel where all travellers could request hospitality and by the Rule might never be refused. When some royal visitor or magnificent noble with his suite passed and chanced to stop. it could but add disaster to the Priory's finances. To make matters worse, they were always having trouble with the buildings now.

 

Then just when the Priory was in direst poverty--in 1259--the Black Friars settled in the town. The canons were sorely upset. Resist them they did, but to no avail, since the friars came with the permission of the archbishop and the king. and they were forced to see these intruders obtaining the patronage of the mighty and the alms of their parishioners, who were attracted by the novelty of the Friars' preaching.    

 

 

Queen Eleanor Cross:

During the rule of William de Wederow (1280-1302), in the failing light of a December afternoon, in 1290, came Edward I following on foot the body of his beloved Queen to burial at Westminster. The canons came out in procession to meet the cortege at the Market Place and escorted the bier to the church where the body of the queen rested all night before the high altar, and next day after a solemn requiem, the cortege proceeded slowly towards St. Albans. On the spot near the cross roads where Eleanor's body had rested. was erected to her memory one of' those beautiful crosses, of which three still remain. The Dunstable cross, said to have been similar to that at Geddington, was destroyed by the soldiers of Fairfax during the Civil War.

 

That very extensive alterations were made to the monastic church is certain. Commencing at the east end with the rebuilding of the Lady Chapel in 1324, they continued for well over a hundred years, during which time it is probable that most of the Norman work of the quire, transepts and central tower was overlaid or replaced by "Decorated" Gothic. Of all this, nothing now remains except a pier of the second half of the 14th century attached to the east wall of the present church. When the rebuildings were completed, the canons' stalls, which formerly stood beneath the central tower, were removed into the eastern arm of the church and the old pulpiturn converted into a rood screen. The blocking of the central door may still be observed outside the present east end immediately behind the altar.

 

In 1283 the "Annales" inform us that the great Rood and the images of the saints were repaired and in 1324 the Lady Chapel was rebuilt, as that founded by Prior Richard in 1228 had become ruinous. During the plague of 1349 the parishioners made an offering of a bell called "Mary" and Prior Roger covered the belfry with lead. (This was probably a detached bell-tower in the churchyard). Here the documentary record comes suddenly to an end, and nothing is known of what was done to the buildings from this date until their destruction.

 

Until the close of the 14th century, the parishioners used the north aisle as their parish church, dedicated to St. John Baptist. As the town grew, they found the aisle too confined, and began to encroach on the nave. This caused interference with the monastic services and soon stirred up trouble, for the canons resented the intrusion. In 1392, however, the dispute was amicably settled and the parishioners obtained the whole of the nave, making themselves responsible for its repair. This they did as cheaply as possible. When the upper storey became ruinous, they removed it altogether and inserted windows in the triforium stage, converting that into a clerestory. They gave the nave a roof of a flat pitch similar to that now existing, and finally built a tower over the western bay of the north aisle to hold their bells. They erected in the central nave an altar dedicated to the Holy Trinity and in addition there was another altar dedicated to St. George.

 

Under Prior Thomas Marshall (1351-1414), the Priory Church seems to have undergone much rebuilding, doubtless through the munificence of wealthy benefactors. Prior Marshal I had his troubles however, as part of the great peasants' revolt of 1381, under Wat Tyler and John Ball. Dunstable burgesses, led by innkeeper Thomas Hobbes, had become very discontented and they took advantage of the insurrection to force a charter from the Prior. The chronicle tells how certain of them came to the priory a little before vespers and insolently accosted the Prior, demanding a charter of liberties in the king's name. The Prior, threatened by the mob, and fearing for his life, was advised to yield to their demands, but when the revolt had been crushed got the charter annulled as having been obtained by force. "He alone of the nobility in these parts," says the chronicler, "refused to revenge himself on his burgesses." Marshall was an upright and a good man and ruled the house well.

Impression of the church left by Prior Marshall

 

In 1442 certain merchants and burgesses of Dunstable founded a Fraternity dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The Fraternity maintained a Brotherhood House which contained chambers and beds for poor folk travelling through Dunstable and four other tenements under the same roof were reserved for the succour of four poor brethren of the Fraternity who were to pay no rent for them. They also maintained a priest to celebrate Mass at the altar of St. John in the Priory Church, with which services is associated the celebrated Dunstable Pall. 

 

 

Twelve Days that Shook the English World

(May 1533)

The last Prior of Dunstable was Gervase Markham. He was elected in 1525. Within ten years dark clouds threatened the monastic horizon. Men's thoughts and outlook were changing and a new spirit was abroad. The middle ages were passing and the end of the monasteries near.

 

It was just before the end, in 1533, that archbishop Cranmer came to Dunstable with the bishops of Winchester, London, Bath and Lincoln to judge his royal master's "grete and weightie cause" in the matter of the divorce of Queen Catherine of Aragon. It was the final act in the shameful proceedings, Dunstable being chosen as Catherine was then residing at Ampthill. The court was opened in the Lady Chapel of the Priory Church on the 10th of May, Prior Markham taking part in the proceedings. Catherine was cited but failed to appear. On May 23rd, 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage null and void, and the writing of divorcement was affixed to the church door.

 

 

Dissolution and Aftermath

(1536 – 1540)

 The Dissolution of the religious houses is a sad, sad tale, too long to dwell on here. The smaller monasteries were dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1536. Pressure was then brought to bear upon the larger houses and the process went on, until by the Spring of 1540, not one of the English monasteries remained. Dunstable Priory was never a wealthy house. There is no accusation of laxity or stain on its character. Its income was not great, the revenues being estimated at but £334 13s. 4d. clear yearly. The deed of surrender was signed on the 31st December, 1539, and the monastery dissolved in January 1540, the prior and the twelve canons all being granted pensions. Dispensations were granted them to serve as secular priests.

 

The great church and the buildings of the monastery were kept standing intact for some few years, since in the scheme for the creation of new bishoprics it was intended to create a see at Dunstable with the Priory Church as its cathedral. The impressive list of dignitaries prepared by Gardiner is on record and the bishop was actually named, but the scheme fell through and the beautiful church (with the exception of the parochial nave) shared the fate of the monastic buildings, being plundered of all that was valuable and left a ruin to become a quarry for the whole neighbourhood.

 

After the scheme for a bishopric had fallen through, a wall was built up from the rood screen and the nave and its aisles sealed off for the use of the parish. During Edward VIth's reign the reformers despoiled the church yet further, but some semblance of seemliness was restored to it in Mary's reign, as the remains of screenwork of that period testifies.

 

 

As for the Old Canons . . .

When they left their old home for ever, the canons would go to their relatives or friends until they could get appointments. Gervase Markham doubtless rode off to stay with his brother William at Husborne Crawley for a time, but he was living in Dunstable a few years later, his brother having removed to Hanbury in Staffordshire, where the sub-prior lived with him as his chaplain. Several of the canons were instituted to local livings as vacancies occurred, others obtained livings farther afield. Two of them broke their vows and married, and were deprived of their livings when the old order came back under Mary. One however, forsook his spouse and promptly got another living.

 

Prior Markham lived on through the changes of Edward VIth's reign, and the reversions of that of Mary, until the dawn of the reign of Elizabeth, dying at Dunstable in 1561. He accepted no appointment and lived quietly in the town on his considerable pension. He had a housekeeper, a manservant and a maidservant. At his death he still possessed his chalice, vestments and "ornaments and implements for a chapel" and in his will he leaves them to his cousin to keep in case "they may at any time hereafter be occupied in the church again." He was buried in the church on September 23rd, as the entry in the parish register records.  

 

The turmoil of events during this period produced mixed progress in the reform of daily church life. By Elizabeth's reign those wishing to be confirmed were required to know by heart (in English) the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments. To assist in this, painted boards were fixed to the east end wall. The puritan zeal of the Commonwealth period caused much upheaval in the forms of worship. Some semblance of order was restored with the restoration of the Monarchy. This eventually led to the pulpit-orientated layout of the Church. A high three-decker pulpit fixed to the pillar west of the present pulpit overlooked a mass of box pews and was on a level with those erected in galleries between the south aisle pillars. At this time the Eucharist was only celebrated at festivals; the importance of the altar was secondary to that of the pulpit.  

 

In the year 1600, John Willis, curate of Dunstable, began a vellum book and copied into it entries from an earlier book beginning from the year 1558. These early entries are in Latin. To preface the Register he wrote and illuminated three folios. The Register Title Page  contains some elaborate scroll work together with some curious emblems. The second folio has the arms of the town and priory amidst much scroll work and quaint creatures; whilst a third folio has verses in two columns below a large and elaborate letter 'B'. These verses, most likely his own composition. give the legend concerning the foundation of the town and priory by Henry I and the origin of its arms.

 

The earliest register contains baptisms, marriages and burials from 1558 until 1748. The entries in the first half of the 17th century often record the birth of the child and not its baptism as many of the parishioners at that time were infected with Anabaptist doctrines and refused to have their children baptised. 

 

 

The Hundred Years of Living Dangerously

Reformation and Extremism in South Bedfordshire

(1550 – 1650)

The religious upheavals of this time left their mark on parochial life, as is apparent when the churchwardens of Dunstable at the visitation of Cardinal Pole in 1556 complained that the town was populous, but neither rector nor perpetual curate was found there, and "he that was hired could not preach".

 

By the end of Elizabeth I's reign Puritanism had become extremely active in South Bedfordshire. All was not well at Dunstable. John Richardson, the rector, was "presented" in 1603 for puritanical practices and for refusing to wear the surplice, but afterwards conformed. Edward Alport, the next rector, encountered great opposition from the Puritan element and from the Anabaptists. They obstructed his ministry and tried by every means to oust him from the living. In 1616, this turbulent group conspired to bring the church, the rector and the sacrament of holy baptism into contempt. They carried out before witnesses a blasphemous representation of holy baptism by "baptising" a sheep at the font. They then placed it in the pulpit in ridicule of the preacher. They seem to have had it mostly their own way, for they set up opposition churchwardens and strange preachers appeared in the church. They planned to set up a Presbyterian organisation and prevented the vicar of Totternhoe and other licenced clergy from doing duty in the absence of the rector. Then they complained to the bishop of Lincoln that no services had been held in the church on those Sundays. They refused to pay the rector's tithes. They cut down his corn before it was ripe and spoiled his crops. When he complained, these miscreants "with stones so beat and battered him that he almost died". The perpetrators were summoned before the Privy Council and although the case was tried before the Court of Star Chamber, nothing was done to punish them. Edward Alport went in 1623.

 

Zachary Symms next appears. He was an extremist, and for his puritanical practices aroused the hostility of the bishop. He eventually concluded that religious freedom could only be found in New England. He resigned the living in 1634, and with the rector of Odell, set sail for Massachussets the following year and bade farewell to Dunstable for ever.

 

William Pedder, appointed rector in 1634, was of moderate churchmanship and a royalist. He found the parish in a divided state and encountered much opposition. He was turned out of the living in 1642 and in his place Parliament appointed a group of eighteen "lecturers," who preached in the church on Sundays and weekdays. However, this arrangement did not fulfil the expectations of the parishioners, many of whom wanted a minister of their own. Less than two years after this scheme was instituted, the town was raided by a party of Royalist soldiers from Leighton Buzzard, who on a Sunday in June, 1644, made an attack on the church during service time. The congregation had barricaded themselves in, and the soldiers forced the doors, shooting a "case of pistols" at the minister in the pulpit and wounding several of the congregation. The incident further embittered the factions.

 

Ten years afterwards, when feelings had calmed down, a group of parishioners petitioned Oliver Cromwell to give them a minister. So, in 1656, Cromwell's "Triers" selected them a minister and Isaac Bringhurst became rector. He, of course, had to promise not to use the Book of Common Prayer. It is uncertain whether or not he was episcopally ordained, but he was a good man and did his best to repair the damage done during the fourteen years the parish had been without a rector. There was no more complaining and no more unreasonable opposition, and church life progressed along more normal lines.

 

 

British Empire triumphant

Less certain the Priory's Progress

(1660 – 1860)

The old order of the Church of England returned with the Restoration in 1660, but in that year Isaac Bringhurst left Dunstable for Kensworth and Bishop Lyster was appointed rector. He was not in episcopal orders, "Bishop" being the name his godparents had bestowed upon him at the font.

 

Not much is known of the rectors of the later 17th and 18th centuries, save that in 1683 the churchwardens and certain parishioners petitioned that John Lord should be their next incumbent, on account of his pious life.

 

About 1720, Mrs. Jane Cart furnished the chancel with the usual type of Georgian reredos and above it a great painting of the Last Supper by Sir James Thornhill in the style of Veronese. It was originally intended for St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London. A forest of high box pews filled the nave, proprietory pews in galleries ran along its south side beneath the Norman arches, and a high three-decker pulpit was erected opposite them. The 15th century chancel screen was shifted to the west end to support an organ gallery. and the beautiful 13th century arcade over the west door was bricked up. In this state the church remained until the middle of last century.

 

The church had the misfortune of being restored at a time when little heed was given to anything of antiquity or symbolism. By 1845 it had become very ruinous and a drastic scheme of repair and rebuilding was planned.

 

 

During the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria the Oxford Movement restored the Eucharist to its place of importance. This coincided with a national period of affluence. As a consequence, throughout the country box pews and three decker pulpits were swept away to be replaced by pews facing a raised altar at the cast end of the church. The Priory Church, under the Rectorship of the Rev. Frederick Hose, was no exception. Fortunately the money proved insufficent to implement the plans to change the external appearance of the Church to a 'Gothic revival' style of building.

 

In the restorations commenced in 1852 by Mr. Somers Clarke, the pews and galleries went, but with them went all the antiquities, and what fragments had been left from pre-Reformation days. The great painting by Thornhill on the east wall was ripped open and ruined by exposure when the church was unroofed. The monuments were shifted hither and thither, so that few are in their original places; some were destroyed altogether and the best of the brasses were stolen. A canopied tomb of 15th century date with the figure of a prior in mass vestments recessed in the wall of the south aisle was broken up. A holy water stoup of Marian date with an angel above the bowl, which was affixed to the first pier of the north arcade, was hacked away and remains of screenwork and stalls burnt.

 

 

Into the Twentieth Century

Stability regained

Under a further restoration carried out by Mr. G. F. Bodley in 1890-91, the chancel screen was restored to its original position and a painted and gilded Rood relieved the great expanse of wall formerly occupied by Thornhill's canvas. This rood was given to the church of St. John the Baptist, Tue Brook, Liverpool, where it is now installed behind the altar. It was at this time that the niches behind the altar and the two doorways were discovered. Bodley also restored the west front in 1903.

 

The tower and the south-west buttress were repaired in 1930 under the direction of Sir Albert Richardson.

 

Through the munificence of a family once resident in Dunstable the east end was in 1962 further restored and embellished after designs by Mr. Felix J. Lander, carried out after his death by Mr. Sean Lander. The upper part of the wall was rebuilt and pierced with two traceried windows, a new niche with tall spired canopy inserted to replace a central feature destroyed in the 16th century, and painted and gilded statuary placed in all three niches. This same family subsequently gave four more sets of windows - the west end (1972), the Lady Chapel (1984), the south aisle (1989) and the north aisle (1989). These windows were all to the designs of Mr. John Hayward.

 

 

Post War growth and change

As a result of the post-World War II expansion of Dunstable, in 1959 St. Augustine's Church was established to provide for the south of the town. Similarly, nine years later St. Fremund's Church was built on the Beecroft Estate in north Dunstable.  Ten years after that (1978) the Team Ministry was established to consolidate the three Anglican churches together.

 

In 1997 a Local Ecumenical Partnership was established linking the Anglican Team Ministry with St. Katherine's United Reformed Church in north-east Dunstable.  The Team Ministry also has wider ecumenical links through the Dunstable Churches Together partnership.

 

Throughout the Church's history changes in the liturgy have had a major impact:  and none more so than those at the present time. Continuing from the trend of last century, today the Eucharist has become the main service, there is a much greater involvement of the laity and a more tolerant attitude towards young children being present at the services. These changes are all designed to help the congregation continue the praise and prayer started in Dunstable by the Augustinian canons eight and a half centuries ago.

 

 

*  *  *  *  *  *

 

Web Editor's note

I must first express deep gratitude to Mr F A Fowler for his well researched and interestingly presented booklets on the Dunstable Priory.  They have obviously been a major source of material for the Priory historical and architectural sections of this website.  I am indebted to his son, David Fowler, for very kindly granting permission to use his father's material.

All the drawings in the historical and architectural sections are by F A Fowler from his booklets, except for the 'Plan of original Dunstable' and 'Great Hall of the Priory' which are by Worthington G. Smith from his book: Dunstable Its History & Surroundings.