TILBROOK
Tilbrook was formerly in Bedfordshire, but was
transferred to Huntingdonshire in 1888, under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1888. Historically it belongs to Bedfordshire, and is described in the
Victoria County History for that county. (fn. 1)
The church remained in the Archdeaconry of
Bedford until 1914, when it was transferred to the
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon. In 1930, the base of
the original western respond of the nave arcade was
found in situ in the angle between the aisle and the
tower, showing that the present half-arch at the west
end was once complete.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, is part of a chancel screen, c. 1380–1400,
from this church. It consists of one bay and two
half-bays, with two-centred arches, cusped and subcusped, under a square head and with traceried
spandrels. Above the top beam are two bays of the
loft-front, each of three traceried panels with a band
of quatrefoils below. It is apparently the western
part of the chancel screen before the present 16thcentury chancel arch was built, (fn. 2) and seems to have
been acquired by the Museum in 1910. In addition
to the plate mentioned in 1912, there are now: a
silver chalice, hall-marked for 1917–8; a silver paten,
hall-marked for 1915–6; a silver ciborium, hallmarked for 1923–4; and a silver viaticum pyx,
hall-marked for 1926–7.
The advowson was purchased from Lord St. John,
in 1921, by Miss Ida Fitz-Gerald Dalton, who, in
1923, gave it to the Society for the Maintenance of
the Faith, the present patrons.
Footnotes
| 1 |
V.C.H. Beds, iii, 171–5. |
| 2 |
An illustration of this piece of screen
is in the S.K.M. Catalogue, no. 154 W,
English Furniture and Woodwork, vol. i,
pl. 10. It is there described as 'the
front of the original screen, utilized as the
back parapet when the later screen was
erected.' There does not, however,
seem to be any evidence that it was so
utilized. |