TINWELL
Tidenwelle (xi cent.), Tineguella (xii cent.);
Tynewell (xiii cent.); Tinewell (xiv cent.);
Tynwell (xvi cent.).
The parish of Tinwell lies on the eastern border of
the county and comprises 1,711 acres, mainly of arable
land, growing the usual cereal and root crops. It is
an irregularly shaped strip of land covering the hill
rising to 270 ft. above Ordnance datum, between the
River Gwash on the north and the Welland on the
south.
The village is in the south part of the parish on
both sides of the road from Uppingham to Stamford,
on the southern slope of the hill overlooking the
valley of the Welland. The cottages are mostly
modern, and one opposite the church is dated 1850.
Ackarius, Abbot of Peterborough (1200–1210), built
a hall at Tinwell (fn. 1) and in 1321 we find there were
there a capital messuage, dovecot and water-mill; (fn. 2)
probably it was this capital messuage which, under the
name of the Manor Place, was being repaired by Richard
Cecil in 1546. (fn. 3) The present Manor House, said to
have been a dower house of the Cecil family, stands
between the church and the river Welland. It is a
picturesque gabled stone building of two stories and
attics, with mullioned and transomed windows and
stone-slated roofs, apparently of the late 16th or first
half of the 17th century. The building is of simple
design, without any elaboration of detail, but the
combination of gabled dormer windows and tall
projecting chimneys imparts distinction to its long
north front.
The hamlet of Ingthorpe, near to Great Casterton,
about two miles to the north on the banks of the River
Gwash, consists of a farm and some cottages.
About 1835 a cavern was discovered, while ploughing in a field adjoining the road from Tinwell to
Casterton, on the land of Mr. Edward Pawlett. It
was 30 yds. to 40 yds. in length and about 8 ft. in
width. The sides were of stone with a flat ceiling
supported in the middle by a stone pillar. At one
end were two doorways bricked up. (fn. 4)
A complaint was made in the consistory court that
on 1 May 1606 four men came into the church after
'dancing the Morris' all the morning, during the time
of divine service, shouting and 'blowing in their
dancing' with their napkins, ribbons, scarves, etc.
One said he put his cloak over his apparel before
coming to church and attended evening prayer at
Ketton though not at Tinwell. Richard Ward was
the fool of the said Morris and came to church with
his fool's cap under his arm and in his fool's coat.
Robert Bower was lord of the said Morris and came
to church 'in his lowly apparel.' Apparently the
dancers were admonished. (fn. 5)
Manor
By a spurious charter of Wulfhere of
Mercia dated 664, confirmed by later
charters, TINWELL was granted with
Ingthorpe and the church, chapel and mills to the
monastery of Medehamstede (Peterborough). (fn. 6) A
more probable story, however, is told by Hugh
Candidus, the chronicler of Peterborough, that Tinwell was given from his own patrimony to the monastery by Kensige (d. 1060), a monk of the monastery,
who afterwards became Archbishop of York. (fn. 7) The
manor was held in demesne by Peterborough according
to the Domesday Survey (1086) (fn. 8) and was retained in
the hands of the abbey until the Dissolution in 1539.
In 1289 Robert, son of Philip le Freman of Tinwell,
did homage to the abbot for three bovates of land in
Tinwell, (fn. 9) but his holding was apparently only a large
freehold and not a separate manor.
Peterborough Abbey. Gules two keys crossed saltirewise between four crosses formy fitchy or.
Cecil. Barry of ten argent and azure six scutcheons sable each charged with a lion argent.
In 1535 David Cecil (Cycell) was bailiff of Tinwell
under the Abbot of Peterborough, (fn. 10) and he was
succeeded before 1546 by Richard Cecil, who rendered
an account of repairs to the Manor Place and 'Caves
Mill' at Tinwell. (fn. 11) In 1547, in fulfilment of the will
of Henry VIII, Richard Cecil received a grant of the
lordship and manor of Tinwell and the advowson of
the rectory lately belonging to Peterborough Abbey,
with lands, liberties, etc., in Tinwell and Ingthorpe
alias Inglethorpe, subject to a rent of £3 5s. 7d.,
except 13s. 4d. allowed to him for his fee as bailiff. (fn. 12)
This grant was confirmed to Sir William Cecil in 1553
as son and heir of Richard Cecil. (fn. 13) From this date the
manor followed the descent of Barrowden (q.v.). (fn. 14)
In 1235–6 there is a reference to half a fee in Tinwell of the Honour of Huntingdon held by Simon the
Less, (fn. 15) but there appears to be no further mention of
it. Tenements and lands were held in Tinwell and
Ingthorpe in the reign of Henry VII by Hugh Asheton
and his heirs, (fn. 16) by the Lane family in the reigns of
Elizabeth and Charles I, (fn. 17) and the Browne family in
the reign of James I, (fn. 18) in Ingthorpe by the Wingfield
family from the reign of Charles II, and at the begin
ning of the 19th century they held three acres of land
there. (fn. 19)
Church
The church of ALL SAINTS consists
of chancel 27 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 8 in., nave
of three bays 36 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. 8 in.,
south aisle 7 ft. 6 in. wide, north porch and west
tower 9 ft. 6 in. square, all these measurements being
internal. There is also a modern vestry built in front
of the south doorway. The arcade of a former north
aisle, the area of which is now included in the nave,
has long been removed and the north wall rebuilt and
heightened for a clearstory. A sacristy on the north
side of the chancel, at its east end, has also long
disappeared. The church was restored in 1849, when
the foundations of the pillars of the north arcade were
discovered. The tower has a saddle-back roof.
The building is of coursed roughly dressed stone
and is plastered internally. The roofs are leaded
and of low pitch, that of the nave being behind
straight parapets; the other roofs are eaved. The
porch and vestry are covered with stone slates.
The nave arcade, south aisle, chancel arch and the
west window of the former north aisle are of the first
half of the 13th century and probably represent a
rebuilding at that period of a 12th-century aisleless
church no portion of which now remains except
possibly at the west end of the nave. The chancel
was rebuilt on its present plan in the 15th century,
the clearstory erected and the porch added. In all
probability the removal of the north arcade took place
at this time, the north wall of the north aisle being
then rebuilt in its present form and a roof of wide
span erected over the widened nave. The tower is
probably not older than the 13th-century rebuilding
of the church, though it may have been built on the
foundations of a former tower. Its moulded plinth,
however, rules out the early date sometimes assigned
to it, (fn. 20) and there is an absence of any distinctly
Norman features. The upper stages were rebuilt or
added in the late 14th or early 15th century; the
bell-chamber windows are of this period, and there is
no reason for assigning an earlier date to the saddleback roof.
When the chancel was rebuilt in the 15th century
its new south wall appears to have been built outside
the old one, the width of the chancel being thus
increased about 3 ft., and the axis thrown out of
line with that of the nave and of the centre of the
chancel arch. Except the arch no structural portion
of the 13th-century chancel remains. (fn. 21) Externally,
the chancel is divided into two bays by buttresses and
has a modern traceried east window of three cinquefoiled lights and coped gable with large apex cross.
The lateral windows, one in each bay, are also of three
cinquefoiled lights, that in the eastern bay on the
north side, formerly covered by the sacristy, being
modern; the hood-moulds have grotesque head-stops.
The sacristy doorway has a chamfered four-centred
head, but being now external the wall has been
thickened on the outside. The sill of the south-east
window is lowered to form a sedile, but there is no
piscina or aumbry visible: the south-west window is
recessed to the ground. The chancel arch is of two
chamfered orders on the east side, but towards
the nave the outer order is moulded. The arch
springs from half-round responds with beautiful
foliated capitals and water-holding bases on halfoctagonal plinths; there is a hood-mould on the nave
side only.
The nave arcade consists of three pointed arches of
two chamfered orders on cylindrical pillars and halfround responds, all with plain moulded capitals and
circular moulded bases; the arches are without
hood-moulds. At the east end of the aisle is a wide,
round-headed recess in the plastered
wall, apparently for the reredos of
the aisle altar, but no piscina remains; a plain squint from the aisle
is directed on to the high altar.
The 13th-century south doorway,
now within the vestry, has a pointed
arch of a single order rounded on
the edge, on imposts and with keelshaped hood-mould. The original
south-east window of the aisle has
three graded lancet lights, with
hood-mould following the heads of
the opening, and segmental reararch. The heads of the outer lights
are enriched with dog-tooth and
the hood-mould has notch-stops.
In a similar window at the west end
of the former north aisle the enrichment is continued over the middle
light, but the corresponding window in the south aisle
is wholly restored. The remaining window in the south
aisle, east of the doorway, is a 15th-century insertion
of three trefoiled lights and depressed four-centred
head. At its south-east angle the aisle retains an
original flat-buttress, and at the south-west there is a
small angle-shaft with moulded capital.
The north wall appears to have been rebuilt from
the foundation in the 15th century, and has a moulded
plinth and three tall two-stage buttresses which divide
it externally into two wide bays: the buttresses have
cusped triangular heads and extend the full height of
the wall, the upper part of which is pierced by the
clearstory windows. The pointed north doorway
has a continuous moulding, ornamented in the hollow
with male and female heads, square-leaf flowers, roses,
and a fleur-de-lys; above the doorway is a trefoiled
niche. The porch is of slightly later date, with wide
four-centred arch of two continuous chamfered
orders, short buttresses and modern wooden gates.
There is a descent of four steps from the churchyard
to the porch. In the north wall, east of the porch, is a
traceried three-light window, and there is another, of
different design, at the east end of the old north aisle.
The pointed clearstory windows, two on each side, are
of two cinquefoiled lights. The wide east gable of the
nave has a plain moulded coping and large apex cross.
A spout-head on the north wall is inscribed 'i.d.
1781.' The roofs of the chancel and nave are modern,
but that of the nave, which is of three bays, rests on
the corbels of an older roof, supported by carved
heads. The lean-to roof of the aisle is old.
Plan of Tinwell Church
The tower is of three well-marked stages and is
without buttresses. It sets back slightly at the first
stage, the later upper stages being divided by a string.
There is a vice in the north-west angle. The roundheaded west doorway is modern. Over it is a tall,
square-topped loop and there is another in the south
wall; (fn. 22) the internal splay of each loop is carried round
the head in semicircular form. There are also
smaller loops to the vice. There is no tower arch
visible, access from the nave being by a small pointed
doorway in the plastered wall. The pointed bellchamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with
quatrefoils varying in shape in the heads, and the
coped gables of roof have a string along the bottom
and terminate on the east side with a cross, and on the
west with a weather-vane. The roof is covered with
stone slates. The middle stage of the tower is blank.
The font dates from 1894, (fn. 23) and the pulpit and
seating also are modern. Above the chancel arch,
within a circle, are the Royal Arms of one of the
Hanoverian Georges.
On the south wall of the chancel is a good Renaissance monument, with Ionic pilasters and cornice, to
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Cecil and sister of the
first Lord Burghley, who died in 1611. (fn. 24) She was
married first to Richard Wingfield and after his death
to Hugh Allington; her arms, with the name 'Elizabeth' above, are flanked by those of her two husbands
and their initials. In the chancel also are memorials
of Rayner Herman, (fn. 25) rector (d. 1668); Richard
Knowles (d. 1754), and his son, Richard Arthur
Knowles (d. 1796), rectors; Thomas Foster, rector
(d. 1825), and Lieut. Henry Leicester Arnold (d.
Lucknow, 1857). There are 18th and early 19thcentury tablets in the nave, and in the aisle a memorial
to twelve men of Tinwell and Ingthorpe who fell in
the war of 1914–1919.
There are four bells, the first by Thomas Norris
of Stamford 1654, the third by the same founder 1639,
and the second and tenor by Taylor and Co. of
Loughborough 1883. (fn. 26)
The plate consists of a silver cup and paten of
1809–10, a plated paten, and a plated flagon presented
in 1869. There are also two pewter plates. (fn. 27)
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all
entries 1561–1644; (ii) baptisms 1652–98, marriages
1652–97, burials 1652–88; (iii) baptisms 1698–1755,
marriages 1698–1752, burials 1689–1755; (iv) baptisms and burials 1755–1801; (v) baptisms and burials
1801–12; (vi) marriages 1754–1812. (fn. 28)
There are three stone coffin lids (fn. 29) in the churchyard,
north of the chancel.
Advowson
The church of Tinwell is mentioned
as belonging to the monastery of
Peterborough in the spurious charter
of Wulfhere (664), already referred to, which was
confirmed by Henry III and Edward II. It is also
mentioned in the Privileges of Pope Eugenius (1145–
53) (fn. 30) and from architectural evidence the church here
referred to may have been the first on the site. The
advowson from the earliest time has belonged to the
monastery of Peterborough, and the abbot presented
from 1221 to the Dissolution in 1539. (fn. 31) King
Henry VIII presented in 1545, but from 1547, when
the advowson was granted to Richard Cecil, the
Cecils, Lords Burghley and Earls and Marquesses
of Exeter, have held the patronage down to the
present day. (fn. 32)
John Westhus, the rector in 1570, was accused of
being a known papist and was ordered by the Bishop
to explain his views on St. Matthew iii, 13, and
Hebrews xiii, 4, on honourable marriage. The
rector, however, sent excuses that he could not attend
on account of sickness. He was ordered to produce
a medical certificate, but he died shortly afterwards.
A successor, Edward Wilkinson, in 1588–92 went to
the other extreme and brought into the church unauthorised preachers, omitted to read the Epistle and
Gospel, did not use the sign of the cross in baptism
and did not wear a surplice. (fn. 33) Samuel Fuller (1635–
1700), Dean of Lincoln, was rector here 1668–9. (fn. 34)
In the spurious charter by Wulfhere and its confirmations reference is made to a church and chapel at
Tinwell. The chapel has been assigned to Ingthorpe,
but there is no other evidence of a chapel at Ingthorpe
or elsewhere in the parish.
Charities
John Blake, who died before the year
1847, by his will bequeathed a sum
of £100 to the rector and churchwardens upon trust to apply the income annually on
Good Friday for the benefit of the most deserving
and distressed poor persons. The endowment consists of a sum of £111 15s. 9d. 2½ per cent. Consols
producing in dividends £2 15s. 8d. per annum, which
sum is distributed among about eight recipients.
Mrs. Sarah Burdett, by her will proved at Leicester
on May 12, 1879, bequeathed a sum of stock to the
rector and churchwardens upon trust to apply the
income in the purchase of coal to be distributed on
or immediately before December 24 in each year
among the poor inhabitants. The endowment consists of a sum of £333 6s. 8d. 2½ per cent. Consols
producing in dividends £8 6s. 8d. per annum, which is
distributed among about 30 recipients.
The several sums of stock are with the Official
Trustees.