WARTNABY

CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL

Church Post Code LE14 3HU

Open to Visitors

There are five Vale of Belvoir Angel stones in the church grounds here. One is uprooted and is leaning against a perimeter wall. The other four are still standing. The stones here, particularly the four that are still standing in situ are not in great condition compared to many others.

I will start with the stone that has been uprooted. This leans against a wall to the north side of the church. This one is in the best condition of the five by some way.

This stone reads 'Here lies the body (carved in relief) of Henry the son of Matthew House by Anne his wife he died March ye 6yh 1720 in ye 16th year of his age'

Sadly, as was often the case here this gravestone was for someone who had died young. Death was an ever present part of life for the people who lived at that time; with the inscription further down the stone reflecting this...

'Reader stand still and lend a tear upon the dust that sleepeth here. Death does not always warning give, therefore be carefull how you live Repent in time no time delay I in my youth was call'd away'.

Carved across the top of the grave is 'Be Ye Also Ready', again a call to those looking on to acknowledge that they would follow the deceased; and to live their life accordingly. Live a good Godly life as any day could be your last.

Leaning over at an angle is a gravestone to a married couple who each lived to, by the standards of the day, a fairly long life.

There is no inscription at the foot of this stone, just the basic details of the couple. It reads as follows...

Here lies the body of John Stokes and Eliz his wife he died July ye 27th 1723 aged 63 years she died October ye 26th 1732 aged 75 years

There is heart symbolism at the top of this stone but this is a fairly basic stone compared to some.

The gravestone to Sarah Stokes is another that tells a sad story. The angel here peers out through a covering of white lichen.

'Here lies the body of Sarah the wife of William Stokes she died August ye 5th 1737 aged 41 Also 3 children William Oswin and Thomas'

All through the research for this site sad stories such as this occur time and time again. Hard, short lives with the prospect of death never far away! There are no ages shown for the three children; possibly this indicates that all three were very young.

It was certainly possible for people at that time to live to a very old age; a gravestone to Elizabeth Dexter close by records that she died in 1719 at the age of 93 years, but for the most part people died young.

This gravestones concludes by stating 'She that lies here was in her life a tender mother and a loving wife A quiet neighbour to the poor a friend happy is she that such a life doth end'.

The gravestone to one John Stokes is another that is a fairly basic affair compared to some. The angel, with delightful pointed chin and who looks to be asleep has less detail in the wings than many of those seen. This is a late example, dated 1757; just two years before the last stone recorded; Could we see here the quality that this firm of masons was renowned for dipping as the business reached the end of its time?

Again, there is a slight problem with while lichen here and the stone is discolouerd in places making it hard to read.

This stone reads 'Here lyeth the body of John Stokes he died April the 10th 1757 aged 28 years'

The stone here has sunk further in to the ground and inscription has been lost, what can be read though is 'A sore disease my body seized that pierced me to my heart'

The fifth and final stone here is another late one; this being 1756 and again the quality doesn't seem to be as high as in the past!

It reads 'Here lyeth the body of Mr William Stokes he died August ye 16th 1756 in the 71st year of his age'

There is an inscription below but this is unreadable due to while lichen covering the script.

Of the five Bale Of Belvoir Angel gravestones here that survive, four of these were made for the members of the Stokes family over the course of nearly 40 years.

It is my belief that a person had to have some means to be able to afford one of these stones. Even if the quality had dipped in later years this was still a quality item which I am sure that few would have been able to afford.

It was fascinating then to find a will on line for William, along with an inventory of goods from 1756. Yes, these were people of means!

SOME NOTES FROM MY VISIT

It was June 2017; part way through a five day stay at a bed and breakfast in Long Clawson, a five day trip to the area on a churchcrawl that was blighted by the weather with the sun making an appearance just once in that time.

The visit to the church of St Michael at Wartnaby turned out to be probably the wettest day that I had ever been out with the camera. It was dry when getting off the bus at neighbouring Ab Kettleby and setting off on the 20 minute walk west to Wartnaby; casting an anxious eye as to where the weather was coming from. Amazingly it was still dry when arriving back at Kettleby an hour later! We were on a severe weather warning for rain and half an hour after getting back from Wartnaby the heavens opened. An ideal chance to have lunch at the Sugar Loaf in Kettleby; the Steak and Ale pie from memory, with the main road through the village flooded, traffic edging through carefully with their lights on when I emerged an hour later; my camera retired for the day.

Wartnaby can be found to the west of the A606 which connects Melton Mowbray to the outskirts of Nottingham. Melton is some five miles away to the south east; with Nottingham 17 miles away to the north west. The village here is just a church, a scattering of houses and a farm with the parish sitting on the Salt Way, a Roman road which connected Barrow on Soar and Grantham.

There is a great deal of history here with Wartnaby having Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller connections. During the 13th century Wartnaby was part of the Soke of Rothley, a group of manors which was centred around Rothley Temple; a Templar preceptory or local headquarters. There is no evidence of a Templar building having been here but the church of St Michael would have been under Templar administration and influence.

After the Templars were disbanded in 1312 their lands were passed to the Knights Hospitallers with those lands then being seized by the state in 1540 at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The village was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, in lands owned by King William. However, the figures for several places in the Soke of Rothley were all combined; a priest was mentioned but there was nothing specifically mentioned at Wartnaby.

Approaching the church from the south we see a picture that has remained unchanged for a few centuries. The church dates back to the 13th century and a barn alongside the church, a little off to the north east dates back to the early 18th century and is Grade II Listed.

The church that we see today consists of west tower, nave with south aisle and clerestory, south porch and chancel made from Ironstone with limestone dressings; and was thoroughly restored by W Gillett in 1867-68 at which point the chancel was rebuilt, along with the south porch and the roofs were restored.

The tower is unusual, with bellcote on top with saddleback roof. Two bells hang here with the first cast by Nottingham founder William Noone in 1731, the final year of what for him was a 53 year career as an active founder. This has the inscription ‘God Save His Chvrch’ along with the initials of the church wardens of the day. The second bell was cast by Taylor of Loughborough in 1857.

The exterior is quite plain to be fair, with no gargoyles or grotesques. The ironstone would have looked beautiful with the sun shining on it; less so in the dull light against a grey sky. There are pointed lancets in the nave, the clerestory is in the form of three two light square windows, the chancel is quite shallow, with steeply pitched tile roof. A bench sits to the south of the nave; appetising to sit awhile on another day, but not today with the storm clouds gathering. The visitor enters through the south porch; the church was open and we were good to go!

Moving inside, it was surprisingly light inside; the clerestory windows working hard on this dull day. The hand of the Victorian restorers is evident throughout. The nave is slender and sadly the plaster has been scraped from the nave walls. I say sadly as there are the remains of wall paintings under the arches of the south arcade. That being the case it is probably logical to assume that there would have been wall paintings on the plastered walls of the nave; all of which would have been lost when the plaster was removed.

The south arcade is of three bays with circular piers and moulded capitals. The arches are decorated with floral and chevron designs; a taste of what might have been seen here throughout the nave at one point. The church Bible was open at Genesis Chapter 4. Adam and Eve has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge and were about to be expelled from the Garden of Eden.

A wall monument to Ann the wife of Robert Wartnaby notes that she died in 1728 aged 60 years. An angel in flight at the top of the monument symbolises the safe escorting of the soul to Heaven. Robert passed away in 1737 with his chest tomb in the church grounds having its own Grade II Listing.

Moving in to the chancel; this was rebuilt in the Victorian restoration with this taking away much of the history with nothing remaining of the sedilia, piscina and aumbry which would have stood here.

The east window is of three single lancet windows, made by Heaton Butler and Bayne in 1878, with the central lancet elevated. This central light depicts the crucifixion; a fairly traditional portrayal but with one exception. At the foot of the cross we see a serpent representing evil in the form of the devil, hammered in to the ground with one of the crucifixion nails.

Mary the Mother of Jesus and John are alongside the cross. Mary wears her traditional blue and John holds a chalice, out of which comes evil in the form of a hissing serpent. This is not Biblical but comes from Christian tradition which states that John was given poisoned wine whilst at Ephesus. He prayed over the wine and the poison came out in the form of a serpent.

The church grounds here are of interest and I revisited back in the late summer of 2020 to photograph the Belvoir Angel gravestones; but there is more to see than simply those. The grounds are filled with richly carved slate gravestone; which tell repeatedly tales of short hard lives; with the people trusting in God through their hardships.

Life expectancy was around 40 years during the 18th century; this in part due to a high infant mortality rate. It was still possible to live a long life and this is evidenced by a stone to Elizabeth Dexter who passed away in 1719 aged 93 years. Her epitaph reads ‘Think reader as ye passest by/As thou art now so once was I/And as I am so you must be/Therefore prepare to follow me/ Dear friends for me lament no more/I am not lost but gone before.

For the most part though we will see people who passed away at a young age; and it is worth considering that the people who had gravestones at that time were the more well off; with things being far worse for those living closer to the poverty line.

Reading the epitaphs show some very sad stories. Turning to the Dexter family again we see a very sad stone to Ann Dexter who died aged 30 years on October 28th 1720. Below is the name of John who died a few days after his mother, On November 3rd 1720.

Very sadly, deaths in childbirth were common and these are sometimes marked on gravestones with the wording ‘Hard Pangs Of Labour’. Occasionally this inscription is carried on with the words ‘…gave Benoni birth’. This is a Biblical inscription referring to Genesis Chapter 35 verse 18 in which Jacob’s wife Rachel names her newly born son Benoni with her dying breath. This is used where the baby survives but the mother sadly does not,

Death is no respecter of age, with an inscription of the reverse of one gravestone reading ‘Death crops the flower the blossom and the bud/Happi are they whose life in youth and age are good’.

There is an interesting piece of script on a gravestone to John Dexter who died in 1726 aged 21 weeks. It describes John as ‘Lying upon the right hand’. I have never heard this term before and an internet search didn’t really turn anything up. I am assuming that this means that the deceased had a special place alongside Jesus following his death. The right hand side was seen as the place of honour in the Jewish tradition and I am assuming that this refers to this.

The church here was open on each of my two visits; the church here is small in stature perhaps but there is plenty of historic interest here for those who care to visit. For those in the area, we are deep in Belvoir Angel territory here with Nether Broughton, Upper Broughton and Hickling, which have by some way the highest concentration of Belvoir Angel gravestones, forming a triangle a few miles away to the north.