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Higham Ferrers Church & Archbishop Chichele

The Church is dedicated to St Mary, and was built between 1250 and 1280, with a fine crocketed steeple rising to 170 feet, a pierced parapet, flying buttresses and deeping mouldings.
The church and school
The Church and Grammar School

Photo by C Willmott

The spire and part of the tower collapsed in 1632, and the reconstruction included a recessed double west door that is surrounded by scrolls, leaves, flowers and scenes from the life of Christ.

Henry Chichele
Archbishop
Henry Chichele
The south side of the church is 13th century, and the north side dates from the 14th century. There is much fine carved woodwork within the various chapels, including some of the screens and twenty miserere seats in the chancel that were given by Archbishop Chichele. Inside there is a double nave, and a canopied altar tomb dating from 1337, the Lady Chapel has several brasses, including two commemorating Thomas & Agnes, parents of Chichele. Another brass, with Latin inscription, is to Richard Wylleys, a 16C warden of the Archbishop's college, and one of the east windows commemorates the Archbishop.
Archbishop Henry Chichele was born in the parish in 1363, third son of Thomas, a draper by trade, and Agnes his wife. Thomas was mayor of the borough several times. Henry was sent to Winchester School, and then went on to New College, Oxford. He entered the church and soon rose to prominence. In 1413 he was elevated to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury, and held that post for thirty years.
Henry founded a college at Higham in 1422, (dissolved by Henry VIII), the ruins of which survive, and now preserved as an Ancient Monument.
The College
The College founded by Henry Chichele in 1422
Henry's birth place
The house where Henry was born - taken in the 1960s
The Church of today was built after the granting of a Charter and Borough Status in 1251. The West Front has a recessed porch, with a rare surviving 13th century sculpture. Old Testament figures are carved around the twin doorways. Roundels in the arch have scenes depicting scenes of Christ’s life. The Church has a wide nave with three rows of arches making it a complete square. The earliest is the southern arcade, (Early English period), and about a hundred years later it was widened with an extension to the north and two arcades in the Decorated style. At that time, the roof level was also altered and the clerestory and present roof were added with window traces of the contemporary Decorated style.

The High Altar retains original 14th century tiles on the steps. The Altar, outside the period of Lent, and some other Church festivals, is covered with a leather frontal, a commemoration to local firms trading in the town. The design has symbols of tanning processes of leather, the patron saints of leather-workers - SS. Crispin and Crispinian, and some tools of the leather trade, the four Evangelists, with crown and monogram of the Blessed Virgin.

The Font is from the 13th century, and the Screens and Stalls are 15th century. The Choir has a set of twenty stalls with carved misericord seats.

The Brasses: One of Laurence Seymour on the tomb under a richly decorated arch separating the High Altar from that of the Lady Chapel. A Seymour brass of 1337 is of the last Rector of the parish. The great tithe was later taken away for the foundation of a College at Leicester; this made succeeding parish priests Vicars. It is considered as the finest ecclesiastical brass of its kind. Through the small arch connecting the Lady Chapel with the Chancel there are two brasses (one under the carpet) to commemorate the Chichele family (the Archbishop's parents, Thomas and Agnes), dating 1400, and William (his brother) and Beatrice, his wife, dated 1425. There are nine brasses, including Richard Willeys (a Warden of Chichele's College) and Henry Denton (in the south aisle chapel) a member of the College (died in February 1498) and had been in charge at Chelveston.

Part of the tower and spire fell in 1630 (reconstructed immediately with the same stones). Another restoration was made in the 1850s and the south aisle was rebuilt, with the roof timbers retained. The Rood and its loft were added in 1920.

Generous benefactors have enriched the furnishings: the Comper Hood of 1920, the organ loft by Temple Moore, several stained glass windows, mostly by Kempe Studios, Altar ornaments from the Frank Knight workshops at Wellingborough, and the re-decoration of the fine roof bosses was undertaken in memory of John White, a local shoe manufacturer and benefactor.

The Inner West Porch doors in glass portraying the Annunciation, together with the bell-ringing chamber and balcony were given by the late John White in memory of his wife. The peal of eight bells provide excellent facilities for visiting campanologists from all parts of the country.


Extract typed from J E Smith's notebooks
‘All Souls' College, Oxford, founded by Chicheley, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1437. He expended upon its erection £4,545 and procured considerable revenue for it out of the lands of the alien Priories dissolved just before that.
History of England part 14 p. 51 (mine)

The Bede House
The Bede House & 14th century Cross

The Bede House was founded in 1423 by Archbishop Chichele and is built in alternating layers of limestone and ironstone, and retains its original fine timber roof frame and large open fireplace. It was built to house twelve poor men of the parish aged over 50, and one woman to care for them. Each Bedesman was given a penny a day and had a locker, and a cubicle divided off by a screen. One was chosen as 'Prior', and they worked in the gardens.

In 1956 the building was renovated, and today serves as a church hall, being used by several church groups, and is also let for other private functions, or for fundraising events, and exhibitions. A further refurbishment was carried out in 2007/8.

The Grammar School
The Grammar School

Archbishop Chichele also founded this beautiful little chantry Chapel, with crocketed pinnacles, sometime after the Bedehouse. The chapel became the Grammar School after the dissolution, and continued for over three centuries. At the west end there is a statue of Archbishop Chichele.

In 1899 Alfred George Collins Vann became Head Master of Chichele Grammar School . He came from a working class background, studied hard and frequently attended courses at Oxford University, gaining his MA degree in 1898, and was previously the School Master at South End Elementary School in Rushden and his wife, Hannah Elizabeth Simpson Vann was a certificated teacher at the same school. Their son Bernard William Vann was awarded the Victoria Cross in WWI.

Rushden Argus, 8th May 1914, transcribed by Kay Collins

CHICHELE WINDOWThe Rev. H. K. Fry, R.D. is placing on foot, a scheme to adorn the Lady Chapel of the Church with a handsome stained glass window, in celebration of the quincentenary of the departure of Henry Chichele in 1414 to Canterbury.

Ruins of the Chichele College
Ruins of the Chichele College

An early sketch
An early sketch of the College

weathervane
weather vane - undated
sun dial
Sun Dial at St Mary's Church, Higham Ferrers

Archbishop Chichele's tomb
Archbishop Henry Chichele's tomb

medal
Medal struck in 1938 to commemorate 500th
Anniversary of the founding of All Souls College,
Oxford, by Archbishop Chichele
The altar frontal

Leather Frontal on High Altar at St Mary The Virgin
The leather for the frontal was produced in local tanneries and presented by John White Footwear Ltd to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the business. The cutting was done by Peter Keep and the stitching by Mrs. Munns both of whom were employees of the company.

The design includes the figures of Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian, patron saints of shoemakesr, hides, knives and shoes, oak leaves and water to indicate the process of tanning, together with symbols of the four evangelists and the crown and monogram of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The frontal was blessed by the Right Reverend Cyril Eastaugh, Bishop of Peterborough, on June 10th, 1970. There is a brass plaque to commemorate this on the South wall of the chancel, just to the right of the priest's door.

Photograph courtesy of Rushden Museum


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