View allAll Photos Tagged St Ralph Sherwin
Saint Ralph Sherwin was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire (19 October 1550), and was educated at Eton College. He was a talented classical scholar and was nominated by Sir William Petre from Ingatestone to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. He graduated in 1574, being then accounted “an acute philosopher and an excellent Grecian and Hebrician.” The following year he became a Catholic and fled abroad to the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest in 1577. He left to go to the English College in Rome, where he studied for about three years.
In April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions (including Edmund Campion and Robert Persons) left Rome for England; a few months later he was arrested while preaching in a private house in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison, where he converted many fellow prisoners. After a month he was removed to the Tower of London, where he was twice tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow. He is said to have been offered a bishopric by Queen Elizabeth if he would abandon his Catholicism, but refused.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion and others on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He denied this with the comment: “The plain reason of our standing here is religion, not treason.” He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn on a hurdle along with Alexander Briant, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered today, 1st December in 1581. His last words were Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus! He was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred.
This beautiful stained glass window of the saint is in the English College in Rome.
"As our martyrs celebrated Mass in secret hiding-places in penal times, they always knew that it could indeed prove to be their last Mass. They knew they could be called upon to share physically in the sacrifice that was sacramentally made present through their words and actions, to undergo the baptism that Christ himself underwent. St Ralph Sherwin and companions, pray for us, pray that we may follow in your footsteps as you followed in those of Christ. Pray that our lives may bear witness to the mystery we celebrate at Mass, so that the world may believe."
– Mgr Philip Whitmore, Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome.
This photo was taken in the Dominican priory church of the Holy Cross in Leicester during the month of May, Our Lady's month.
Church Gate House.
Church Gate House:-
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1303445
britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101303445-church-gate-house-...
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Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames on the north-easternmost edge of Berkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. With its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.
Geography
The parish includes three settlements:
Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station
The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of the London and Bath Road until this was severed in 1894, including the hamlets of Furze Platt and Pinkneys Green. There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys, Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north, Marlow and Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east.
The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish. A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over the Thames Valley and Chiltern Hills. Cookham has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Cock Marsh.
History
The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.
It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English cōc + hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English cōc(e) meaning 'hill'. Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II. In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.
In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband. The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.
Economy
Cookham is also home to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. The John Lewis Partnership, a retailer, which runs John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for Partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, at Ambleside (Lake District), Bala (north Wales), Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).
Local government
Cookham's municipal services are provided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has a Parish Council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 Councillors), Cookham Rise (9 Councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 Councillors). Since May 2019 there are 5 Conservative, 9 Lib Dem and 1 Independent Councillor. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and a website, www.cookhamparishcouncil.org.uk/crbst_1.html The local health services are managed by the East Berkshire PCT (Primary Care Trust) – NHS Services.
Transport
Cookham village is on the A4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. The A404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean. Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on the Marlow to Maidenhead branch line. There are two direct trains to and from London Paddington during the morning and evening rush hour. Other trains require a change at Maidenhead. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided by Arriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river has a long stretch of moorings above Cookham Bridge.
Attractions
The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.
Arts and literature
Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
The English painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
Cookham is mentioned in Harold Pinter's short play Victoria Station which premiered at the National Theatre with Paul Rogers and Martin Jarvis.
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.
Historic figures
Simon Alleyn, supposed Singing Vicar of Bray
Maidie Andrews (1893-1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
Dr. William Battie (died 1776), editor of Isocrates and founder of the University Scholarship at Cambridge
Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, to whom tribute was paid in the 1611 country house poem "Description of Cookham" by Emilia Lanier.
Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
Benjamin Ferrers (1667-1732), deaf portraitist whose family held the local manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), writer of Wind in the Willows, spent his childhood in Cookham and moved back after early retirement.
Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
Guglielmo Marconi, wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane, and is reputed to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897
Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of Stanley Spencer
Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
Frank Sherwin, railway poster artist
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), artist, who throughout his life set many of his intense religious paintings in and around Cookham.
Ralph Thompson, animal artist and illustrator
Timmy Mallett, TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
Frederick Walker ARA
Rev. Thomas Whateley (1787–1867), vicar and leading promoter of the principles of the new Poor Law
Admiral Sir George Young, proposer of the settlement of New South Wales
Town twinning
Cookham is twinned with:
France Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village near Poitiers, France.
Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames on the north-easternmost edge of Berkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. With its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.
Geography
The parish includes three settlements:
Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station
The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of the London and Bath Road until this was severed in 1894, including the hamlets of Furze Platt and Pinkneys Green. There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys, Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north, Marlow and Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east.
The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish. A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over the Thames Valley and Chiltern Hills. Cookham has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Cock Marsh.
History
The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.
It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English cōc + hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English cōc(e) meaning 'hill'. Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II. In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.
In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband. The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.
Economy
Cookham is also home to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. The John Lewis Partnership, a retailer, which runs John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for Partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, at Ambleside (Lake District), Bala (north Wales), Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).
Local government
Cookham's municipal services are provided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has a Parish Council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 Councillors), Cookham Rise (9 Councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 Councillors). Since May 2019 there are 5 Conservative, 9 Lib Dem and 1 Independent Councillor. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and a website, www.cookhamparishcouncil.org.uk/crbst_1.html The local health services are managed by the East Berkshire PCT (Primary Care Trust) – NHS Services.
Transport
Cookham village is on the A4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. The A404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean. Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on the Marlow to Maidenhead branch line. There are two direct trains to and from London Paddington during the morning and evening rush hour. Other trains require a change at Maidenhead. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided by Arriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river has a long stretch of moorings above Cookham Bridge.
Attractions
The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.
Arts and literature
Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
The English painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
Cookham is mentioned in Harold Pinter's short play Victoria Station which premiered at the National Theatre with Paul Rogers and Martin Jarvis.
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.
Historic figures
Simon Alleyn, supposed Singing Vicar of Bray
Maidie Andrews (1893-1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
Dr. William Battie (died 1776), editor of Isocrates and founder of the University Scholarship at Cambridge
Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, to whom tribute was paid in the 1611 country house poem "Description of Cookham" by Emilia Lanier.
Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
Benjamin Ferrers (1667-1732), deaf portraitist whose family held the local manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), writer of Wind in the Willows, spent his childhood in Cookham and moved back after early retirement.
Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
Guglielmo Marconi, wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane, and is reputed to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897
Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of Stanley Spencer
Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
Frank Sherwin, railway poster artist
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), artist, who throughout his life set many of his intense religious paintings in and around Cookham.
Ralph Thompson, animal artist and illustrator
Timmy Mallett, TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
Frederick Walker ARA
Rev. Thomas Whateley (1787–1867), vicar and leading promoter of the principles of the new Poor Law
Admiral Sir George Young, proposer of the settlement of New South Wales
Town twinning
Cookham is twinned with:
France Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village near Poitiers, France.
Holy Family and St Michael, Kesgrave, Ipswich, Suffolk
A new entry on the Suffolk Churches site.
There are ages of faith which leave their traces in splendour and beauty, as acts of piety and memory. East Anglia is full of silent witnesses to tides which have ebbed and flowed. Receding, they leave us in their wake great works from the passing ages, little Norman churches which seem to speak a language we can no longer understand but which haunts us still, the decorated beauty of the 14th Century at odds with the horrors of its pestilence and loss, the perpendicular triumph of the 15th Century church before its near-destruction in the subsequent Reformation and Commonwealth, the protestant flowering of chapels and meeting houses in almost all rural communities, and most obvious of all for us today the triumphalism of the Victorian revival.
But even as tides recede, piety and memory survive, most often in quiet acts and intimate details. The catholic church of Holy Family and St Michael at Kesgrave is one of their great 20th Century treasure houses.
At the time of the 1851 census of religious worship, Kesgrave was home to just 86 people, 79 of whom attended morning service that day, giving this parish the highest percentage attendance of any in Suffolk. However, they met half a mile up the road at the Anglican parish church of All Saints, and the current site of Holy Family was then far out in the fields. In any case, it is unlikely that any of the non-attenders was a Catholic. Today, Kesgrave is a sprawling eastern suburb of Ipswich, home to about 10,000 people. It extends along the A12 corridor all the way to Martlesham, which in turn will take you pretty much all the way to Woodbridge without seeing much more than a field or two between the houses.
Holy Family was erected in the 1930s, and serves as a chapel of ease within the parish of Ipswich St Mary. However, it is still in private ownership, the responsibility of the Rope family, who, along with the Jolly family into which they married, owned much of the land in Kesgrave that was later built on.
The growth of Kesgrave has been so rapid and so extensive in these last forty years that radical expansions were required at both this church and at All Saints, as well as to the next parish church along in the suburbs at Rushmere St Andrew. All of these projects are interesting, although externally Holy Family is less dramatic than its neighbours. It sits neatly in its trim little churchyard, red-brick and towerless, a harmonious little building if rather a curious shape, of which more in a moment. Beside it, the underpass and roundabout gives it a decidedly urban air. But this is a church of outstanding interest, as we shall see.
It was good to come back to Kesgrave. As a member of St Mary's parish I generally attended mass at the parish's other church, a couple of miles into town, but I had been here a number of times over the years, either to mass or just to wander around and sit for a while. These days, you generally approach the church from around the back, where you'll find a sprawling car park typical of a modern Catholic church. To the west of the church are Lucy House and Philip House, newly built for the work of the Rope family charities. Between the car park and the church there there is a tiny, formal graveyard, with crosses remembering members of the Rope and Jolly families.
Access to the church is usually through a west door these days, but if you are fortunate enough to enter through the original porch on the north side you will have a foretaste of what is to come, for to left and right are stunning jewel-like and detailed windows depicting St Margaret and St Theresa on one side and St Catherine and the Immaculate Conception on the other. Beside them, a plaque reveals that the church was built to the memory of Michael Rope, who was killed in the R101 airship disaster of 1930.
Blue Peter-watching boys like me, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, were enthralled by airships. They were one of those exciting inventions of a not-so-distant past which were, in a real sense, futuristic, a part of the 1930s modernist project that imagined and predicted the way we live now. And they were just so big. But they were doomed, because the hydrogen which gave them their buoyancy was explosive.
As a child, I was fascinated by the R101 airship and its disaster, especially because of that familiar photograph of its wrecked and burnt-out fuselage sprawled in the woods on a northern French hillside. It is still a haunting photograph today. The crash of the R101 put an end to airship development in the UK for more than half a century.
Of course, this is all ancient history now, but in the year 2001 I had the excellent fortune to be shown around Holy Family by Michael Rope's widow, Mrs Lucy Doreen Rope, née Jolly, who was still alive, and then in her nineties. She was responsible for the building of this church as a memorial to her husband. We paused in the porch so that I could admire the windows. "Do you like them?" Mrs Rope asked me. "Of course, my sister-in-law made them."
Her sister-in-law, of course, was Margaret Agnes Rope, who in the first half of the twentieth century was one of the finest of the Arts and Craft Movement stained glass designers. She studied at Birmingham, and then worked at the Glass House in Fulham with her cousin, Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope, whose work is also here. But their work can be found in churches and cathedrals all over the world. What Mrs Rope did not tell me, and what I found out later, is that these two windows in the porch were made for her and her husband Michael as a wedding present.
Doreen Jolly and Michael Rope were married in 1929. Within a year, he was dead. Mrs Rope was just 23 years old.
The original church from the 1930s is the part that you step into. You enter to the bizarre sight of a model of the R101 airship suspended from the roof. The nave altar and tabernacle ahead are in the original sanctuary, and you are facing the liturgical east (actually south) of the original building, and what an intimate space this must have been before the church was extended. Red brick outlines the entrance to the sanctuary, and here are the three windows made by Margaret Rope for the original church. The first is the three-light sanctuary window, depicting the Blessed Virgin and child flanked by St Joseph and St Michael. Two doves sit on a nest beneath Mary's feet, while a quizzical sparrow looks on. St Michael has the face of Michael Rope. The inscription beneath reads Pray for Michael Rope who gave up his soul to God in the wreck of His Majesty's Airship R101, Beauvais, October 5th 1930.
Next, a lancet in the right-hand side of the sanctuary contains glass depicting St Dominic, with a dog running beneath his feet and the inscription Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare, ('to praise, to bless, to preach'). The third window is in the west wall of the church (in its day, the right hand side of the nave), depicting St Thomas More and St John Fisher, although at the time the window was made they had not yet been canonised. The inscription beneath records that the window was the gift of a local couple in thankfulness for their conversion to the faith for which the Blessed Martyrs Thomas More and John Fisher gave their lives. A rose bush springs from in front of the martyrs' feet.
By the 1950s, Holy Family was no longer large enough for the community it served, and it was greatly expanded to the east to the designs of the archtect Henry Munro Cautley. Cautley was a bluff Anglican of the old school, the retired former diocesan architect of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, but he would have enjoyed designing a church for such an intimate faith community, and in fact it was his last major project before he died in 1959. The original sanctuary was retained as a blessed sacrament chapel, and the church was turned ninety degrees to face east for the first time. The north and south sides of the new church received three-light Tudor windows in the style most beloved by Cautley, as seen also at his Ipswich County Library in Northgate Street, and the former Fosters (now Lloyds) Bank in central Cambridge.
Although the Rope family had farmed at Blaxhall near Wickham Market for generations, Margaret Rope herself was not from Suffolk at all, and nor was she at first a Catholic. She was born in Shrewsbury in 1882, the daughter of Henry Rope, a surgeon at Shrewsbury Infirmary, and a son of the Blaxhall Rope family. The largest collection of Margaret Rope's glass is in Shrewsbury Cathedral. When Margaret was 17, her father died. The family were received into the Catholic church shortly afterwards. A plaque was placed in the entrance to Shrewsbury Infirmary to remember her father. When the hospital was demolished in the 1990s, the plaque was moved to here, and now sits in the north aisle of the 1950s church. In her early days in London Margaret Rope designed and made the large east window at Blaxhall church as a memorial to her grandparents. It features her younger brother Michael, and is believed to be the only window that she ever signed.
In her early forties, Margaret Rope took holy orders and entered the Carmelite Convent at nearby Woodbridge, but continued to produce her stained glass work until the community moved to Quidenham in Norfolk, when poor health and the distances involved proved insurmountable. She died there in 1953, and so she never saw the expanded church. Her cartoons, the designs for her windows, are placed on the walls around Holy Family. Some are for windows in churches in Scotland and Wales, one for a window in the English College in Rome. Among them are the roundels for within the enclosure of Tyburn Convent in London. "They had to remove the windows there during the War", said Mrs Rope. "Of course, with me, you have to ask which war!"
Turning to the east, we see the new sanctuary with its high altar, completed in 1993 as part of a further reordering and expansion, which gave a large galilee porch, kitchen and toilets to the north side of the church. The window above the new sanctuary has three lights, and the two outer windows were made by Margaret Rope for the chapel of East Bergholt convent to the south of Ipswich. They remember the Vaughan family, into which Margaret Rope's sister had married, and in particular one member, a sister in the convent, to celebrate her 25 year jubilee.
The convent later became Old Hall, a famous commune. They depict the prophet Isaiah and King David.
The central light between them is controversial. Produced in the 1990s and depicting the risen Christ, it really isn't very good, and provides the one jarring note in the church. It is rather unfortunate that it is in such a prominent position. It is not just the quality of the design that is the problem. It lets in too much light in comparison with the two flanking lights. "The glass in my sister-in-law's windows is half an inch thick", Mrs Rope told me. "In the workshop at Fulham they had a man who came in specially to cut it for them". The glass in the modern light is simply too thin.
Despite the 1990s extension, and as so often in modern urban Catholic churches, Holy Family is already not really big enough, although it is hard to see that there could ever be another expansion. We walked along Munro Cautley's south aisle, and at that time the stations of the cross were simple wooden crosses. However, about three months after my conversation with Mrs Rope, the World Trade Centre in New York was attacked and destroyed, and among the three thousand people killed were two local Kesgrave brothers who were commemorated with a new set of stations in cast metal.
Here also is a 1956 memorial window by Margaret Rope's cousin, Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope, to Mrs Rope's mother Alice Jolly, depicting the remains of the shrine at Walsingham and the Jolly family at prayer before it. Another MEA Rope window is across the church in the galilee, a Second World War memorial window, originally on the east side of the first church before Cautley's extension. It depicts three of the English Martyrs, Blessed Anne Lynne, Blessed Robert Southwell and Blessed John Robinson, as well as the shipwreck of Blessed John Nutter off of Dunwich, with All Saints church on the cliffs above.
The galilee is designed for families with young children to play a full part in mass, and is separated from the church by a glass screen. At the top of the screen is a small panel by Margaret Rope which is of particular interest because it depicts her and her family participating in the Easter vigil, presumably in Shrewsbury Cathedral. This is hard to photograph because it is on an internal window between two rooms.
A recent addition to the Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope windows here is directly opposite, newly installed on the south side of the nave. It was donated by her great-nephew. It depicts a nativity scene, the Holy Family in the stable at Bethlehem, an angel appearing to shepherds on the snowy hills beyond. It is perhaps her loveliest window in the church.
Finally, back across the church. Here, beside the brass memorial to Margaret Rope, is a window depicting the Blessed Virgin and child, members of the Rope family in the Candlemas procession beneath. The inscription reminds us to pray for the soul of Sister Margaret of the Mother of God, mistress of novices and stained glass artist, Monastery of the Magnificat of the Mother of God, Quidenham, Norfolk, entered Carmel 14th September 1923, died 6th December 1953. Sister Margaret of the Mother of God was, of course, Margaret Rope herself. She was buried in the convent at Quidenham, a Shrewsbury exile at rest in the East Anglian soil of her forebears. The design is hers, and the window was made by her cousin Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope.
Back in 2001, we were talking about the changing Church, and I asked Mrs Rope what she thought about the recently introduced practice of transferring Holy Days on to the nearest Sunday, so that the teaching of them was not lost. Mrs Rope approved, a lady clearly not stuck in the past. She had a passion for ensuring that the Faith could be shared with children. As we have seen, her church is designed so that young families can take a full part in the Mass. But she was sympathetic to the distractions of the modern age. "The world is so exciting for children these days", she said. "I think it must be difficult to bring them up with a sense of the presence of God." She smiled. "Mind you, my son is 70 now! And I do admire young girls today. They have such spirit!"
She left me to potter about in her wonderful treasure house. As I did so, I thought of medieval churches I have visited, which were similarly donated by the Mrs Ropes of their day, perhaps even for husbands who had died young. They not only sought to memorialise their loved ones, but to consecrate a space for prayer, that masses might be said for the souls of the dead. This was the Catholic way, a Christian duty. Before the Reformation, this was true in every parish in England. It remained true here at Kesgrave.
And finally, back outside to the small graveyard. Side by side are two crosses. One remembers Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope, artist, 1891-1988. The other remembers Lucy Doreen Rope, founder of this church, 1907-2003.
4 May is the feast of the English Martyrs who died during the Reformation. St Ralph Sherwin (1550–1 December 1581) was an English Roman Catholic martyr and saint. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire, and was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford, probably influenced by Sherwin's uncle, John Woodward, who from 1556 to 1566 had been rector of Ingatestone, Essex, where Petre lived. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism and fled abroad to the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Cambrai on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow. He is said to have been personally offered a bishopric by Elizabeth I if he apostasised, but refused. After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a trumped up charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was drawn to Tyburn on a hurdle along with Alexander Briant, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His last words were "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus!"
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified in the late 19th century and canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Church Gate House on the left and Church Gate Cottage on the right.
Church Gate House:-
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1303445
britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101303445-church-gate-house-...
Church Gate Cottage:-
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1117569
britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101117569-church-gate-cottag...
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Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames on the north-easternmost edge of Berkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. With its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.
Geography
The parish includes three settlements:
Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station
The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of the London and Bath Road until this was severed in 1894, including the hamlets of Furze Platt and Pinkneys Green. There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys, Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north, Marlow and Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east.
The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish. A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over the Thames Valley and Chiltern Hills. Cookham has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Cock Marsh.
History
The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.
It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English cōc + hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English cōc(e) meaning 'hill'. Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II. In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.
In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband. The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.
Economy
Cookham is also home to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. The John Lewis Partnership, a retailer, which runs John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for Partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, at Ambleside (Lake District), Bala (north Wales), Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).
Local government
Cookham's municipal services are provided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has a Parish Council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 Councillors), Cookham Rise (9 Councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 Councillors). Since May 2019 there are 5 Conservative, 9 Lib Dem and 1 Independent Councillor. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and a website, www.cookhamparishcouncil.org.uk/crbst_1.html The local health services are managed by the East Berkshire PCT (Primary Care Trust) – NHS Services.
Transport
Cookham village is on the A4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. The A404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean. Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on the Marlow to Maidenhead branch line. There are two direct trains to and from London Paddington during the morning and evening rush hour. Other trains require a change at Maidenhead. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided by Arriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river has a long stretch of moorings above Cookham Bridge.
Attractions
The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.
Arts and literature
Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
The English painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
Cookham is mentioned in Harold Pinter's short play Victoria Station which premiered at the National Theatre with Paul Rogers and Martin Jarvis.
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.
Historic figures
Simon Alleyn, supposed Singing Vicar of Bray
Maidie Andrews (1893-1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
Dr. William Battie (died 1776), editor of Isocrates and founder of the University Scholarship at Cambridge
Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, to whom tribute was paid in the 1611 country house poem "Description of Cookham" by Emilia Lanier.
Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
Benjamin Ferrers (1667-1732), deaf portraitist whose family held the local manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), writer of Wind in the Willows, spent his childhood in Cookham and moved back after early retirement.
Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
Guglielmo Marconi, wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane, and is reputed to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897
Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of Stanley Spencer
Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
Frank Sherwin, railway poster artist
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), artist, who throughout his life set many of his intense religious paintings in and around Cookham.
Ralph Thompson, animal artist and illustrator
Timmy Mallett, TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
Frederick Walker ARA
Rev. Thomas Whateley (1787–1867), vicar and leading promoter of the principles of the new Poor Law
Admiral Sir George Young, proposer of the settlement of New South Wales
Town twinning
Cookham is twinned with:
France Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village near Poitiers, France.
COOKHAM
Twinned with
Saint Benoit
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
Detail: Road Sign.
Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames on the north-easternmost edge of Berkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. With its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.
Geography
The parish includes three settlements:
Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station
The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of the London and Bath Road until this was severed in 1894, including the hamlets of Furze Platt and Pinkneys Green. There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys, Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north, Marlow and Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east.
The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish. A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over the Thames Valley and Chiltern Hills. Cookham has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Cock Marsh.
History
The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.
It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English cōc + hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English cōc(e) meaning 'hill'. Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II. In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.
In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband. The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.
Economy
Cookham is also home to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. The John Lewis Partnership, a retailer, which runs John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for Partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, at Ambleside (Lake District), Bala (north Wales), Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).
Local government
Cookham's municipal services are provided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has a Parish Council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 Councillors), Cookham Rise (9 Councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 Councillors). Since May 2019 there are 5 Conservative, 9 Lib Dem and 1 Independent Councillor. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and a website, www.cookhamparishcouncil.org.uk/crbst_1.html The local health services are managed by the East Berkshire PCT (Primary Care Trust) – NHS Services.
Transport
Cookham village is on the A4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. The A404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean. Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on the Marlow to Maidenhead branch line. There are two direct trains to and from London Paddington during the morning and evening rush hour. Other trains require a change at Maidenhead. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided by Arriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river has a long stretch of moorings above Cookham Bridge.
Attractions
The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.
Arts and literature
Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
The English painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
Cookham is mentioned in Harold Pinter's short play Victoria Station which premiered at the National Theatre with Paul Rogers and Martin Jarvis.
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.
Historic figures
Simon Alleyn, supposed Singing Vicar of Bray
Maidie Andrews (1893-1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
Dr. William Battie (died 1776), editor of Isocrates and founder of the University Scholarship at Cambridge
Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, to whom tribute was paid in the 1611 country house poem "Description of Cookham" by Emilia Lanier.
Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
Benjamin Ferrers (1667-1732), deaf portraitist whose family held the local manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), writer of Wind in the Willows, spent his childhood in Cookham and moved back after early retirement.
Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
Guglielmo Marconi, wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane, and is reputed to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897
Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of Stanley Spencer
Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
Frank Sherwin, railway poster artist
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), artist, who throughout his life set many of his intense religious paintings in and around Cookham.
Ralph Thompson, animal artist and illustrator
Timmy Mallett, TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
Frederick Walker ARA
Rev. Thomas Whateley (1787–1867), vicar and leading promoter of the principles of the new Poor Law
Admiral Sir George Young, proposer of the settlement of New South Wales
Town twinning
Cookham is twinned with:
France Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village near Poitiers, France.
The Dower House, Cookham.
Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames on the north-easternmost edge of Berkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. With its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.
Geography
The parish includes three settlements:
Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station
The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of the London and Bath Road until this was severed in 1894, including the hamlets of Furze Platt and Pinkneys Green. There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys, Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north, Marlow and Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east.
The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish. A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over the Thames Valley and Chiltern Hills. Cookham has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Cock Marsh.
History
The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.
It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English cōc + hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English cōc(e) meaning 'hill'. Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II. In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.
In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband. The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.
Economy
Cookham is also home to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. The John Lewis Partnership, a retailer, which runs John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for Partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, at Ambleside (Lake District), Bala (north Wales), Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).
Local government
Cookham's municipal services are provided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has a Parish Council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 Councillors), Cookham Rise (9 Councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 Councillors). Since May 2019 there are 5 Conservative, 9 Lib Dem and 1 Independent Councillor. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and a website, www.cookhamparishcouncil.org.uk/crbst_1.html The local health services are managed by the East Berkshire PCT (Primary Care Trust) – NHS Services.
Transport
Cookham village is on the A4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. The A404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean. Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on the Marlow to Maidenhead branch line. There are two direct trains to and from London Paddington during the morning and evening rush hour. Other trains require a change at Maidenhead. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided by Arriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river has a long stretch of moorings above Cookham Bridge.
Attractions
The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.
Arts and literature
Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
The English painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
Cookham is mentioned in Harold Pinter's short play Victoria Station which premiered at the National Theatre with Paul Rogers and Martin Jarvis.
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.
Historic figures
Simon Alleyn, supposed Singing Vicar of Bray
Maidie Andrews (1893-1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
Dr. William Battie (died 1776), editor of Isocrates and founder of the University Scholarship at Cambridge
Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, to whom tribute was paid in the 1611 country house poem "Description of Cookham" by Emilia Lanier.
Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
Benjamin Ferrers (1667-1732), deaf portraitist whose family held the local manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner of Patricia Preece
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), writer of Wind in the Willows, spent his childhood in Cookham and moved back after early retirement.
Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
Guglielmo Marconi, wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane, and is reputed to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897
Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of Stanley Spencer
Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
Frank Sherwin, railway poster artist
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), artist, who throughout his life set many of his intense religious paintings in and around Cookham.
Ralph Thompson, animal artist and illustrator
Timmy Mallett, TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
Frederick Walker ARA
Rev. Thomas Whateley (1787–1867), vicar and leading promoter of the principles of the new Poor Law
Admiral Sir George Young, proposer of the settlement of New South Wales
Town twinning
Cookham is twinned with:
France Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village near Poitiers, France.
A window of three martyred Jesuit priests of the English Reformation: St Edmund Campion, whose feast is today (1 December), St Nicholas Owen and St Ralph Sherwin.
This window is in the church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street, London.
One of the many drawings and cartoons for windows by Margaret Rope displayed around the church.
The church of the Holy Family & St Michael was built in 1930 to serve the local Catholic community at the expense of the Rope family, thus it is fitting that the most famous members of that family, the great Arts & Crafts stained glass artists and cousins, Margaret Agnes Rope and Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope, should be so well represented in the adornment of their family church.
The original church building was more of a chapel of ease whose congregation soon outgrew it, thus it has been greatly extended since, most significantly in the 1950s with a new nave added at a right angle to the original structure like a huge transept. Further additions were finished in 1993, giving the enlarged and somewhat sprawling worship space we see today.
The original church contains rich bespoke windows by Margaret Agnes Rope (known as 'Marga'), beautifully painted and detailed in jewel-like colours. The liturgical east window is a group of lancets portraying the Virgin & Child flanked by St Joseph & St Michael (commemorating Michael Rope who died in the R101 airship disaster in 1930, indeed the church was founded in his memory). To the liturgical south are windows of St Dominic and the English Martyrs whilst the porch contains further delightful vignettes.
The extension from the 1950s contains further windows by Marga but none actually designed for it. The new liturgical east window incorporates striking and superbly detailed figures of King David and Isaiah that originate from a nearby former convent. The central light that tries to unite with them in a new three-light window is an unhappy new creation from the 1990s that fails to balance the colouring and artistry of the Rope windows. It should be said however that matching Margaret Rope glass would be a difficult task for anyone, but the overall effect is best viewed at a distance. More of Marga's work can be seen around the church in the form of the framed and mounted cartoons for windows made for other locations.
Several further panels are the work of Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope (known as 'Tor'), one designed for the building and another earlier work (a stunning Nativity) was relocated here more recently. Finally there is here single light window of three of the English Martyrs in the side chapel that was originally part of the pre-extension church. The artist was laid to rest in the churchyard here in 1988.
Seeing this church with it's wonderful Rope windows was a hugely rewarding and immersive experience for me and I am greatly indebted to Simon Knott and his wife Jaqueline for so generously organising this visit for me. There is a much fuller account of the church and its treasure's on Simon's site below:-
On 25th October, 1970, Pope Paul VI canonised forty men and women, clergy and lay, from England and Wales who were martyred for their Faith during Penal Times, between 1535 and 1679.
They are collectively known as The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591.
Edmund Gennings, entered England in disguise after having been secretly trained as a Catholic priest abroad. He was only 24 years old when he was captured and arrested by Richard Topcliffe while celebrating Mass in a Secret Mass Room in the home of Saint Swithun Wells.
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535. Saint John Houghton and his companions were dragged on hurdles to the infamous Tyburn gallows. Saint Thomas More watched them led away as he stood at the window of his own cell in the Tower of London. Saint Thomas More exclaimed that they went to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St John Kemble (1599-1679) In addition to Our Lady's Feast, today (Except if it is a Sunday) we also remember the witness of St John Kemble. It is interesting to realise that later members of his family became famous actors and actresses including Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) who was his Great-Great Grandniece. "John Kemble was one of the oldest of the martyrs, being 80 when executed. He was from near Hereford, being born into a Catholic family in 1599. He studied for the priesthood at Douai where he was ordained priest, and worked as a priest in England and Wales for 54 years. He founded several missions, some of which were still functioning well into the 19th century. In 1678 he was caught up in the aftermath of the Gunpowder plot. He was cleared of all involvement of this and was eventually condemned for being a “seminary priest”. Before his execution he said: “I die only for professing the old Catholic religion, which was the religion that first made this kingdom Christian” He was hanged, drawn and when dead quartered at Widemarsh Common on 22 August 1679. DK".
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601.
"Anne was born Alice Higham or Heigham in 1563 in Essex, she was the eldest daughter of William Higham of Jenkyn Maldon. William was an ardent Puritan, his father was Roger Heigham, MP he was a Protestant reformer during the reign of King Henry VIII (re.1509-1547). Alice (Anne) married Roger Line in February 1583, at some time in the 1580s Alice (Anne) converted to Catholicism along with her brother William and her husband Roger. As soon as their families found out that they had converted both William and Roger were disinherited and Alice (Anne) lost her dowry. But soon after that Alice changed her name to Anne, it may have been the name she took at her conversion. But the authorities soon took notice of them.
One day Roger and William went to Mass but unknown to them the authorities had been watching the premises they were in, they launched a raid and William and Roger were arrested. They were both released but Roger was banished from England, Roger went to Flanders to find safety. This left Anne without her husband and her primary source of income, so the King of Spain paid a small allowance to Anne Line this lasted until Rogers's death in 1594. All this made Anne became even more fervent in her faith, around this time Father John Gerard started his mission in England. Fr John Gerard opened up a house to hid Catholic priests, he put Anne Line in charge of the property, despite her increasing ill-health, when he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, this lasted for three years. Fr John Gerard wrote in his autobiography that "After my escape from prison [Anne Line] gave up managing the house. By then she was known to so many people that it was unsafe for me to frequent any house she occupied."
Then on the 2nd February 1601 Anne Line was arrested. As Fr John Gerard said in his autobiography "she hired apartments in another building and continued to shelter priests there. One day, however (it was the Purification of Our Blessed Lady), she allowed in an unusually large number of Catholics to hear Mass … Some neighbours noticed the crowd and the constables were at the house at once." The authorities waited until the Mass was half way through before they burst in, the priest Fr Francis Page managed to hid in a hiding place that Anne had made and later escape. However Anne Line and a Lady Margaret Gage were arrested, Margaret Gage was later released, but Anne was not so lucky. Anne was sent to Newgate prison, while she was there Anne contracted a fever. Anne was tried at the Sessions House on Old Bailey Lane on 26th February 1601 for harbouring a Catholic priest, Anne was so weak from her illness that she had to be carried in to the court room on a chair. Anne told the court that she had no regrets at all about what she had done, she was only sorry that she could not have saved more priests. The Judge found Anne Line guilty of harbouring a catholic priest, Judge Sir John Popham sentenced her to death.
On the 27th February 1601 Anne Line was taken to Tyburn for her execution along with two Catholic priests Fr. Roger Filcock and Fr. Mark Barkworth. Anne Line was hanged, but the priests faced a much more painful and horrific death they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Before Anne was hanged Anne's last words were "I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand." And then Anne Line was Martyred for her Catholic faith.
Anne Line was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 15th December 1929. She was canonised in to a Saint by Pope Paul VI on the 25th October 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. St Anne Line has a school named after her in Basildon, Essex, England she also has a Catholic parish named after her in Great Dunmow, Essex. It is even local legend in Great Dunmow that Anne's family lived in the local clock house." Ian Parker.
Sir John Popham was the man who sentenced Anne Line, a Catholic woman, sick with fever, to death by hanging. In 1595 Popham presided over the trial of the Jesuit Robert Southwell and passed sentence of death by hanging, drawing and quartering. He also presided over the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh (1603) and the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, including Guy Fawkes (1606). He was also involved in the trial at Fotheringhay Castle of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587) which resulted in her execution.
"I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand." Anne Line
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642
Alban Roe was a convert to the Catholic Faith during Penal Times in England. Despite being expelled from seminary and getting into trouble with his fiery temper and often blunt wit, this pious and truly devout Englishman joined the Benedictines and returned to England as an outlawed Catholic priest to minister to the persecuted Catholics. He was hunted and eventually arrested where he quickly learned the Fleet prison system that allowed him to walk the London streets by day, ministering the Sacraments, playing cards with prayers for ‘stakes’ and winning many converts.
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 21st, 1595.
St. John Southworth - here taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had previously been declared saints.
After Napoleon's invasion of Rome in 1798 (and imprisoned the Pope) foreign students had to leave and the college was pillaged, becoming a barracks and then a police station. The Church was used as a stable.
After Napoleon's defeat, 1815, the college revived, but money was short. The church was rebuilt from 1866 and completed in 1888.
The first martyr who studied at the college was St Ralph Sherwin, (b around 1550) educated at Eton and Exeter College Oxford before coming to Rome. He returned to England and was hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn with St Edmund Campion on 1st December 1591. Relics of him are kept in the altar, together with other martyr of the college. Here the reliquary has been opened to show us.
(Notice the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham at the far left.)
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32 - detail.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
John Hardman was one of the pioneers of the stained glass revival of the 19th century. His Birmingham-based operation started out as an ecclesiastical metal works, but, at the suggestion of AWN Pugin, the business expanded into glass manufacture in 1845. Pugin designed for the firm until his death in 1852 when this role passed onto John Nardman Junior's nephew John Hardman Powell (1827-1895). The firm was renamed John Hardman Studios in about 1939, at which time Donald Battershill Taunton (1886-1965) and Patrick Feeny (1910-1995) were designers. Able to move on from the Victorian and Edwardian Gothic Revival styles, the firm survived and still exists under the same ownership as Goddard & Gibbs, though in different premises in Birmingham.
The 40 English Martyrs were canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St. John Kemble hanged, drawn, and quartered at Widemarsh Common on the 22nd August 1679.
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 15, 1595.
St. John Southworth Here, taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679. martyred in Worcester for his Catholic faith.
St John Wall was born in Preston in 1620 in what was a hot-bed of Catholicism in a Protestant England. He was sent to the continent to get a Catholic education at Douai before going to the English College in Rome where he trained to become a priest. He was ordained in 1645 as a priest and spent some time in England before returning to Douai and becoming a Franciscan. In 1656 he returned to England with a specific mission to work in the Mission of St George in Worcestershire. He worked under the alias Francis Webb and was based at Harvington.
It is interesting to see the level of tolerance in that he was one of the Six Masters of the Royal Grammar School in Worcester and worked amongst the Catholics of Worcestershire for 22 years but the Titus Oates alleged plot changed that. This caused great fear of Catholics and St John Wall was one who suffered with the great paranoia that spread the country.
He was arrested at Rushock Court, not too far away near Bromsgrove, and refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. He was sent to Worcester gaol and was subsequently convicted of being a priest. He was sent to the Tower of London but he could not give evidence of a plot that did not exist! He returned to Worcester for his execution. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Worcester where the predominantly Protestant crowd wept for this well-known man of the city. His body was buried at St Oswald’s and his head was sent to Douai.
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had previously been declared saints.
Arundel Cathedral, Arundel, Sussex
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel was born 28 June 1557 to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Lady Mary Fitzalan. He was baptised in Whitehall Palace with the royal family present.
aged 14 he was married to his stepsister, Anne Dacre, but were separated for a number of years.
In 1574 he graduated from St John's College, Cambridge, and was still only 18 when he attended the court of Elizabeth I, where he became a firm favourite until 1569 when Thomas Howard was arrested and by 1572 was executed for plotting against the Queen.
1580, after the death of his maternal grandfather he became Earl of Arundel.
1581 he was present at the Tower of London for a debate between Fr Edmund Campion, Jesuit Fr Ralph Sherwin and a group of Protestant theologians. He was impressed by the Catholic argument and renounced his previous, frivolous life and reunited with his wife.
Elizabeth I heard of this conversion and ordered him to house arrest. However, Philip decided it was time to leave England and attempted to do so without the Queens knowledge. He was betrayed by a servant and was arrested whilst setting sail from Littlehampton. He was committed to the Tower on 25 April 1585 where he remained for 10 years despite charges of treason never actually being proven. Elizabeth was presented with a death warrant for him, but never signed it. Philip was never to know this and was kept under the constant torment of the possibility.
His constant companion was his dog (whom he always represented with), and who served as a messenger between himself, other prisoners and the priest Robert Southwell. They never actually met but were able to deepen their friendship through the faithful hound.
He finally contracted disantry, and as he lying dying asked for permission to see his wife and son one last time. Elizabeth responded that he agreed to attend one protestant church service he could not only see his wife but she would have him released and all favoured returned to him. He refused, never saw his wife again and died on the 19 October 1595.
His body was taken to the church of St Peter ad vincula and buried without ceremony. It took 29 years for Anne Dacre to get permission, finally from James I, to have his body moved to the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel castle. In 1971 his body was moved to the cathedral in Arundel which had been dedicated to him in 1970.
Arundel Cathedral, Arundel, Sussex
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel was born 28 June 1557 to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Lady Mary Fitzalan. He was baptised in Whitehall Palace with the royal family present.
aged 14 he was married to his stepsister, Anne Dacre, but were separated for a number of years.
In 1574 he graduated from St John's College, Cambridge, and was still only 18 when he attended the court of Elizabeth I, where he became a firm favourite until 1569 when Thomas Howard was arrested and by 1572 was executed for plotting against the Queen.
1580, after the death of his maternal grandfather he became Earl of Arundel.
1581 he was present at the Tower of London for a debate between Fr Edmund Campion, Jesuit Fr Ralph Sherwin and a group of Protestant theologians. He was impressed by the Catholic argument and renounced his previous, frivolous life and reunited with his wife.
Elizabeth I heard of this conversion and ordered him to house arrest. However, Philip decided it was time to leave England and attempted to do so without the Queens knowledge. He was betrayed by a servant and was arrested whilst setting sail from Littlehampton. He was committed to the Tower on 25 April 1585 where he remained for 10 years despite charges of treason never actually being proven. Elizabeth was presented with a death warrant for him, but never signed it. Philip was never to know this and was kept under the constant torment of the possibility.
His constant companion was his dog (whom he always represented with), and who served as a messenger between himself, other prisoners and the priest Robert Southwell. They never actually met but were able to deepen their friendship through the faithful hound.
He finally contracted disantry, and as he lying dying asked for permission to see his wife and son one last time. Elizabeth responded that he agreed to attend one protestant church service he could not only see his wife but she would have him released and all favoured returned to him. He refused, never saw his wife again and died on the 19 October 1595.
His body was taken to the church of St Peter ad vincula and buried without ceremony. It took 29 years for Anne Dacre to get permission, finally from James I, to have his body moved to the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel castle. In 1971 his body was moved to the cathedral in Arundel which had been dedicated to him in 1970.
St Edmund Campion was a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. He joined the Jesuits and was ordained a priest in 1578 and returned to post Reformation England. He was martyred along with Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Bryant by being hung, drawn and quartered under Elizabeth I at Tyburn in December 1581. (Tyburn is now known as Marble Arch in London).
The school I went to named their houses after the martyrs Arrowsmith, Barlow, Campion and Dalby. I belonged to Campion House.
The 40 English Martyrs were canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St. John Kemble hanged, drawn, and quartered at Widemarsh Common on the 22nd August 1679.
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 15, 1595.
St. John Southworth Here, taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had previously been declared saints.
The 40 English Martyrs were canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St. John Kemble hanged, drawn, and quartered at Widemarsh Common on the 22nd August 1679.
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601.
"Saint Anne Line was a young Catholic woman, a convert from Calvinism, in Elizabethan England. With her brother and her husband Roger Line, she assisted the Catholic Church’s survival during the great persecutions during Penal Times. Saint Anne Line devoted her free time to developing a profound spiritual life, meditating often upon the Passion of Christ with a deep love of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (outlawed in England at that time) and for prayer. Saint Anne Line loved to shelter the many priests who were hunted throughout England by the government. When her brother and husband were arrested, and Roger Line exiled, Saint Anne Line found herself alone. Her father, still a Calvinist, had rejected her and she was unable to see Roger who eventually died in exile. Saint Anne Line found her calling though by dedicated her life to keeping safe houses for the missionary priests under the direction of Father John Gerard.
Her reputation as a gentle, pious, reliable, devout Catholic woman was known among the recusant Catholics. She was an important part of the Catholic underground movement in England that worked to keep the outlawed Catholic Faith alive and provide the illegal Sacraments and the Mass for the English people.
Saint Anne Line was eventually arrested during the celebration of an illegal Mass with several others. She refused to deny her Faith or give up the locations of safe houses, priest holes or details regarding the Catholic network and priests. Saint Anne Line bravely offered her life in defence of the Catholic Church in England at the triple Tyburn gallows and is one of only three women among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
William Shakespeare admired Saint Anne Line and it is believed that he references her in several plays and poems, in particular his poem ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’ which is believed to be a tribute to Saint Anne and Roger Line." Mary's Dowry Productions.
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby born at Harrock Hall, Eccleston, Lancashire, in 1570. He was executed, hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600 and 21st June is his feast day.
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 15, 1595.
St. John Southworth Here, taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Image (c) copyright Lesly Holliday
This window by Margaret Rope the Elder is to be found at the Venerable English College at Rome. Her brother, Harry Rope, served at the college for a number of years.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
South Aisle Window - detail.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
St Mary (RC), Derby : Blessed Ralph Sherwin
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
South Aisle Window - detail.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
The 40 English Martyrs were canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St. John Kemble hanged, drawn, and quartered at Widemarsh Common on the 22nd August 1679.
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577. He was the first of the seminary priests, trained on the Continent, to be martyred. Mayne was beatified in 1886 and canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535.
Born Thomas Green at Oxford, he left England and studied at Reims, France, and at Valladolid and Seville in Spain. Ordained in 1592, he went to England but was exiled in 1606. Thomas returned and labored for the faith until his arrest in 1628. He spent fourteen years in prison until he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, with Blessed Alban Bartholomew Roe. Thomas was eighty at the time. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642.
"Just before his death, Father Alban Roe asked the sheriff if his life would be spared if he renounced his Catholic religion and became an Anglican. The sheriff swore he would be spared if he did. Alban then said to all: “See, then, what the crime is for which I am to die, and whether my religion be not my only treason... I wish I had a thousand lives; then would I sacrifice them all for so worthy a cause.” - Stephanie A. Mann
"St. Alban Bartholomew Roe, 1642 A.D. Missionary and martyr, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Alban is believed to have been born in Bury St. Edmund's, England, about 1580. He converted to Catholicism and went to the English College at Douai, where he was dismissed for an infraction of discipline. In 1612 he became ordained Benedictine at Dieulouard, France. From there he was sent to England. In 1615 he was arrested and banished. In 1618 he returned to England and was imprisoned again. This imprisonment lasted until 1623, when the Spanish ambassador obtained his release. In 1625, once again having returned to England to care for Catholics, Alban was arrested for the last time. For seventeen years he remained in prison and was then tried and condemned. Alban was sentenced with Thomas Reynolds, another English martyr. They were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on January 21, 1642.
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 15, 1595.
St. John Southworth Here, taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had previously been declared saints.
The 40 English Martyrs were canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
They are
St. John Almond hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, on 5th December 1612
St. Edmund Arrowsmith hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August 1628
St. Ambrose Barlow hung and quartered at Lancaster Friday 10th of September 1641
St. John Boste was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Durham, on July 24, 1594.
St. Alexander Briant martyred at Tyburn on December 1, 1581
St. Edmund Campion martyred on December 1, 1581
St. Margaret Clitherow martyred in York, March 25, 1586
St. Philip Evans martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Thomas Garnet executed at Tyburn 23rd June 1608
St. Edmund Gennings martyred December 10, 1591
St. Richard Gwyn hanged, draw, and quartered in the Beast Market, Wrexham on October 15, 1584.
St. John Houghton the first Carthusian Martyr he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4th May 1535.
St. Philip Howard died in the Tower of London ("martyr in chains") on October 19, 1595.
St. John Jones hung, drawn, and quartered after two year's imprisonment and torture on July 12, 1589
St. John Kemble hanged, drawn, and quartered at Widemarsh Common on the 22nd August 1679.
St. Luke Kirby martyred at Tyburn Tree in London on May 30, 1582
St. Robert Lawrence hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535
St. David Lewis executed at Usk, Monmouthshire on August 27, 1679
St. Anne Line hanged at Tyburn on 27 February 1601
St. John Lloyd martyred in Cardiff on July 22, 1679
St. Cuthbert Mayne martyred at Launceston, Cornwall, November 29, 1577. He was the first of the seminary priests, trained on the Continent, to be martyred. Mayne was beatified in 1886 and canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970.
St. Henry Morse hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st February 1645
St. Nicholas Owen died after being on the rack at the Tower of London in the night between 1 and 2 March 1606
St. John Payne executed on April 2, 1582 at Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex
St. Polydore Plasden martyred December 10, 1591
St. John Plessington hanged, drawn and quartered on 19th July 1679 at Boughton Cross, overlooking the River Dee at West Chester.
St. Richard Reynolds hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn 4th May 1535.
Born Thomas Green at Oxford, he left England and studied at Reims, France, and at Valladolid and Seville in Spain. Ordained in 1592, he went to England but was exiled in 1606. Thomas returned and labored for the faith until his arrest in 1628. He spent fourteen years in prison until he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, with Blessed Alban Bartholomew Roe. Thomas was eighty at the time. The quarters of the body of Reynolds – the first man to refuse the oath – were chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London, including the gate of Syon Abbey.
St. John Rigby hanged, drawn and quartered at St Thomas Waterings on 21st June 1600
St. John Roberts executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610
St. Alban Roe hanged at Tyburn 21st January 1642.
"Just before his death, Father Alban Roe asked the sheriff if his life would be spared if he renounced his Catholic religion and became an Anglican. The sheriff swore he would be spared if he did. Alban then said to all: “See, then, what the crime is for which I am to die, and whether my religion be not my only treason... I wish I had a thousand lives; then would I sacrifice them all for so worthy a cause.” - Stephanie A. Mann
"St. Alban Bartholomew Roe, 1642 A.D. Missionary and martyr, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Alban is believed to have been born in Bury St. Edmund's, England, about 1580. He converted to Catholicism and went to the English College at Douai, where he was dismissed for an infraction of discipline. In 1612 he became ordained Benedictine at Dieulouard, France. From there he was sent to England. In 1615 he was arrested and banished. In 1618 he returned to England and was imprisoned again. This imprisonment lasted until 1623, when the Spanish ambassador obtained his release. In 1625, once again having returned to England to care for Catholics, Alban was arrested for the last time. For seventeen years he remained in prison and was then tried and condemned. Alban was sentenced with Thomas Reynolds, another English martyr. They were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on January 21, 1642.
St. Ralph Sherwin hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn 1st December 1581
St. Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 15, 1595.
St. John Southworth Here, taken from the website of Westminster Cathedral in London, where his body lies, is an account of his life and death. Saint John Southworth came from a Lancashire family, the principal members of which seemed to have lived at Samlesbury Hall. He is thought to have been born in 1592 and was martyred at Tyburn on 28 June 1654. In 1618, John Southworth was ordained a priest at the English College, Douai (Douay) in Northern France. After returning to England, he was arrested and condemned to death in Lancashire in 1626, and imprisoned first in Lancaster Castle, and afterwards in the Clink Prison, London. On 11 April, 1630, he and some other priests were delivered to the French Ambassador for transportation abroad, but, in 1636, he was reported to have been released from the Gatehouse, Westminster, and was living at Clerkenwell. From there it seems he frequently visited the plague-stricken dwellings of Westminster to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick and the dying. In 1637, he appears to have been based in Westminster, where he was arrested on 28 November, before being again sent to the Gatehouse. From there he was transferred to the Clink and, in 1640, was brought before the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, who sent him back there. On 16 July, John Southworth was again freed, but by 2 December he was once more imprisoned in the Gatehouse. After his final apprehension on 19 June 1654, he was tried at the Old Bailey, where he insisted on pleading guilty to being a priest. He was reluctantly condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of his martyrdom, he was allowed to make a long speech at the gallows. The Spanish ambassador bought his body from the executioner and, in 1655, returned it to Douai after the corpse had been sewn together and embalmed. In 1656 the recovery of Francis Howard, fifth son of the Earl of Arundel, was attributed to St John Southworth's relics. When England and France went to war in 1793 St John Southworth's body was buried in an unmarked grave below the college for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. In 1930, his major relics - the only complete body of a Reformation martyr - were brought to Westminster Cathedral, where a shrine was prepared for them.
He was beatified in 1929 and was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St. John Stone hanged, drawn and quartered at Canterbury on 27th December 1529
St. John Wall executed on Red Hill, Worcester on 22nd August 1679
St. Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1595.
St. Margaret Ward was hanged at Tyburn Tree with four other Blessed lay martyrs and one Blessed priest martyr on August 30, 1588.
St. Augustine Webster hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535
St. Swithun Wells martyred December 10, 1591 on Gray's Inn Road, London
St. Eustace White martyred at Tyburn Tree December 10, 1591.
Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had previously been declared saints.
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
South Aisle Window - detail.
BoE (Pevsner) is vague - other windows including one perhaps by Hardman, 1860s, above the S chapel and others much later, probably by the same (p315).
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Memorial Window to The Very Reverend Samuel, Canon Walshaw (died 1896) - Priest & Rector of this Church for 30 years. The Martyrs are, left to right, St Thomas More, St John Fisher, and St Philip Howard. - St Maries R C Cathedral, Sheffield.
Feast day October 19 - Saint Phillip Howard.
Born in London on 28th June 1587. His father was Thomas Howard the 14th Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Lady Mary Fitzalan who was the daughter of Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel. The young Howard was baptised at Whitehall Palace with the royal family in attendance, and was he was named after his godfather, King Philip II of Spain.
"His parents were Protestant, but his mother returned to Catholicism and helped hide priests. His father arrested and then was beheaded by Queen Elizabeth in 1572 when Phillip was 15. Courtier to Queen Elizabeth at age 18. He became 13th Earl of Arundel and Surrey on 24 February 1580. At the royal court he led a sinful and dissolute life.
In 1581 he was present at the Tower of London during the proceedings against Saint Edmund Campion, Saint Ralph Sherwin and others, and they had a great effect on him. He returned to his home in Arundel to consider their faith and his own, and was reconciled to the Church on 30th September 1584.
He planned to move abroad so he could practice his faith, but was betrayed by a servant, arrested on 15 April 1585, and lodged in the Tower of London on 25 April. He was interrogated extensively for a year, found guilty of treason due to being Catholic, fined £10,000, and returned to prison. During the wave of anti–Catholicism that swept the country in 1588, he was re-tried, found guilt and sentenced to death. He spent the next seven years in prison, praying for hours each day, eventually dying 19th October 1595 of malnutrition in the Tower of London. ("Martyr in Chains") One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales." Dennis Brown.
He is buried in the grounds of Arundel Castle and is commemorated in a shrine in Arundel Cathedral.
www.newadvent.org/cathen/07503a.htm
"Canon Samuel Walshaw, who was the priest at St. Marie's from 1866 until his death on April 14th, 1896. Canon Walshaw led fund raising initiatives that resulted in the development of local Catholic schools and the replacement of St Marie's ill-sounding steel bells with the eight bronze bells that hang in the Cathedral tower to this day, donating £60 himself—about £6,800 in today's money—towards the bells. He also spearheaded the completion of the shrine to Our Lady, donating the two marble columns that support the shrine, and had the shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour erected in the Mortuary Chapel, in addition to the memorial to the clergy in the same chapel. Canon Walshaw developed the church's choir and was the incumbent when St Marie's cleared its construction debts and could finally be consecrated in 1880, 30 years after construction had been completed." Cathedral Bulletin 11th April 2021.
picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=printdetails&...
Although the window commemorates the lives of three English Martyrs, only St Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel, who was martyred under Elizabeth the first, carries a palm frond.
The other two martyrs, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were both executed by order of Elizabeth’s father, Henry the Eighth.
Take a look at the tracery above the martyrs and you will see more white roses, surmounted by crowns – another symbol of martyrdom, representing the immortality of the martyrs’ reputation on earth and their eternal life in heaven.
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin & Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Nicholas Garlick, Priest and martyr was born at Dinting, Derbyshire, c1555 and died at Derby, 24 July 1588. He studied at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575, but did not take a degree. He next became master of the high school at Tideswell, Derbyshire, where he exercised such a holy influence over his pupils that three of them eventually went with him to Reims and one at least, Christopher Buxton, became a martyr.
He went to Reims in June 1581, was ordained, and returned to England in January 1583. After a year of labour, probably in the Midlands, he was arrested, and in 1585 sent into exile, with the knowledge that he would find no mercy if he returned. Nevertheless he was soon back at work in the same neighbourhood. He was arrested at Padley, the home of John Fitzherbert, a member of a family still surviving and still Catholic. With Garlick was arrested another priest, Robert Ludlam who had, like Garlick, been at Oxford and had engaged in teaching before his ordination in May 1581. In Derby Gaol they encountered a third priest, Richard Sympson, who had been earlier condemned to death but had been granted a temporary reprieve. The three priests were tried on 23 July 1588, were found guilty of treason, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The sentence was carried out the next day, at St Mary's Bridge in Derby.
Robert Ludlam, Nicholas Garlick, and Richard Sympson were declared venerable in 1888, and were among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.
John Hardman was one of the pioneers of the stained glass revival of the 19th century. His Birmingham-based operation started out as an ecclesiastical metal works, but, at the suggestion of AWN Pugin, the business expanded into glass manufacture in 1845. Pugin designed for the firm until his death in 1852 when this role passed onto John Nardman Junior's nephew John Hardman Powell (1827-1895). The firm was renamed John Hardman Studios in about 1939, at which time Donald Battershill Taunton (1886-1965) and Patrick Feeny (1910-1995) were designers. Able to move on from the Victorian and Edwardian Gothic Revival styles, the firm survived and still exists under the same ownership as Goddard & Gibbs, though in different premises in Birmingham.
Inside the Liber Ruber - the book recording the names of the students who took the Missionary Oath in Rome before returning to England.
This page records St. Ralph Sherwin's statement that he was ready to return to England "today rather than tomorrow, at a sign from his superiors to go into England for the helping of souls".
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Lady Chapel, 1854.
North Window, 1931-32 - detail.
By Hardman & Co.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin.
Ralph Sherwin (1550-1581) was a Roman Catholic priest, executed in 1581. He was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire and christened in Longford church. He was educated at Eton College. In 1568, he was nominated by Sir William Petre to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on 2 July 1574, and the following year converted to Roman Catholicism. He crossed to France on the pretext of studying medicine, but made for the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest on 23 March 1577. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years.
On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
John Hardman was one of the pioneers of the stained glass revival of the 19th century. His Birmingham-based operation started out as an ecclesiastical metal works, but, at the suggestion of AWN Pugin, the business expanded into glass manufacture in 1845. Pugin designed for the firm until his death in 1852 when this role passed onto John Nardman Junior's nephew John Hardman Powell (1827-1895). The firm was renamed John Hardman Studios in about 1939, at which time Donald Battershill Taunton (1886-1965) and Patrick Feeny (1910-1995) were designers. Able to move on from the Victorian and Edwardian Gothic Revival styles, the firm survived and still exists under the same ownership as Goddard & Gibbs, though in different premises in Birmingham.
A letter from St. Charles Borromeo recalling the visit of St. Ralph Sherwin and his companions, and offering hospitality to any students of the English College on their way back to England and Wales (and probable martyrdom) from the Archives of the Venerable English College
St Mary (RC), Derby : Derbyshire Martyrs
St Mary (RC), Bridge Gate, Derby, 1838-39.
Derbyshire Martyrs Memorial.
Blessed Ralph Sherwin.
Venerable Nicholas Garlick.
Venerable Robert Ludlam.
Venerable Richard Sympson.
Tablet by Hasrdman & Co, 1904.