There are four good legs to my Father's chair
"Priest and People and Lords and Crown.
I sit on all of 'em fair and square
And that is the reason it don't break down.
I won't trust one leg nor two nor three
To carry my weight when I sit me down
I want all four of 'em under me -
Priest and People and Lords and Crown".
Rudyard Kipling
It must have been the greatest day in the long history of Gedling when the great stone church was seen rising on the hill where the first wooden church had stood. We can imagine with what enthusiasm the villagers carried the stone from the Gedling quarry in carts and barrows up the hill ready for the stone-masons to begin their work, and the awe with which they watched the graceful arches rising upwards, and lastly the magnificent steeple towering into the sky and the church complete.
Gedling church is all of one period and that perhaps the greatest in English ecclesiastical architecture in its dignity and simplicity. The interior would probably have been plastered and bright with colour; blue, vermillion and gold; as can still be seen in St. Stephen's Chapel Westminster, at Chartres in France: perhaps actual pictures were painted on the walls as in the chapel of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. The piscina of Gedling is identical with that of Southwell, and is it too much to imagine that the master mason of the Minster had a say in its building, and that the benign face which gazes down from the Chapter House in Southwell looked at the work in our own church and found it good?
The power of the church over men's hearts and minds in the Middle Ages was very great. The clergy claimed to be a class apart, with their own law and jurisdiction: in fact that they held the keys of heaven and hell. The problem to be solved was how to adjust these claims of Church and State: the tension on this subject underlies all the history of this period, and periodically broke into open war, as between Henry IV and Pope Hildebrand in Europe, and our own Henry II and Thomas a Becket in the middle of the twelfth century. The Church claimed the right to supervise all morals, and pass judgments on private lives. It also demanded tithes for the upkeep of the Parish priest, and mortuary fees. It was the growing dislike of these that made it possible for Henry VIII to carry the country with him in his final break with Rome.
In early mediaeval times, the clergy were divided into two sections, secular and regular: the first the parish priests in every parish in England, the second those who lived by rule in some monastic foundation. Ralph Aslin is reputed to have founded a monastery at Shelford, but an argument arose over this in 1258 for both William Bardolph and Adam de Everingham disputed this with him. It was litigious age, and the question had to be brought before an Inquisition. Adam de Everingham pleaded that his grandfather founded the priory and enfeoffed it with all his lands in Shelford, and Ralph Bardolph that it was his ancestor in the female line that had done so. The jury found in favour of Bardolph and that the priory was the work of Ralph Ascelin or Aslin, in Henry II's time.
When one reads of the wealth filched from the monasteries by Henry VIII, and of the treasures accumulated in them, Shelford does not appear to have been a very wealthy house, judging by what was taken in 1536. There was one chalyx and patten of silver gilt, but one cross was only gilded copper, and two others were wood covered with laten; a pair of censers and crysmitory, two candlesticks and a holy water "stock" were of laten also. One vestment was of damask velvet; one cope of green satin, another two copes of red and black (material not mentioned) and vestments of red saye and white fustian. There were of course bells ("4 belles in ye Stepull, and 2 hand belles"), altar cloths and towels. (The commissioners sent round by Cromwell were expected to leave behind a chalice, a bell and a surplice, the bare minimum necessary for divine worship.)
This does not sound like inordinate riches, but if Shelford Priory was not in the same category as Southwell or even Lenton, it was not for want of trying. The Priors did what they could. Their income from Gedling is set forth in 1291 as 1 pound and 2 shillings.
In 1392 Licence was obtained by John de Landeford for alienation in mortmain of the church in Gedling. Thomas de Birkin gave to the Canonry of the Blessed Mary of Shelford all his park of Gedling and wood therein (Hail M.S.). In 1330 Archbishop Gray confirmed to the Prior and Convent of Shelford half a mark out of the mediety of Gedling, Laxton and Burton Joyce, but after the death of the then present rectors of Gedling and Laxton, these churches were to pay a whole mark (13 shillings and 4 pence) yearly, (according to York Episcopal Register).
In 1310 (to make assurance doubly sure) the Priory obtained a royal licence to appropriate the "moiety" of the church of Gedling which was in their patronage. Again in 1335, at the Pleas of the Forest held in Nottingham, the prior of Shelford maintained his rights in a wood at Gedling, called "The Priors Park". (Could this have been where Priory Road now runs?) No one could accuse the Priors of Shelford of lack of determination in forwarding the interests of their Priory.
But to return to Gedling itself. Doomsday Book tells us that in Gedling was a church and a priest, but after the Conquest, we find two priests - a Rector appointed by the Lord of the Manor; and a Vicar appointed by the Prior of Shelford. This is an unusual arrangement, but not unique: originating probably with divisions of property amongst heiresses. In thirteenth century Nottingham rectories which were thus split up include Eakring, Gedling and West Retford. This Vicar was to be maintained by the Priory, and a habitation to be provided for him on the south side of the Church consisting of one hall, two chambers, a pantry, kitchen with garderobe after the French fashion, also a stable for two horses.
The thirteenth century was the golden age of monasticism. Not only were they home of learning, giving aid to the sick and needy, but by their interest in farming, especially sheep, laid the foundation of the wool trade, the main source of English wealth.
There must have been many good parish priests as Chaucer describes, but that could not be so in every case. The clergy in Gedling had a particularly hard row to hoe, and only one church between them in which to do their office. There must have come a time when disagreements arose, as to the timing of services for instance. In fact there is one occasion recorded when so loud and violent was their disagreement and so much commotion was caused between them that the Archbishop had to be sent for to tranquillise matters. This was in 1587; "judgment enjoined and admonished the Rector and Vicar of Gedlinge that they do observe and keep themselves in quiet manner in the church at all tymes, and not to give occasion of breach one to the other of friendship, and that if there be any contention to ryse between them to exhibit the same contencion in wryting either to my Lord Grace the Archbishop of York or to the sayd Mr Archdeacon, and in the same tyme to surcease from all quarrelsome occasions".
Such "quarrelsome occasions" ended when the benefice was united in 1744 the incumbent holding the position of Rector and Vicar.
But any scandal concerning the Rector and Vicar of Gedling palls into insignificance beside that which befell the Vicar of Bingham, an adjoining township. In 1283 he was charged with having a public house, also with drunkenness, quarrelling, neglecting services, illiteracy and grave incontinence. The Archbishop "bound him under a bond of 10 pounds". Four years later another incumbent (Robert this time) was bound under a penalty of 50 pounds to be of good behaviour and not to repeat divers evil actions. This does not seem to have had the desired effect for in 1294 the Archbishop is writing to the Archdeacon of Oxford ( the said Robert must have changed his place of abode) accusing him of incontinence with a woman living in St. Giles Street, Oxford. The woman had been duly corrected and proceedings would be brought against the Vicar if he could be found, but fortunately or unfortunately, he could not.
The Reformation brought its problems. The question of Recusancy comes to the fore. In 1603, out of a population of 821, including children, there were no recusants. "Ye Lord be praised for it". But "ye Lord" was praised too soon. For in 1607 Richard Cooke and his wife were presented as Popish recusants, followed by others. In James II's time 13 people were "presented for absence from church for one month". Joseph Truman, the Presbyterian Rector condemned the sports held round the Maypole on Sunday; he was ejected by Cromwell.
The Rector in the 1650's, Laurence Palmer was a man of parts. Not only did he enlist a contingent of troops from Gedling to fight for the Parliamentary cause which he commanded himself, but he was one of five local ministers appointed "to assist the carrying out of the Ordinance for the Ejecting of Scandalous, Ignorant and Insufficient Ministers and Schoolmasters". As a result, in 1658 George Mitchell, convicted of Popish Recusancy was disabled and discharged from being a schoolmaster and the public teaching of children, and "to leave off any School".
Written by: F.M. Swann
Transcribed by: Allen Copsey