THE JOURNAL

OF THE

British Archæological Association

DECEMBER, 1924.

LUTON PARISH CHURCH.

BY T. G. HOBBS, F.R.G.S.

A Paper read before the Association.

UTON is not of mushroom growth, but has plodded on from very small and very early beginnings, playing its part under some few changing chrysalis-like names. It has not yet reached the gaiety of the "Purple Emperor" stage.

The survey of A.D. 1086 mentions only four churches in Bedfordshire, and states that the Luton Church had existed also during the preceding reign, that it had the rich endowment of five hides of land and that its priest in King Edward's time (the Saxon Morcar), used to minister therein to probably 700 to 800 souls.

Yet the town can claim the lords of its chief manor besides a long succession of worthy kings, some of the foremost. champions of liberty and men of the most noble character. It can shew in the history and present aspect of its remarkable church an evidence as of the continuity of the National Church alike through changes of race and dynasty, notwithstanding royal and fanatical despoilers.

British princes as well as Roman officers (according to Cobbe), have almost certainly dwelt within the town's borders. Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Norman kings, have in turn owned its broad acres, and through a long series of years derived annually from their tenants thereon their

honey and other provisions for the royal table, their sumpter horse and hunting dogs, besides their four ounces of gold for their queens' wardrobes. Once, at least, while Athelstan reigned, November 12th, 931, subject kings of the whole hierarchy of the kingdom, with all the chief nobles of the land, met their sovereign in solemn Witenagemot of the whole nation the greatest assembly of the kind on recordat his Luton mansion where, as usual, when such meetings were held at one of his manors "they engaged the hospitality of the King."

The coins, files, weapons, utensils and bones of these several races found in or near Luton (one hoard of 800 Roman coins was unearthed in Luton Hoo Park in December, 1862), go to prove that each race has lived, toiled, fought and died here.

The old parish church boundaries were the most extensive in the county, and now the borough's population exceeds that of the three other largest towns in the shire.

It is conjectured that the record National Witenagemot already alluded to was the occasion of celebrating the founding of the church, as doubtless a great religious ceremony makes an occasion of such magnitude; and in anticipation of the thousandth anniversary of this date in about six-and-a-half years, eager Luton churchmen are already hoping for millenary celebrations of great importance in commemoration. These should prove of intense interest to the Vicar and to many lovers of our revered pile-the Luton Parish Church. It is about 710 years since the building of the present edifice, and it is difficult for the uninitiated to imagine why a building of such stately dimensions should be built in those far-off days. Luton's population even in 1821 was under 3,000, but in 1921 it was over 57,000.

The chief architectural features of the church are described briefly.

The Font (plate 3), the gift of the first Vicar, 1225, is of Purbeck marble, showing the exorcised spirits at the angles. The bowl was made large enough for immersion.

Baptistery south-west view. This was the gift of Queen Philippa of Hainault, mother of the Black Prince, and the crocketting is due to the Queen's introduction of this fine. French work into English architecture.

was

King Edward III. was at this time Royal Patron, and William Wykeham, the famous Bishop of Winchester, the King's ecclesiastical architect. His coat of arms discovered under one of the tower buttress canopies during the last restoration; his arms are also repeated in the sanctuary with those of the Queen, 1349.

The whole of the west wall, and a good part (if not the whole) of the south wall of this transept, are marked internally by what appears to be the remains of an old string-course. They seem to have been, if not coeval with the original

PLATE 1. Recumbent Effigy in Fourteenth Century Recess, South Aisle Wall. Norman nave and chancel, at least erected before the close of the reign of Henry II. (1189). These, together with the arch and its piers, leading into the south aisle, of undoubted Transition work (1160-80), may be regarded with special interest, as being the oldest part of the existing building.

There is a rather curious difference between the two piers of this arch, the southernmost having a cushion-shaped Norman capital, while the other is plain.

The two windows, that in the west wall of four lights, and that in the south wall of five lights, are apparently, from the similarity of their style, contemporary with the other perpendicular windows of the north transept and the aisles.

There is a recumbent effigy in the recess (14th cent.) of the south aisle wall (plate 1).

St. Anne's porch museum room contains many interesting relics, chiefly collected by Mr. E. Craven Lee, whose life's hobby has been to study the history of the church. The old clock, chiming barrel, cylinders containing hymn tunes, a carved head of John of Wheathamstead and a Celtic Cross, are the chief objects of interest.

An illustration (plate 3), is given of the Baptistery and Font through the fourteenth century Tower Arch. This is taken from the sill of the tower window. The view embraces the whole length of the church-182 feet.

The Brass (plate 2) to John Acworth (1513) and his two wives and seventeen children has been lifted from its old position on the floor. Many brasses in the church were desecrated, some being made into chandeliers.