THE
SOKE OF GRANTHAM & ITS IMPORTANCE IN BRACEBY CHURCH’S HISTORY
A Soke is an administrative area. Sokes
developed prior to the Norman Conquest, and comprised some, not necessarily all, of the villages surrounding certain towns.
There were eleven parishes in the Grantham Soke, including Braceby. In the Domesday Book both Braceby
and the adjoining smaller parish of Sapperton were listed under land belonging to the King. A church is
mentioned. Enigmatically just where in the two parishes it was situated is not clear. Braceby
church was a chapel of the Grantham mother church. The tithes were paid to the vicar of Grantham, seven miles away.
Therefore it was the duty of the Vicar to provide a clergyman for Braceby. And this remained the
case until 1854.
MEDIEVAL
The west wall of the present church of St. Margaret’s is all that remains
of the exterior of the first stone church about 1200 to 1250. The original roof was steeply pitched.
Detail on the outside at the base of the wall show that this was not just a simple building. The west wall also has
the marks of the later raising of the roof to its present shallow pitch. The 13th Century
chancel arch seems to be original. The smaller oldest bell dates from the original building.
But the double bellcote could date from when the roof was raised.
There were two side aisles,
added in the 14th Century. Only the north aisle remains. The south doorway
and the font are also dated to the 14th Century (6). The clerestory has 15th Century
windows, which indicate that the roof was raised then.
The south porch has seats
which are actually medieval grave slabs. Were they originally inside the church when burial within the
church was popular for those who could afford to pay for it? One such slab does still exist in the church,
but not in its original place. The slab is of a later date, 1630, and commemorates Anne Towne, the wife
of the then Lord of the Manor. It was originally in the side chapel where the family of the Lords of the
Manor was buried. Until the 19th century this chapel was on the north side of the chancel decorated
with “curiously wrought heads of men, foxes, roses, etc.“ mentioned by Edmund Turnor in his book “Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham” published 1806.
This continuing beautification
depended on wealthy villagers who understood that their soul’s salvation would be secured by their contribution to the
church.
REFORMATION
At the
creation of the protestant Church of England much of the decoration that was inside the church disappeared. Traces
of medieval red stain decoration can be seen on the chancel arch. The plastered walls may also have been
decorated, and this decoration was covered or removed. Beautiful medieval stained windows had to be broken
up, either then or later at the Civil War. Fragments have been reglazed into one window. In
1566 the Churchwarden, Nicholas Bawne, was obliged to make a sad inventory for the Diocese, confirming what had happened to
church furniture and plate:-
First all or mass bookes and other of the Idolatrous mass weare torne and made awaie anno
po Elizabeth
Item one banner clothe – made away anno po Elizabeth
Item ii candelstickes an oynting box
a canapie and a crosse sold to Johne Pell Anno dni 1565 and is defacid
Item a crwet – or vicar that was
had it awaie wth him anno po Elizabeth who is the vicar of Londonthorp
Item one vestment – broken and
deficid anno po Elizabeth
Item iii altar stones and a hollie waterfate – broken and deficed anno pdco
and is occupied about the mending of Skellington Hall
Item or Rood Loft – broken and therof is made seats for the parishoners
anno dni 1563
Item an alb – whereof is made a coveringe for or font Anno 1565
Item or Roode Images Marie
& John - burnid – so that their remain none upon or othes
SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
This was the heyday of Braceby. The Towne family purchased the lordship of the Manor and moved
to Braceby from Heydour. They stayed over 100 years and rebuilt the Manor House. At
the same time other wealthy landowners and tenants had money to spend. They improved their homes and the
largest houses in the village date from this period.
Glebe terriers
of the early 17th Century show that the glebe land amounted to a few strips in the open fields. There
was a “neat vicarage house” of 3 bays. By 1671 the house was described as “blown down”
and the parcels of land were in the enclosed fields. In 1690 the house “in stone and covered with
thatch” was “two bays of building now in very good & sufficient repaire”. In 1700
the vicarage house was let, as the recently installed Rector of Sapperton was acting as Curate for Braceby.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
In this century the church went downhill.
Making a living from farming became harder. By 1724 the vicarage was once again “blown
down”. In common with many other churches in Lincolnshire the South Aisle was probably demolished
in the eighteenth century and the south porch repositioned on the new south wall. The mass dial built into
the south wall of the porch is late medieval. Certainly the barn and dovecote of Manor Farm, built about
that time, include many pieces of cut stone which come from a more sophisticated building. It was at this
time that the Welby family of Denton began leasing and then buying land in Braceby. They bought the lordship
of the Manor and land from the Towne family, who left the area. The Welby family did not live in
Braceby. They worshipped and were buried in Denton church. Gradually the side chapel
fell into disrepair, with nobody having a personal interest in it.
NINETEENTH CENTURY –
BRACEBY LEAVES THE SOKE OF GRANTHAM
The start of the nineteenth century found William Earle Welby, Lord of the Manor,
and the Archdeacon, John Pretyman, obtaining a faculty to demolish the side chapel. This chapel was described
by Edmund Turnor in his book as follows:-
“The chapel communicates with the chancel by a plain circular
arch. The window at the end is walled up; but the stone munions shew it to be more ancient than Henry VI,
being adorned with beautiful tracery.”
In a Glebe Terrier for 1822 the parish of Braceby no longer has any vicarage house
or land, only the church and churchyard, still a chapelry of Grantham. The 1838 Tithe Award listed 10 landowners
in Braceby. The Welby family owned more than half and others owned between 1 and 152 acres each.
In 1843 sufficient funds were found to re-lead the nave roof. This has lasted for over 160 years.
The return made for
the 1851 Census of Religious Worship reported that Braceby had 45 seats held by subscription and 25 free seats, but that only
about 20 attended the fortnightly morning Service. 24 Sunday scholars sat in the Chancel.
In 1854 the Diocese
permitted the Welby family to receive glebe land in Sapperton in exchange for approximately 3 acres at the corner of a field
in Braceby. Here a new vicarage house was built and the parishes of Sapperton and Braceby were combined
into one, although administered separately, as they still are. The first Rector was Rev. William Handley Bland, already rector
of Sapperton and curate of Braceby. He is buried in Braceby churchyard. He devoted his
life to his two small parishes.
The population of Braceby rose rapidly from 71 in 1801 to 155 in 1841, living in
33 houses. By 1861 there were 168 people living in 37 houses. Most were farm labourers
and desperately poor. However the village did have its blacksmith, carpenter and shopkeeper as well as
a schoolmistress.
In 1870, well into the period of Victorian church rebuilding, the Chancel was rebuilt to a simple design by Ewan
Christian, RIBA. There is no indication of how this was funded, but traditionally the Rector was responsible
for the repair of the chancel. When he died in 1890 Rev. Bland left over £10,000, so perhaps he paid.
It appears that there was no money or will to do more and therefore the rest of St. Margaret’s church remains
largely unchanged.
TWENTIETH CENTURY
The population fell as rapidly as it had risen. In 1901 it was 77, less than half
of the 1861 peak, and poverty continued. At Christmas 1901 Rev. Bland’s widow and daughter sent gifts
of half a pound of tea and a warm coat to each household in the village.
By 1918 Sir Charles Welby Bt. owned
almost all the land in Braceby parish. Slowly the population declined. In 1950 it was
agreed to apply for a faculty to repair the roof. Attempts were made to raise £600, the estimated
cost. Grants were applied for, but even with these there was a £150 shortfall. It
was decided to postpone the work.
By 1970 the population was below 20, and Braceby was part of a Group of four parishes, with Ropsley,
Sapperton and Old Somerby. Services were held twice a month. At this point a decision
of the Welby family to sell empty and unwanted cottages was important in saving the church from redundancy. The
people who moved in had more disposable income. They strongly resisted a proposal that the church should
be closed, and began to raise funds to pay for maintenance work. A two-day Village Festival held in 1982
raised enough for the interior walls to be replastered and limewashed and other repairs to be done. Repairs
to the bellcote meant that the second bell could be rehung. Kneelers were worked by parishoners and friends.
In 1994 upon the retirement of the Rector the group of parishes was linked to six others in the Ingoldsby Group under
one rector.
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
At the National Census in 2001 there were 10 occupied houses,
and one standing empty. The population was 26, 7 of them under 16 years old.
The Church of England parish
of Braceby was formally joined into the North Beltisloe Group of Parishes in 2006. Continued annual fund-raising events by the parishoners of St. Margaret’s, Braceby have enabled
on-going maintenance to be done. In 2001 the chancel and porch roofs were repaired.
In 2007, with a large
grant from English Heritage and money from other charities, and with parish fundraising the nave roof was repaired so that
the worship of God in this historic building will be secure in Braceby for many years to come.
Reference Documents:-
1971 Quinquennial Survey by Grantham Architects Bond & Read
Glebe Terriers, Faculty, will of Rev.
Handley Bland, documents relating to the Towne & Welby families at Lincolnshire Archives Office, Lincoln
Collection for
the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham by Edmund Turnor
1806
English
Church Furniture, Ornaments & Decoration at the time of the Reformation
Edward Peacock 1866
The Buildings of England, Lincolnshire
2nd Edition by Pevsner N. and Harris J., 1989
Lincolnshire Returns for the Census of Religious Worship 1851 ed. R.A. Ambler Lincoln Record Society 1979
