Linton - History

History

The present building dates in parts from the 11 th Century. There was a Church and Priest at Linton [ Anglo Saxon: flax-enclosure] at the time of the Doomsday Survey in 1086. The Abbey of St Mary at Cormeilles in Normandy held the advowson and some land. Eleventh Century text indicates that Linton was a Royal manor with extensive claims and rights to a revenue over a wide area.

The re-set and blocked south doorway of Norman date, which can just be made out in the south aisle, may possibly have belonged to this eleventh Century building, a rectangular nave, to which a west tower was added in the twelfth Century. The south wall of the present vestry, with its string course of chevron mouldings and blocked window and corbels for a belfry floor on the tower-side of the wall, was added, with a side Chapel at the east end and a Sacristy at the west. The heavy circular pier of the north arcade remains, but the arches and the wall above have been rebuilt.

Two of the early thirteenth Century lancet windows are left; that in the north chancel wall, with its round-headed splay and pointed head to the light, shows the transition from the Norman to the Gothic style, while the other is the west window of the vestry.

These windows would be unglazed but shuttered. In the second half of the Century the south wall was pierced by two arches and the south aisle built. The south area bears masons' marks: ¿ , @, N and at the east end there is a crude piscina, which served as a fourteenth century chantry.

The chancel was rebuilt in the late thirteenth Century and the north porch added. The rebuilding is marked by the crude piscine and sedilia under the chancel south-east window and a priest's doorway in the south wall of the chancel, together with the chancel arch, with its two blocked windows above to light the roof loft, whose staircase turret to the north was removed in the nineteenth Century. The timber roof may date from this time. The stone window seats would be the only seats originally provided.

In the late fourteenth Century the Norman tower was removed, the south arcade lengthened by one arch and pier and the present tower and spire erected. The stone vault of the tower, with its carved corbels of a crouching figure with cudgel, hooded man, grotesque mask and beast's head, is unusual for East Herefordshire, although a similar one exists nearby at Neent in Gloucestershire. Also noteworthy are the drawbar sockets of the west doorway and outside carved head stops, one of a flying dragon.

In the 1870s a drastic restoration was carried out and the Church refurnished. A three- decker eighteenth Century pulpit seems to have been removed completely, but some panelling from the seventeenth Century box pews was retained and this was re-erected in 1968 to form a reredos behind the altar. At the same time some fragments of ancient glass were mounted before the eastern chancel windows and ladies of the Parish began to embroider a series of kneelers. An altar-rail kneeler was designed and produced to mark the Millennium.

Of the Monuments two are perhaps worthy of mention:

a “funny tablet with two draped female figures, two ugly cherubs' heads (Pevsner) to John Elmehurst, dated 1662
a “tall quite elegant tablet” (Pevsner) to the Revd Peter Senhouse, Vicar of Kempley for 66 years and for 57 of them also Vicar of Linton; he died in 1760 aged 90.

Archaeology : In 1999 Stephen J Yates carried out a very detailed structural assessment of the Church whilst studying Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield.

Organ : Eustace Ingram of Hereford built the pipe organ in the chancel in 1888. It was renovated in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. It is now maintained by Percy Daniel & Co Ltd of Clevedon, most recently to repair damage to the blower created by mice!

Bells : There were four large bells in the tower in 1553. A set of five bells, cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester, was hung in 1722. One of these was recast and another added to provide a ring of six bells in 1959. The bells were not rung from Victory Day in 1918 until they were refurbished and rehung in 1959. Bell ringing was stopped again in December 1999 because of the deterioration of the bell chamber floor. However, having made a new floor for the bell chamber, with the help of a grant from the Herefordshire Historic Churches Fund, it was found that the sound reduction between the bell chamber and the ringing chamber is inadequate; work is being put in hand to rectify this problem.

Plate : The valuable plate is held in the Hereford Cathedral Treasury.

Priest Chambers : To the northwest of the Church the cottage now known as Priest Chambers, having been built in the 15 th century, has portions of three original crutch-trusses and was a medieval Priest's chamber. The adjacent Orchard View was built in the 17 th century. At one time [1941] the Sisters of the Community of St Nazareth occupied the Priest Chambers and the nearby Court House. When they left Linton the Sisters presented to the Parish a large painting of the Madonna and Child which hangs on the eastern wall of the nave.

The following was found on the Internet:

"LINTON is a parish and village, situated on the borders of Gloucestershire, and intersected by the main road between Ross and Newent. It is distant 5½ miles E.N.E. of Ross, 12 S.S.W. of Ledbury, 5 W. of Newent, 15 S.E. of Hereford, and 13 N.W. of Gloucester; is in Greytree hundred, Newent union, Ross county court district and petty sessional division, and is a polling place for county elections. The population in 1861 was 915; in 1871, 924; inhabited houses, 212; families or separate occupiers, 217; area of parish, 2,775 acres; annual rateable value, £4,854. The Right Hon. Lord Ashburton is the principal landowner. The soil is sandy and loamy; subsoil, chiefly rock and clay; products, wheat, barley, roots, &c. Linton is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Ross; living, a vicarage; value, £555, with residence (erected in 1868) and 69 acres of glebe; patrons, the president and fellows of St. John's College, Oxford; vicar, Rev. Edward Palin, B.D., late fellow and tutor of that college, who was instituted in 1866. The earliest register is dated 1570. Mention is made in Domesday Book of a church in this parish, and the earliest part of the present structure is of early Norman work, but it received its existing form in the 13th and 14th centuries. It consists of nave and chancel 78 feet long, north and south aisles, north porch, western tower and spire with five bells. (1877). "

	Ross Team Ministry



	Parish of St. Mary, Linton
	History The present building dates in parts from the 11 th Century. There was a Church and Priest at Linton [ Anglo Saxon: flax-enclosure] at the time of the Doomsday Survey in 1086. The Abbey of St Mary at Cormeilles in Normandy held the advowson and some land. Eleventh Century text indicates that Linton was a Royal manor with extensive claims and rights to a revenue over a wide area. The re-set and blocked south doorway of Norman date, which can just be made out in the south aisle, may possibly have belonged to this eleventh Century building, a rectangular nave, to which a west tower was added in the twelfth Century. The south wall of the present vestry, with its string course of chevron mouldings and blocked window and corbels for a belfry floor on the tower-side of the wall, was added, with a side Chapel at the east end and a Sacristy at the west. The heavy circular pier of the north arcade remains, but the arches and the wall above have been rebuilt. Two of the early thirteenth Century lancet windows are left; that in the north chancel wall, with its round-headed splay and pointed head to the light, shows the transition from the Norman to the Gothic style, while the other is the west window of the vestry. These windows would be unglazed but shuttered. In the second half of the Century the south wall was pierced by two arches and the south aisle built. The south area bears masons' marks: ¿ , @, N and at the east end there is a crude piscina, which served as a fourteenth century chantry. The chancel was rebuilt in the late thirteenth Century and the north porch added. The rebuilding is marked by the crude piscine and sedilia under the chancel south-east window and a priest's doorway in the south wall of the chancel, together with the chancel arch, with its two blocked windows above to light the roof loft, whose staircase turret to the north was removed in the nineteenth Century. The timber roof may date from this time. The stone window seats would be the only seats originally provided. In the late fourteenth Century the Norman tower was removed, the south arcade lengthened by one arch and pier and the present tower and spire erected. The stone vault of the tower, with its carved corbels of a crouching figure with cudgel, hooded man, grotesque mask and beast's head, is unusual for East Herefordshire, although a similar one exists nearby at Neent in Gloucestershire. Also noteworthy are the drawbar sockets of the west doorway and outside carved head stops, one of a flying dragon. In the 1870s a drastic restoration was carried out and the Church refurnished. A three- decker eighteenth Century pulpit seems to have been removed completely, but some panelling from the seventeenth Century box pews was retained and this was re-erected in 1968 to form a reredos behind the altar. At the same time some fragments of ancient glass were mounted before the eastern chancel windows and ladies of the Parish began to embroider a series of kneelers. An altar-rail kneeler was designed and produced to mark the Millennium. Of the Monuments two are perhaps worthy of mention: a “funny tablet with two draped female figures, two ugly cherubs' heads (Pevsner) to John Elmehurst, dated 1662 a “tall quite elegant tablet” (Pevsner) to the Revd Peter Senhouse, Vicar of Kempley for 66 years and for 57 of them also Vicar of Linton; he died in 1760 aged 90. Archaeology : In 1999 Stephen J Yates carried out a very detailed structural assessment of the Church whilst studying Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield. Organ : Eustace Ingram of Hereford built the pipe organ in the chancel in 1888. It was renovated in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. It is now maintained by Percy Daniel & Co Ltd of Clevedon, most recently to repair damage to the blower created by mice! Bells : There were four large bells in the tower in 1553. A set of five bells, cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester, was hung in 1722. One of these was recast and another added to provide a ring of six bells in 1959. The bells were not rung from Victory Day in 1918 until they were refurbished and rehung in 1959. Bell ringing was stopped again in December 1999 because of the deterioration of the bell chamber floor. However, having made a new floor for the bell chamber, with the help of a grant from the Herefordshire Historic Churches Fund, it was found that the sound reduction between the bell chamber and the ringing chamber is inadequate; work is being put in hand to rectify this problem. Plate : The valuable plate is held in the Hereford Cathedral Treasury. Priest Chambers : To the northwest of the Church the cottage now known as Priest Chambers, having been built in the 15 th century, has portions of three original crutch-trusses and was a medieval Priest's chamber. The adjacent Orchard View was built in the 17 th century. At one time [1941] the Sisters of the Community of St Nazareth occupied the Priest Chambers and the nearby Court House. When they left Linton the Sisters presented to the Parish a large painting of the Madonna and Child which hangs on the eastern wall of the nave. The following was found on the Internet: "LINTON is a parish and village, situated on the borders of Gloucestershire, and intersected by the main road between Ross and Newent. It is distant 5½ miles E.N.E. of Ross, 12 S.S.W. of Ledbury, 5 W. of Newent, 15 S.E. of Hereford, and 13 N.W. of Gloucester; is in Greytree hundred, Newent union, Ross county court district and petty sessional division, and is a polling place for county elections. The population in 1861 was 915; in 1871, 924; inhabited houses, 212; families or separate occupiers, 217; area of parish, 2,775 acres; annual rateable value, £4,854. The Right Hon. Lord Ashburton is the principal landowner. The soil is sandy and loamy; subsoil, chiefly rock and clay; products, wheat, barley, roots, &c. Linton is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Ross; living, a vicarage; value, £555, with residence (erected in 1868) and 69 acres of glebe; patrons, the president and fellows of St. John's College, Oxford; vicar, Rev. Edward Palin, B.D., late fellow and tutor of that college, who was instituted in 1866. The earliest register is dated 1570. Mention is made in Domesday Book of a church in this parish, and the earliest part of the present structure is of early Norman work, but it received its existing form in the 13th and 14th centuries. It consists of nave and chancel 78 feet long, north and south aisles, north porch, western tower and spire with five bells. (1877). "