The pulpit controversy

THERE HAVE BEEN many alterations to the Abbey Church during its 900 years of history but not all have met with universal approval. Those responsible usually had the money to finance major changes and therefore called the tune but the result was not always accepted as being beneficial for this historic building.

One of the most controversial changes was to scrap the carved oak pulpit during the 19th century, a decision which rankled with many churchgoers at that time and still has a resonance today although we have learned to live with the stone replacement.

The pulpit is the elevated platform from where the Sunday sermon is delivered to the congregation by the parson, introduced into our churches during the 14th century. Those built before the Reformation are usually made of wood and recognisable by their perfect proportions but many were replaced during Victorian times and are therefore out of character with a country church. Stone pulpits however, date from 200 years earlier and are therefore fewer in number.

The former pulpit in the Abbey Church was probably constructed at the beginning of the 17th century and, as with others of this period, generally termed Jacobean, being exceedingly simple and pleasing in design and appearance. But it did not appeal to everyone and was particularly disliked by the parish’s principal benefactor, Robert Mason Mills, who was also a churchwarden.

Mills (1819-1904) was a wealthy man, a chemist who made his money from the aerated water business he founded to take advantage of the prolific artesian wells which were tapped around Bourne and also provided vast sums of money for the upkeep and improvement of the building. In 1883, the west end was restored practically at his expense, in memory of his wife Fanny who had died two years earlier on 10th September 1881 at the age of 58, and his generosity is marked by a brass plate.

Four years later, he paid for three new stained glass windows to be installed in the south wall to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and he also completed the restoration of the nave in 1893, the chancel in 1903 together with the porch and south roof.

This period of restoration also included the removal of the twin aisles that had been a feature of the church in centuries past together with the pen or box pews that were much favoured in earlier times. The floor level was lowered and the church began to take on the appearance that we are familiar with today. In 1890, the present stone pulpit was installed to replace the old wooden Jacobean pulpit which was sold off to the parish church at Frampton, near Boston, for three guineas plus three loads of stone left over from the alterations to the building for an additional 15s.

This was subsequently considered to be a mistake, perhaps influenced by the erroneous belief that Norman churches had stone pulpits whereas they did not even exist in the 12th century and this pseudo-Norman copy was condemned as an anachronism by Charles Pask Matthews (1886-1956) in his history of the Abbey Church published soon after he retired after 25 years as headmaster of Bourne Grammar School. He was a regular worshipper and took a particular interest in the building and his short history which appeared in 1946 became so popular that it ran to five editions and remains the starting point today for historians researching the 12th century church.

It would appear however that Mills’ decision to proceed may also have caused dissent within his own family, notably with his son in law, Thomas Moore Baxter.

Baxter (1854-1920) was also a chemist who was engaged by Mills in 1878 to run his shop at No 1 West Street, subsequently marrying his employer’s only daughter, Emily, later becoming his business partner and then taking over the running of the company. He also became one of the town’s most prominent citizens and like his father-in-law, he was a staunch churchman and became vicar's warden at the Abbey Church in 1893, serving three incumbents for the next 27 years and from 1892, also acting as treasurer for the various restoration funds associated with the building.

He did not approve of the new pulpit but was unable to prevent the project from going through yet even when it was installed, he still had hopes that it might be removed and replaced with something like the original. When he died, he left a bequest of £100 in his will to the Abbey Church with the request that it be spent on a Jacobean oak pulpit, either an original or a reproduction, to replace the one that had been lost but although the money was received and the church architects, Traylen and Lenton of Stamford, instructed to provide a probable cost for the project, his wishes were not carried out and the stone pulpit remains intact.

Instead, his widow, Mrs Emily Baxter, intervened and realising that you could not turn back the clock, decided that the £100 should be spent to help finance the establishment of the lady chapel in the south aisle while she herself agreed to pay the balance “as a gift of love and gratitude” and the chapel was duly installed in April 1921. Baxter had obviously become an important man in the church yet, ironically, his influence had come too late because he had been unable to prevent the removal of the oak pulpit which he so much admired thirty years before.

Time however may have changed our perception of the present stone pulpit which appears to be perfectly appropriate for its setting whereas the previous one had obviously become unsuitable for its purpose. It was small and cramped and anyone who visits the 12th century church of St Mary the Virgin at Frampton to see it must agree that it would now be out of place and even incongruous in its previous surroundings and so perhaps Pask Matthews’ judgment was harsh and even misjudged and Mills did make the right decision after all but no doubt the argument will continue.