A history    of    St Andrew's    Church   Haconby

The reason for the dedication of the parish church to St Andrew is uncertain although it could be due to the long association with the prior and convent at Sempringham, patrons of the living from about 1350 to 1540. Sempringham Parish Church is dedicated to St Andrew, as are the churches at Folkingham, Rippingale, Horbling, Dowsby, Witham-on-the Hill, Pickworth and Irnham, which are all well within the ambit of St Gilbert's foundation at Sempringham.

The present church, though modified and restored at intervals, possibly dates from the early 12th century. Nikolaus Pevsner, in his The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, dates the priest's door as approximately 1200, and the first recorded rector is named as Master John de Hoylande in 1220. Although there is mention of a church in the Haconby entry of the Domesday Book of 1086, under the entry relating to the lands of Heppo Balistarius, this was most likely a previous building.

The church is a graceful structure. The clerestoried nave is separated from the north and south aisles by an arcade of three arches. There were formerly altars in each of the aisles. The tower, built in the early 14th century, contains four bells dated 1596 and is surmounted by a spire which has four pinnacles at its foot. To the north of the chancel is another chapel containing examples of late 15th century work and it is incredible that at the end of the 19th century it was suggested that it was unnecessary and should be demolished.

The south wall of the chancel contains a brass inscribed to Samuel Hopkinson, vicar from 1795 to 1841 and his wife. The blazon of Hopkinson's arms was given in church notes by Bonney, who was Archdeacon of Lincoln 1845-8: within a border or, a chevron or charged with three lozenges gules between three estoiles. Hopkinson's wife Elizabeth bore arms: Gules a bend or charged with three martlets sable. 

Two other notable features are the Norman font and the mediaeval pulpit which has been partially restored to reveal the painted tracery. There is also an oak chest with carved tracery. 

On the belfry wall is a stone with an inscription of which the initial letters of each line make up a single acrostic of John Audlie, who was vicar from 1630. It has been suggested that the verses refer not to the vicar but to a friar of the same name at an earlier date.

John, Viscount Beaumont was licensed on 14th December 1441 to found a chantry of two chaplains in his castle of Folkingham, and another of one chaplain in the chapel of St Peter and Paul in Haconby. He also had licence to grant land to each of these chaplains to the value of 13 marks yearly [a mark was two-thirds of £1]. Those who wished for the prayers of the church after their death normally obtained them by founding a chantry or endowing a priest to say daily masses for the souls of the benefactor and his family. In a series on chantry certificates, Volume 37 of the Lincolnshire Archaeological Society reports on Haconby church as follows:

Chantry of St Peter in Hackenbie. Foundation and intent unknown. Land and tenements given to support a chapel in perpetuity to celebrate divine service for the souls of the founders and others. The incumbent whereof is Henry Symson age 60 by no means fit to serve the cure but he takes the profits of the lands as his sole stipend. Parishioner communicating are 91.

Peter Fowler was chantry priest in 1526 with £8, half of which was paid to a stipend chaplain. Later, he had £6 16s 5d. and Henry Symson was cantarist in 1548.

There is reputed to have been a chapel at Stainfield but it was abandoned in Elizabethan days. Perhaps it was the same building as that referred to on Bonney's Church notes. He says: "There was a monastery at this place, where the manor house now stands."

The richness of St Andrew's ornaments and furnishings is illustrated by the list of items destroyed or converted to other uses during the first years of Elizabeth I's reign, when the violence of the reactions against Mary Tudor's reintroductions of Roman Catholicism was making itself felt. The rood with attendant images of the Virgin Mary and St John, a large altar table, a container for sanctified oils, two copper crosses, two censers and a pyx [coffer] were amongst the items burned. Many of the vestments and banners were torn up or made into cushions, curtains or hangings. Other altars, candlesticks and bells were destroyed; another bell served as a horse bell, a holy water stoup became a pig trough and planks from the rood loft were used to make a ceiling for a four poster bed.

Haconby parish registers deposited at the Lincolnshire Archives Office date from 1703. Before that it is necessary to refer to the Bishop's Transcripts which cover the years from 1561. As in many other parishes, there was a requirement to use standard printed forms of register and the Haconby registers refer to many parish events, including a number of briefs, which were special collections for the relief and suffering caused in the main by disasters such as flood, fire and famine. Other records such as faculties enable church repairs and installations to be dated. For instance, restoration of the church in 1899-1900, at a cost of £2,298, of which £1,338 was contributed by the 1st Earl of Ancaster; the war memorial in 1921; the new window in the east end in 1937, which incidentally was condemned by Pevsner as "quite terrible in its total neglect to respond to the essence of stained glass"; and the installation of electric lighting in 1946.

From a terrier [register of landed property], dated 1709, we can visualise the vicarage house of Haconby before the benefice was united with Morton on 7th July 1732: 

The churchwarden's accounts and vestry minutes are a mine of information for the local historian. There are records of disbursements for parish expenses and lists of names of parish constables, churchwardens, overseers of the poor, dike reeves and others. The most important parish meeting of the year was the annual vestry held in Easter week to audit the accounts of the out going officers and to elect new ones. The proceedings concluded with a feast, which at wealthier places like Stamford included meat and puddings. The grace used at Haconby suggests that the parishioners made do with much humbler fare: 

For all good things within our sight
Give us, good Lord, an appetite
For bread and cheese and onions.

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