On 7th June 1368 (19th June in our modern calendar), in the 42nd year of Edward III, William Clifton the Vicar of Penn who was a Canon of Chalcombe Priory, was murdered in the Vicarage.

The machinery of justice was swift and two days later the County Coroner was holding an Inqisition at Penn; taking evidence from twelve local jurors. They swore on oath that,

“On the Wednesday before the Feast of Corpus Christi, during the night, John, the servant of the Vicar of La Penne, assaulted and wounded William de Clifton with an axe in three places in his head and scattered his brains by which he came to his death. On the same night he feloniously stole from the said William one horse of the value of 30 shillings, and 18 silver spoons valued at 18 shillings, and the murderer has money, linen and woolen garments, and other chattels to the value of £10.”

The finder of the body was Oliva atte Dene and as required by law, he immediately ‘raised the hue’.  He also had to find pledges for his own innocence, who were Richard and John Reynbold. The Vicar’s four neighbours who were also required to pledge each others innocence; were named as John Ran senior, Richard Taillour Richard Put and John Paviere.

The jury was provided by Penn and the neighbouring townships of Agmundesham, Woburne and Wicumbe, which were also required by law to follow the hue and cry after the suspected murderer and bring him to justice. Seven of the jurors’ names are still legible – Thomas de Hampden, John le Ran junior, Thomas le norice, Robert atte leye, John le Potter; John paine and john Ran senior .

Whether or not the murderer was caught is not known.

I can take no credit for researching this sorry tale. it is a reworking of J.G.Jenkins, History of Penn (1935), p64.

© Miles Green, February 1999.

After our diverting digression to look at the early chaplains and priests of Penn, we come back again to review all the many changes to the fabric of the church which took place during the 14th century.

We started the century with our present nave, a smaller chancel, and perhaps no tower; not the present one, anyway, which was added early in that century. The chancel seems to have been extended at about the same time, floored with Penn tiles of the period (which stayed until 1918). The south aisle was added in mid-century, probably to cater for an increasing population and the more elaborate ritual which was developing. The Lady Chapel belongs to roughly the same period, but is not on the same alignment as the south aisle and so was not built at the same time.

These expensive undertakings are likely to have been completed in the heyday of Penn tiling, before 1348, when the first wave of the Black Death killed off a third of the population. The parishioners themselves, less than 200 souls even before the Black Death, are likely to have contributed a large part of both the money and labour, spurred on by both local pride and by the belief that their chance of personal salvation would be correspondingly improved.

The Synod of Exeter, in 1287 , had formalised an already established convention that the parishioners were responsible for the upkeep of the nave whilst the rector had the duty of maintaining the chancel. This is still the position today. Our recently completed terrier and inventory recorded Earl Howe as the lay rector and so responsible, in theory at least, for the chancel, although it is many years since he received any rectoral tithes with which to meet the cost of upkeep.

Dr Clive Rouse observed to me that, ‘that, of course, there was no antiquarian prejudice about preserving old buildings in those days’.  The consequence has been that each successive generation has been able to adapt the church to its needs, and the architecture and decoration the church is in itself a history of the parish, marking the passing fortunes and fashions of each generation. There is a danger that recently developed concern for the past, though laudable in intent. will obstruct this vital evolution of the fabric.

© Miles Green, April 1999. 

Early in the 15 C, at about the time that Henry V was fighting the French at Agincourt (more about the bowmen of Penn later), the parishioners of Penn once again contributed generously in money and labour to improve their church.

The roof of the nave was removed and several feet were added to the walls with the fine timber structure which is so admired today resting on decorated corbels. The additional walls were thinner than the original as can be clearly seen inside the nave.

At some stage, a plaster ceiling was added between the timbers and it was not until 1923, in the course of work on the roof, that the plaster was removed to reveal more of the interesting 15th C woodwork.

The north porch has a heavily timbered oak frame to the the outer doorway which has the same tracery in the spandrels (the roughly triangular space between the curve of the arch and the enclosing right angle), as on the roof of the nave. This suggests that the porch is also early 15th C and the heavy door frame indicates that it was originally a timber porch which was later walled in.

Mr Muspratt discovered a grave lined with 14th C Penn tiles immediately outside the north porch and this had presumably been forgotten when the porch was built about a century later requiring worshippers to walk over the grave.

The south porch has part of a moulded beam over the entrance which also probably belonged to an earlier 15th C timber porch mostly rebuilt in the 18th C.

© Miles Green, June 1999.

The fine timbered roof, which we admire today was first raised C.1400, supported by 12 stone corbels. Whether they also supported the earlier, lower roof we do not know.

In 1952, when the Rev. Oscar Muspratt was having the Church renovated, there was scarcely any trace of visible colour to any of the corbels, but there was sufficient outline of the original carving to identify seven of them. The remaining five were painted with arms thought appropriate to the history of the parish.

Three of the five ‘guesses’ are the corbels between the north porch and the chancel:

1)The Turville arms, nearest to the porch (on a demi-man with a high collar and spiky hair holding a shield) are those of the family who were the overlords of the Pennes (see Part 16) and who held the patronage of the church in its early years.

2) The Penn arms (on a demi-man in a cap and knitted pullover, holding a shield). The arms first appear in written records in about 1308 when the parliamentary Roll of Arms assigns ‘Argent, on a fess sable, 3 plates to Sire Johan de la Penne’. He was twice Knight of the Shire for Buckinghamshire but his forbears were also of the knightly class, and the arms are likely to date from the early years of heraldry at least a century earlier.

(The arms on the corbel were originally mistaken since the three plates or roundels should be silver rather than gold  – since corrected)

3) A symbol of the Holy Trinity. I suggested (Part 4) that the original dedication of the church may not have been to the Holy Trinity.

© Miles Green, August 1999.

The corbel holding up the roof on the south side of the nave, just above the pulpit, was painted with the Segrave arms during the 1952 restoration. This was an informed guess because insufficient carving and colour survived to identify the original design.

However it was a good guess because the Segraves were very important in Penn during the Middle Ages. Stephen de Segrave was Constable of Dover and Warden of the Cinque Ports at a time when the south coast was being continually harassed by French raiders. He was also Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in 1232 and Sheriff of both Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire from 1228 – 34.

Stephen’s second wife was related to the Turvilles and it seems to have been through her that he first held land in Penn. He soon acquired more when in 1222, Nicholas de la Penne was found guilty of murdering a neighbouring landowner over a dispute about pasturing a horse. Nicholas was hanged and his property in Penn, 1/4 knights fee, amounting to about a fifth of the parish, was confiscated by the King and given to Stephen de Segrave.

The new Segrave Manor took in Knotty Green and Forty Greeen including Bayline Farm and a 150 acre deer park with a hunting lodge at its centre which we now call Seagraves Farm. The Seagrave family never lived in Penn and their bailiff  lived in the manor house/farm on Church Road next to Watercroft which is still known as the Manor House.

The Penn family bought back Segraves Manor, in 1607, but separate manorial records were kept for two centuries thereafter.

Stephen de Segrave’s son, Gilbert, married Amabilia de Chaucumb whose family had founded Chacombe Priory in Northamptonshire, And it was to be Chacombe Priory which was to hold the rectory of Penn and appoint its priests for nearly three centuries until the Reformation.

It is good to note that a new housing development in Knotty Green has recently been called Chacombe Place.

© Miles Green, October 1999.

The next five corbels discussed below were all part of the original design for the new roof in c.1400.

The second corbel from the east end of the south wall, almost above the pulpit, shows the arms of the Bishop of Bayeux and there is a similar one on the north side of the nave. The Bishop was William the Conqueror’s half brother and held the manor at the time of the Domesday Book, although he lost his estates only two years later when he rebelled against his nephew, William Rufus. The builder of 1400 must have been aware of the Domesday entry for Taplow, and that it included Penn.

St. George is represented on the next corbel, an unsurprising choice at a time of war with France.

Next is very probably Edward III (1327-77). The corbel depicts a bearded and crowned king’s head and shoulders, a fine piece of portrait sculpture, not just a random conventional kingly type. Dr. Clive Rouse, a nationally acknowledged expert on such matters, suggested Edward Ill. He had been a generous benefactor of Penn tilers and was a famous warrior king.

The immediately adjacent corbel shows a grotesque man’s head, bearded and moustached, with a huge nose, wearing a red painted, stiffened  ‘cap of estate’, a sign of rank only one degree below a coronet which a king might wear on occasion. Dr Rouse suggested that this might well be a caricature of Richard II after his deposition, in 1399, by Henry of Lancaster who was Penn’s overlord at the time. Caricatures of this kind were quite common in churches.

© Miles Green, December 1999.