Charles Tiplady Pratt

“ The Choir-stalls of oak and all the Chancel fittings are new the East end of the North stall has carved on it the arms of the Spencers, that of the South the arms of the Stanhopes. The Choir Organ is brought through the south wall, between the two arches into the South Chancel Aisle and the east end of the Church, and its richly carved and decorated case breaks in a pleasing manner the length of Chancel wall. ”

“ Stanhope and yourself to thus leave your happy home at "Cannon Hall and all the interests around it. The cheerful "happiness you have always shown in coming among us; your kindly "sympathy with the sick and troubled; your goodness to the poor, and your constant interest in the welfare of the Parish will, we "assure you, be affectionately remembered, and will make your "absence more deeply and universally regretted by us. ”

“ The conspicuous and pleasantly-situate house on the Barnsley Road which is now Barnby Hall was built about sixty years ago on or very near to the site of a former residence of considerable importance, the seat of a "family which derived from it their hereditary name, and ranked with the principal gentry of these parts." In the Pedigree of Barnby of Barnby given by Hunter the family is traced up to a William de Denby, who married Sarra, daughter of Sir Alexander Venavre, Veneur, Le Hunt, or Le Hunter. ”

“ For nearly two centuries after the foundation of Silkstone Church, the rector was appointed by the monks of Pontefract, who received an annual pension from this richly endowed benefice. In April, 1284, the Archbishop of York appropriated all the revenues of the rectory to the monastery, and made it into a Vicarage, reserving to the See of York the right of nominating the vicar, but reserving for that vicar a much larger proportion of the revenues than what Hunter calls "the poor pittance ordinarily reserved to the clergyman on whom the duties of a parish rested." ”

“ At the Battle of Boroughbridge, however, Lancaster and his forces were defeated, and the earl himself obliged to surrender. On March 22, 1322, he was tried by the king's judges, in presence of the hostile earls, in his own castle at Pontefract, was condemned as a traitor, and was at once beheaded. Strangely enough, the people declared this "martyr of Pontefract" worthy of being called St. Thomas; they declared that miracles were wrought at his tomb, and they used his name as a watchword of liberty!
All his immense estates at once passed into the hands of the crown. ”

“ Joshua Kaye of Dean Hill in Cawthorne, farmer, and Thomas William Stones of Barnby Green, such other persons continuing to be contributors in every year to the amount of twenty "shillings each at the least to the Funds of the said School and to "be communicants of the Church of England, and either to have a "beneficial interest to the extent of a life estate at the least in real "property situated in the Parish or to be resident therein." ”

“ It is entered from the South Aisle through a dark oak screen, the woodwork of which is solid to the height of about six feet with wide folding doors in the centre, through which the choir, who use this Aisle as their vestry, enter the Church for their places in the Chancel. The screen is entirely new and is of the local character of fifteenth century woodwork, like the Chancel screen. On the south side of the Aisle stand the several oak presses for the clergy and choir surplices with an oak chest, all alike in character, the clergy vestry being separated by a curtain. ”

“ We, who "have signed our names below, or have desired them to be signed "for us, are only making known to you the anxious prayers and "wishes of the whole Parish, when we express our most earnest hope "that God may indeed comfort, strengthen, and bless you in your "sickness, as He alone is able, and that He may in His mercy grant "you (if it he His gracious will) to recover your bodily health. With "all kind sympathy with yourself, Mr. Stanhope, and all those dear "to you, beliieve us, dear Madam, your friends and neighbours" (signed by 239 of the female heads of houses of Cawthorne) . ”

“ In the middle of the seventeenth century, and for more than a hundred years afterwards, the Spencers of Cannon Hall were among the largest iron manufacturers of the neighbourhood, at one time or other connected with the Barnby Furnaces, the Wortley Forges, Bank Furnace in the Parish of Thornhill, and the ironworks at Kirkstall near Leeds. The large woods around provided the necessary fuel at a time when coal had not begun to be used for smelting purposes. So great, indeed, was the consumption of wood in iron-smelting, that Parliamentary legislation had to place it under severe restrictions. ”

“ And as the Bishop (Saxon, Biscop; Greek, episcopos) had for his "ric" (rice, region) the whole of his sovereign's kingdom, so the township or lord's manor became the priest's parish (Latin, parvoecia, parochia, Greek, paroikia) The landowners gave their tithe willingly for the support of religion, and the law after awhile recognised and protected the right of the clergy to these endowments. The lord selected his own parish priest out of the body of the clergy, and so the patronage of the benefice continued to be vested as of right in the lord of the manor. ”

“ The first organ used in England is said to have been built underthe directions of Aldhelm, one of the royal family of Wessex, Abbot of Malmsbury and Bishop of Sherborne, in the eighth century, whose life was written by King Alfred. Aldhelm describes it as "a "mighty instrument with innumerable tones blown with bellows, and enclosed in a gilded case."
The Roof of this Aisle is very elaborately decorated: it is divided into three bays by two tie-beams which have on each side gold cresting standing upon them, as upon the wall-beams at each end. ”

“ The "Perambulation "or "Procession-time" payments show the ancient custom of beating the bounds of the Parish which took place on one of the "Rogation Days," as the three days before our Lord's Ascension are called. The late Vestry Book begins in 1826 : the following are extracts from it : The Surveyors of the Highway are ordered to set the unemployed to work at breaking stones. Frequent mention is made of loans to the poor "towards the payment of their rent." The meetings were held every fortnight for the transaction of Parish business of every kind. ”

“ In defence of any wearisome minuteness, I would only give a remark of Pugin on Architecture: "Even the smallest details should have a meaning or serve a purpose." It is not without a meaning or purpose of some kind, that anything has been described at length or even mentioned at all in these pages. As for any lengthened descriptions in connection with the Church, the author fully agrees with one who has said, "If we place beautiful and costly ornaments and furniture in our Churches, the poorest person in the Parish should be taught the meaning of them." ”

“ The original Dioceses of Saxon England were the different kingdoms of its heptarchy: each kingdom was a separate bishop's diocese. Realms which are now all but forgotten are thus commemorated in the limits of existing Sees. The whole Kingdom of Northumbria was the Diocese of York, and the frontier of the original Kingdom of Mercia may be recovered by following the map of the ancient bishopric of Lichfield. It is to Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury (668) that we owe the present organisation of the Church of England. ”

“ THE CHURCHYARD originally extended probably as far south as the present one, but went scarcely any farther west than the Tower or farther east than the present Chancel. A considerable addition was made to the west, as far as the present row of elms, in 1813, and a tradition says that the first buriul in that addition was George Batchelor, a coachman at Cannon Hall, whose widow came from Barnsley to her husband's burial in the carriage which brought Mr. John Stanhope home on parole as a French prisoner. ”

“ A large extension of the canal system helped to develop the Yorkshire Coalfields towards the end of the last century, and the opening of the Barnsley Canal, in 1799, and its Branch to Cawthorne Basin gave an immense impetus to the Collieries at Barnby Furnace and Silkstone.
In the number of cinder-heaps scattered about on the North and on the East side of the Parish, and in the numerous "Smithy-fields', and "Cinder Hill," we have evidences of the manufacture of iron having been the staple trade of the Parish for many centuries. ”

“ The wheat crop is the finest remembered : oats and barley are very short in straw, and on poorer lands there is a very poor crop indeed. The hay crop has been light all over the country. Old people are comparing this drought with that of 1826) when bread was used at Cawthorne Feast (the third Sunday in July) page 169 made from the flour of that year's wheat. ”

“ Christianity in England, looked at by the eye of history, means not only the knowledge of God and His salvation by Christ Jesus ; it carries with it, besides, all that is implied in civilization, national growth, and national unity. ”

“ The restored Saxon Cross on the South side of the steps, with two pieces of its original shaft and the original Cross on the summit, standing altogether about thirteen feet in height, is a 'blest Sign of mans redemption' which happily connects the present faith of Christ's Church with the Christian past of the Parish eight hundred years ago. ”

“ It will be noticed in this Decree of 1615, that this "Vicar's Pension was a perfectly voluntary gift on the part of the proprietors, after they had purchased the tithes of their property, making these "Pensions in lieu of Tithes" a Rent Charge upon their estates pay-able by themselves, their heirs, and assignees for ever. ”

“ Long after the disappearance of the substance, there has now disappeared the shadow also of that ancient Court of Record, granted by royal charter to the Lord of the Wapentake, which was held to view the "frank pledges," that is, the freemen within the liberty, who, according to the institution of Alfred the Great, were all mutually pledges for each other's good behaviour. ”

“ In the upper part of each division made by the gold decorated ribs there is a shield with the sacred monogram "I H S," and in the lower part the words "Laus Deo" are repeated in alternate divisions, with the word "Alleluia" under each "Deo." The wall-piece of each tie-beam terminates with a shield hearing a gold "I H S," and there are shields at equal distances between them on the wall plate. The arrangement of the colouring of the Roofs throughout the Church is on a general plan of counterchange: the Nave roof is green and gold, the Chancel is red and gold ”

“ The tithes again which had been payable to religious houses became by statute payable to the Crown who granted them out from time to time to laymen, who provided clergy at very small stipends for the parishes, and used the bulk of the tithes as their own income, thus altogether diverting those tithes by this system of 'impropriation,' as it is called, from the use for which they were intended. ”

“ Samuel Swift, a native of Cawthoine, whose brother has had the entire superintendence of the Restoration, as their father had of the building of the Church at Hoyland-Swaine. In the tracery of the North Porch Windows are the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. Under the East Window of the North Chancel Aisle is built into the wall the head of a Cross of the eleventh or early part of the twelfth century. ”

“ Henry de Laci, this last male heir, at that time (1294) surrendered all his lands to King Edward I., who, at the same time, re-granted them to Henry for his life, and after his decease to Thomas Plantagenet and Alice his wife, and their heirs, annexing to this grant the extraordinary provision, that, in default of such heirs, the estates should go to Edmund, the father of Earl Thomas, and to his heirs for ever. ”

“ The tithes of Silkstone in 1787 were in the hands of the Earl of Strafford, the Countess of Bute, Sir Thomas Blackett, and Walter Spencer-Stanhope.
We see here how tithes became alienated from the Church, and how certain lands became exempted from the payment of tithes and still continue to be. All estates and property belonging to a religious corporation were by the common law free from tithes, and this exemption was continued after those estates had passed at the Reformation into other and lay hands. ”

“ Of the few Saxon buildings indeed which have weathered eight centuries, a large proportion are towers with a definite belfry stage. The fondness of mediaeval builders for the music of bells is attested by the nurnber and grandeur of their steeples, the bells for which were often cast within the Church, and then solemnly consecrated with a form of service following that of baptism, the bell having two godfathers and a godmother from whom it received its name. ”

“ For five hundred years, Cawthorne was merely a Chapelry under Silkstone, until it was made, in 1608, an independent Parochial Chapelry with the patronage of its Benefice then placed for the first time in the hands of those landowners who should from time to time pay the largest proportion of that "Vicar's Pension" by which the Benefice was at that time voluntarily augmented. ”

“ In the reign of Henry VI., the Bosvile estates were divided between the sons of a John Bosvile's two wives, and the lands at Cawthorne, with the advowson of the Chantry here, were settled upon Richard Bosvile, who died in 1501, a son of the second marriage. He was the founder of the Gunthwatte branch of the Bosviles, which became extinct in the male line by the death of William Bosvile in 1813. ”

“ The immense estates which had been given to the Church between the Conquest and the Reformation were all confiscated at the suppression of religious houses, to enrich the nobility, and to found new noble families, many of the estates being sold for the king's own use. ”