August 2011:
Heighington, St. Thomas's Chapel-of-Ease and Washingborough, St. John's
For
our August meeting the first church was to have been St.Thomas’s
Chapel-of-Ease, Heighington. Unfortunately building work made
this impossible so, Ray Pulman, our guide at St John’s Church
Washingborough started our visit with a short history of this most
unusual chapel. Although the ‘Township of Heighington’ has
always been part of the Parish of Washingborough it is also separate!
The chapel is not under the jurisdiction of the Diocese and is
known as a ‘peculiar’ The chapel was built in Heighington in
the thirteenth centre so that the parishioners did not have to walk
the considerable distance in inclement weather to attend a service –
hence the name ‘chapel of ease’.
St. Thomas's Chapel-of-Ease, Heighington
In 1620 Thomas Garratt established a school in the chapel for the local boys. The Rector of Washingborough was one of the Trustees and he was required to take services in the Chapel as required. In the 1860s the school was enlarged but closed in 1975. In the 1990s the old school became a Heritage Centre.
St. John's Church, Washingborough
Ray Pulman then explained the many alterations at different periods to St John’s church and then guided us round the building. During a restoration of the church in 1916 Belgian soldiers billeted at Washingborough Hall painted slate tablets set into the reredos. At the same time the then Rector put coloured glass in the clerestory windows to commemorate the bombing of Washingborough by a Zeppelin.
Apparently the Commander of this aircraft was following a train into Lincoln but the train driver stopped under a bridge near Washingborough and the Commander of the aircraft released his bombs! Presumably the windows are a thanksgiving for the escaper of Washingborough from any serious damage and in memory of the sightseer the following day who was drowned. Commander Blucher of the Zeppelin had worked as a draughtsman in Lincoln before the war!
After our tour we were kindly given refreshments by the churchwarden.
After our tour we were kindly given refreshments by the churchwarden.
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