Relhan Collection : 238 Landwade church. View from N

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1820</p><p>St Nicholas’ only became a parish church in C15, and remained basically a private chapel for Walter Cotton (1445) and his successors. C15 glass, the same date as the church, was protected from Dowsing by its remote location and perhaps by the power and personal interest of the Cottons. The glass was later removed to the Cottons’ grander home at Madingley, but 12 figures were returned and reset in the nave windows 1926-7. Depictions of the Virgin and crucifixion have been removed. The church stayed in the Cottons control until C19. The brick churchyard wall may also be C15. In 1637 the church was described as being in poor condition but in the early C18 a new altar table and plain reredos were installed and in 1796 the collapsing W face of the tower was repaired with brick buttresses and new windows, although ‘when in 1794 the old tower fell, some gypsies are known to have carried off much spoil’ (Evelyn-White), including gilt bronze inscriptions. There are a great many Cotton monuments of the C15-C18 in the church. Relhan shows this inelegant little church with peeling plaster, clumsily buttressed tower and a partially collapsed churchyard wall. Nevertheless this is a charming rustic view, with sheep, sheep dog and a shepherd with his crook, relaxing on the grass and taking little notice of a soberly dressed man who seems to be finding fault with him. In 2020 there were cows instead of sheep in the adjacent field but the rural outlook has changed little.</p><p>Evelyn-White 1911; Beddow in Hicks 1997; Palmer 1939; VCH 2002</p></p>