Relhan Collection : 326 Wendy church. W view

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1819</p><p>St Mary’s, later known as All Saints, had evidence of early C12 work, and in 1522 Sir Thomas Sheffield, preceptor of Shingay, rebuilt at least the chancel and possibly the whole church. It was reported as needing repairs in 1561 and in 1638 as having a decaying chancel. By 1734 this church was ruinous and a faculty was given to demolish and rebuild it. It is this new church (<b>325</b>) which Relhan recorded, incorporating in its W wall the Sandys arms (325). It was a small stuccoed building, 14m x 7m, in the fashionable Classical style, with a Venetian E window, three round-headed windows in each side, and a bell turret at W end. There is a table tomb and a few other monuments in the fenced churchyard<i>. </i>The church looks neat and in good repair in both Relhan’s drawings but by 1850s cracks had appeared. Its Georgian design was considered unsuitable for a church by this time and it was pulled down and replaced 1866 to a design by RR Rowe. But the new church, in Early English style, also cracked and was demolished c.1950. The Knights Hospitaller had enclosed land for dairy by the C15 and this policy was taken further by the Chicheleys and the Wendys, leading to rapid depopulation. Although potential congregations could draw on 109 inhabitants in 1801, apart from 4 farming families few could have contributed much, even though a rector and handsome rectory (now Glebe House) were maintained. There were no lords of the manor in residence and instead through the C18 and C19 Wendy belonged to grand families who would rarely if ever visit this outpost of their estates. However, they were very wealthy so building new churches in a modern fashion and boldly memorialising the patrons would have been more attractive than struggling with maintenance and repairs. Today (2020) a faint outline of a church and slight platform, marked with a tree in the centre, survives within a well-maintained grassy churchyard with many gravestones. An attractive brick building elsewhere in the village, previously the village school, is now used as the church.</p><p>Taylor 1997; VCH 1982</p></p>