Repton and its neighbourhood

by F. C. Hipkins

Etwall Church. ([Page 116.])

Etwall Hospital. ([Page 119.])

In 1831 some workmen, digging gravel out of the bed of the river, about thirty yards below the bridge, four or five feet below the surface of the gravel, discovered “upwards of 300,000 valuable coins,” which Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, lost, together with his baggage, when he was attempting to cross the river, in flood. For five hundred years the coins, consisting of English, French, and Scottish pieces, had remained hidden below the bed of the river.

The chief attractions at Tutbury are the Castle, Church, and Glass-Works.

ETWALL AND ITS HOSPITAL.

Etwall is about four miles north-west from Repton, and six miles from Derby.

The manor belonged to Henry de Ferrers at the making of Domesday Survey, and included the lordships of Bearwardcote (its old moated farm-house remains), and Burnaston. Etwall was for a time in the possession of the Shirley family. In the year 1370 it was conveyed to the Abbey of Beauvale in Nottinghamshire. In 1540, King Henry VIII. granted the manor, together with the impropriate rectory, and the advowson of the vicarage, to Sir John Porte, Knight, one of the Justices of the King’s Bench, father of Sir John, the founder of Repton School.

The church was granted by Roger de Pont l’Evêque, Archbishop of York, (1154-1181), to the Abbey of Beauvale or Welbeck, and belonged to it till it was granted to Sir John Porte, from whom, through his son Sir John, it passed to Elizabeth, his eldest daughter and heiress, who married Sir Thomas Gerard, Bart., of Bryn, County Lancaster, “who, on account of his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith, and alleged complicity in a plot for the release of Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in the Tower of London, as a recusant, during the years 1567-70, and again from September, 1586, to August, 1588, when he was removed for some months to an inferior jail, called the ‘Counter,’ in Wood Street.” Sir William Gerard, grandson of Sir Thomas, sold the estate, and the advowson of the vicarage, in 1641, to Sir Edward Moseley, who, five years later, sold it to Sir Samuel Sleigh, whose co-heiresses Margaret and Mary, by his second and third wives, married James Chetham, and Rowland Cotton, of Bellaport, Shropshire, the descendants of Rowland still live at Etwall Hall.

The church, dedicated to St. Helen, consists of nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, and a low embattled tower at its west end. Originally the nave was separated from the north aisle by an arcade of four semicircular Norman arches, supported by round piers with indented capitals, the two arches, nearest the east end, have been thrown into one, and a pointed arch substituted. The chancel is Early English, but most of the church, including the tower, has been rebuilt in the Perpendicular style. The chancel window of three stained glass lights, representing the Crucifixion, is flanked by two small square windows, a very unusual arrangement, they are also filled with stained glass bearing the arms of the Sees of Canterbury and Southwell. At the east end of the north aisle is the Porte chapel, fitted up with carved seats and a reading desk for the use of the “master and poor men” of the Hospital. The seats used to be between the belfry and north door, and the Porte chapel partitioned off from the nave. Early in the century the partition was taken down, and the seats removed to their present position. Built on to the east end of the north aisle is the Cokburne’s memorial chapel, which blocks up the east window of the Porte chapel. Two of the Cokburnes were Vicars of Etwall, their chapel was built about the year 1830, it contains several mural tablets, and is now used as a vestry.

Since Dr. Cox wrote his account of the church, a much needed restoration has taken place. The galleries at the west end, and the plaster ceiling, have been removed, and new seats, of pitchpine, pulpit, prayer desk, &c., have taken the place of the old ones.