WRANGLE
THE REED EPITAPH
From Friskney we run on about four miles to Wrangle. What the road used to be we may guess from the constable’s accounts for the parish of Friskney, in which the expenses for a journey to Boston are charged for two days and a night “being in the winter time.” The distance is thirteen miles. In the eighteenth century corn was still conveyed to market on the backs of horses tied in strings, head to tail, like the camels in eastern caravans. The name of Wrangle is Weranghe, or Werangle, in Domesday, said to mean the lake or mere of reeds, from “wear,” a lake, and “hangel,” a reed. A friend of mine passing Old Leake station (which was first called “Hobhole drain,” but, at the request of the Wrangle parishioners, because the name deterred visitors, was altered afterwards to Leake-and-Wrangle), observed that this name reminded him of the words of Solomon that the beginning of strife is like the letting out of water.[30] The place used to be a haven on a large sea creek, and furnished to Edward III. for the invasion of France, in 1359, one ship and eight men, Liverpool at that time being assessed at one ship and five men. The church is large, and the rectors have been for over a hundred years members of the family of Canon Wright of Coningsby, a nephew of Sir John Franklin. The outer doorway of the south porch has a beautiful trefoiled arch with tooth moulding, and curious carvings at the angles. Near this is a fine octagonal font with three steps and a raised stone, called a ‘stall,’ for the priest to stand on. This is not uncommon in all these lofty Early English fonts. The tower was once much higher, as is shown by the fine tower arch with its very singular moulding. The tracery in the clerestory windows marks a period of transition, being alternately flowing and Perpendicular. There is a good deal of old glass of the fourteenth century in the north aisle, quite two-thirds of the east window of the aisle being old, with the inscription “Thomas de Weyversty, Abbas de Waltham me fieri fecit.” There is a turret staircase for the rood-loft stair at the junction of the south aisle and chancel, hence the door to the rood loft is on that side. The pulpit is Elizabethan. The Reed family have several monuments here, and it is probable that the three first known parsons of Wrangle—William (1342), John (1378), and Nicolas (1387)—were chaplains to that family. On a large slab in the chancel pavement to “John Reed sum time Marchant of Calys and Margaret his wyfe,” date 1503, are these lines:—
This for man, when ye winde blows
Make the mill grind,
But ever on thyn oune soul
Have thou in mind,
That thou givys with thy hand
Yt thou shalt finde,
And yt thou levys thy executor