Reference
AU45/1/27
Title
Tabernacle of Our Lady. Correspondence re: purchase of 19th century French statue of the virgin Mary, faculties for placement of the statue in the niche, copies of the objections to the faculty and responses to the objections.
Date free text
1986-1988
Production date
From: 1986 To: 1988
Admin/biog history
[Written by Andrew Underwood May 1988 & Feb 2007]
Historical background
In May, 1943, the Victorian galleries above the north and south aisles of Ampthill Church were removed, and in the following month the Rector wrote in the parish magazine:
'A thrilling discovery was made in the corner of the [north] aisle leading into the vestry. Underneath the plaster a beautiful niche slowly revealed itself, as the plaster came away. The niche was obviously 15th century work, beautifully coloured, and adorned with a border of red roses of Lancaster and white roses of York. It contained a statue originally, probably of Our Lady, and one can see the marks of the axes in the stone where the Puritan vandals hacked it out and destroyed it. But another statue will stand there before long.'
And so it did, a miniature affair quite out of scale with the rest of the niche; but those were war years and statues were all but unobtainable. Nevertheless, a 'temporary' statue of Our Lady has been standing in the niche since 1943.
Strong support for the Rector's assumption that the original statue had been that of Our Lady came many years later with the discovery in the County Record Office of a Will in which George Gilbert, in 1524, asked ' . . . to be buryyd in the church of Saint Andrew in Amthull in the space byfore the aulter of Saint George . And he went on, .... I bequath to the gildyng of the tabernacle of our Lady xx s...'
I think that the roses mentioned in the Rector's description above, and recently cleaned to reveal gilding of George Gilbert's time (and almost certainly at his bequest) were intended primarily as emblems of the Blessed Virgin Mary, although there may have been Lancastrian significance as well, since the niche is a major feature of the part of the church associated with Sir John Cornwall and his wife, the Princess Elizabeth of Lancaster, whose 15th century memorial window (immediately adjoining the window) was reconstructed in part in 1980.
I was a choir boy when the niche was rediscovered, and much moved by the historical significance of the find. Subsequently I have done much research into the history of the church, and have made every effort to preserve its historic relics and present them, not as museum pieces or interesting fragments of the past, but as evidence of the faith of our predecessors and a witness to that faith by them in our own generation and for the future. Successive Rectors and Parochial Church Councils have always been most encouraging and supportive in this.
Consequently it was at my instigation that the complete restoration of the niche was put in hand, first by the provision of an appropriate canopy and bracket designed by our architect, Victor Farrar (and for which a faculty was obtained in 1985) and then with the removal of 1970s whitewash from the mediaeval colouring on the roses, and finally by the provision of another statue of more appropriate proportion and style than the 'temporary' one. The replacement statue is an integral part of the restoration scheme.
Finance
We have been careful in all the 'historic' and artistic embellishment we have done in the church to ensure that the cost of the project should not be a charge on the Parochial Church Council's general income. The cleaning of the whitewash from the mediaeval colouring on the niche by Miss Anna Hulbert cost £500. Of this, £370 was raised specifically for the purpose by the Old Scholars of our defunct National School: the remainder, again specifically for this project, was a thank offering from two members of our Parochial Church Council on the birth of a grandson.
The money to pay for the new canopy and bracket, which was estimated to be in the region of
£850, was set aside in May 1985 by the Parochial Church Council from a bequest by the late organist George Goode. It was felt that George would have particularly appreciated being associated with a restoration and renewal of work embellished through the will of another George in 1524.
The statue cost £250, paid early in 1986 from memorial 'money-in-lieu-of-flowers' for an aunt of mine and others.
At no time has any of the church's normal income been used for this purpose.
The Statue.
To find a statue of the right proportion and style proved very difficult. I knew the cost of a new one would be astronomical and out of the question. (One supplier quoted a figure in excess of E2,000 for 'the usual sort of thing'.) So I wrote to every Diocesan Secretary in the province to see if they had a 'redundant' one - but without success. I also had a request put on the circular sent round by the Church Commissioners and this too, failed to produce anything. Then Simon Houfe, an art historian (and the son of Eric Houfe) mentioned that he thought he had seen just the thing on a dealer's stall in the King's Road, Chelsea. The Parochial Church Council decided to seize the opportunity and act swiftly, authorizing me to view and purchase it if I thought it would be right for our needs. In his design for the canopy and bracket, Victor Farrar had sketched in a figure of the right proportions. The statue I bought was a shorter, but right in all respects, I thought.
The dealer had labelled the statue 19th century French (not 17th century as in Mrs Clarke's objection) and there is no reason to dispute this designation. It was in a sad state of repair and had been standing in the open air for some time, with the result that wood shrinkage had opened up large cracks; but there were still signs of the paint with which it had originally been coloured. After careful repair and cleaning, and with the advice of Anna Hulbert, an artist member of the congregation repainted the figure in an appropriate manner to complement the mediaeval colouring of the niche.
The photograph which accompanied the application for the faculty did not do the statue justice. It has to be seen in relation to the niche setting to be appreciated, the colouring of the figure being taken up from the mediaeval original.
Level of description
file