St
James... Biddenham
I grew up in this village and crossed the threshold of the
church on many occasions; sometimes willingly like for my
sister’s wedding and quite often unwillingly like when I had
to go to Sunday School wearing a dress.
Number 1309 in the series is The Parish Church in Biddenham
St. James's Church is Norman in origin and has been added to by
successive generations. The chancel appears to date from the 14th
century. The west tower was added in the 13th century and the south
aisle and porch in the 15th century. The north aisle was built near
the beginning of the 16th century by one of the Boteler family. The
Boteler family were prominent landowners in the village during the
16th century and founded a charity to assist the poor of the
parish. The earliest burial in the churchyard which can be
deciphered is that of Alice Osborne (1615). Alice was the wife of
Edward Osborne of the Inner Temple, and daughter of William Boteler
of Bydenham Six bells were recast from a former ring of five bells
by William Emmerton of Wootton in 1787. In 1896 the tenor bell was
recast by the Taylor foundry in Loughborough as it was cracked. In
1896, two treble bells were presented by Cecil Winnington Ingram in
memory of his brother Charles.
This is a straight forward cache placed not far from the
church.
The micro has log book only so please bring a pen
If any body
would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask
that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track
of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication
There is now a Church Micro statistics page which can be
viewed via the bookmark list