Tudors & Stuarts

For much of its history, Mathon gives the impression of going quietly on irrespective of outside events.  But during the 16th and 17th Centuries two events did have a profound influence on the village.  The first was the Reformation and the second the disafforestation of Malvern Chase.

Mathon Church was originally dedicated to St. Margaret by its 11th Century builders.  The County historian, Nash, writing in the 18th Century, says “The church of Mathon, which is dedicated to St. Margaret, with the portion of Chokenhall, were appropriated to the Abbey of Pershore 19th June 1512, and the Vicarage appointed”.  Appropriation means that the abbey received the tithes of the Manor of Mathon, and the right to appoint a vicar, in return taking the responsibility of providing a vicarage and maintaining the Chancel.  It would have been a valuable addition to the Abbey’s finances.  There were three vicars in the year 1512, and we can guess that the first of them, Johannes Russell did not meet with the approval of the abbey, but why their nominee, Hugo Myles should have been so quickly replaced by Roger Hughes, we cannot  tell.

Pershore Abbey was not to enjoy the financial advantage of the Appropriation for long however, as King Henry VIII had begun systematically depriving the church of its wealth, a process which he continued until death took him “where kings can steal no more”!1 In doing so, he may have abolished some practices by abbots and monks that were unworthy of their saintly vocation, but he also swept away the wonderful hospitality which monasteries provided for travellers and the poor, and their influence on literature and learning.  During this period, the dedication of the church was changed to St. John the Baptist.  There are two possible explanations.  The first is that it was an attempt to hide thefts of Church lands and rents, so that if anyone asked what had happened to the rents of St. Margaret’s, Mathon, he would be told that there was no such church, and that Mathon Church was dedicated to St. John.  The second, more likely explanation is that the new dedication was more in keeping with the spirit of the Reformation, and with the tendency to move away from the Church of Rome, and foreign influence, and place increased importance on scriptural tradition.  When Pershore Abbey was dissolved, Mathon Church and Manor passed into the hand of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and in the 19th Century to the Church Commissioners, who still own much of the parish.

Some idea of the wealth of small country churches can be gained from the following inventory of the possessions of Mathon Church made in 1536:-

Mathan  Aug 9  1 chalys of sylver and gylte weying XX unces, a pyx of sylver weying IIJ (3) unces, IJ (2) copies of redd velvett, a chesable of blew velvett, with albes thereunto, a crosse of copper, a censer of copper, a lampe of latten, IJ (2) candlesticks of latten, a tennacle of brasse, IIIJ (4) bells in the steeple, a saunce bell, a lyche bell, a sacryng bell, item.; they say they have J other chalyce weying VII unces, and remaineth in the hands of Ric. Cave in gage for XXs. of him borrowed and bestowed upon harness (armour).

Will Packer  Vicar

After the theft of the monastery wealth, and following the death of Henry VIII, it was obviously thought worth enquiring what additional valuables might be taken from parish churches.  It will be noticed that the church still retained various articles connected with the previous membership of the Catholic church.  The reference to the steeple is either a slip, or a figure of speech.  Mathon never had such a steeple.

The loan of twenty shillings, a considerable sum in those days, made by Richard Cave to the church, suggests that the parish had experienced difficulty in providing a soldier and arming him, and had been obliged to ask for help from a wealthy parishioner, who had retained the chalice which had provided surety.

The second event to affect the village occurred about one hundred years later.  Malvern Chase, during the 13th Century the property of the Red Earl, had reverted to the crown, and in 1628 King Charles I, anxious to raise money without calling Parliament, had the Chase surveyed, and decided to give up his forest rights and take one third of the common land in lieu.  The rest of the land was intended to be available to all in perpetuity, and local people could retain their grazing rights which they had held for centuries.  The king sold his one third of the land immediately, and some farms and cottages were built there.  This was a prosperous period in which many houses were built or re-built in the countryside, and which is known to historians as the “Great Re-building of Rural England”.  The parish records contain an interesting description of the vicarage at Church Farm, in two glebe terriers dated 1585 and 1616.  Glebe terriers were descriptions of houses and land belonging to the church, and not only do they give a description of the vicarage, but they also tell us something about the local farmhouses, which were similar.

The 1585 terrier reads:  A True Presentment of the Glebe land of the Parsonage of Mathon with all houses thereto belonging.

In primis, a fair mansion house, viz, a parlour, a hall, a kitchen with chambers, and divers (several) other houses adjoining to the same, all within the moat and one little house without the moat on the north side.

Item.  A large barn, a stable and a fair large sheepin so called, a gatehouse upon the bridge.

Item.  Two meadows being 7 acres or thereabouts, two closes of pasture being 5 acres or thereabouts, two other closes now arable land being 22 acres, all adjoining to the Parsonage house or mansion place, and all inclosed adjoining together.

The sheepin is the word variously written as shippon, shippen or shipping meaning a cattle shed.  It is likely that this house was many years old when it was described in 1585, and was in fact the house which belonged to William Mucklow, and which he agreed to make into a vicarage in 1550.  This is how the house was described in 1616.