Can pew believe how old our church is?
The church of St Peter and St Paul in Headcorn has decided to celebrate its 800th birthday this year, although there is evidence it is even older.
Worshippers are dating their anniversary from 1222, when there is a record of the first rector being installed – one Henry of Ospringe.
Headcorn is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of
1086, but the Domesday Monachorum, a survey of ecclesiastical properties, completed the same year, does record the existence of a church at “Hedekaruna”.
This would have referred to an earlier building than that which now exists, but shows there has been a place of worship there for at least 936 years.
Little is known of the history of Henry of Ospringe.
Gervase de Ospringe (1163 to 1206) was the Anglo-Norman founder of the aristocratic de Ospringe family, which held extensive lands in Faversham, Nackington and in France.
One of his sons was called Henry and so was one of his grandsons via another son, Nicholas.
Both had connections to the church as well as holding a number of civil appointments.
Was Headcorn’s rector one of these Henrys or was he simply a Henry from the village of Ospringe – known then as Ospring? We don’t know.
Certainly the ties between Headcorn and Ospringe were close and they became even closer in 1239, when King Henry III, endowed all the land and incomes at Headcorn – including the church – to the Maison Dieu at Ospringe.
The Maison Dieu (House of God), also known as the Hospital of St Mary, had been founded as a hospital at least as early as 1230.
In those days, the term ‘hospital’ had a different meaning from today’s place for the sick.
Although the Maison Dieu at Ospringe did indeed care for the sick – it had a special house for lepers – its chief function was to provide hospitality to pilgrims journeying to visit the shrine of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
Indeed, the king, who made a series of endowments to the Maison Dieu over the years, required the master and three brethren charged with running the hospital to build and hold ready a camera regis – or king’s chamber – for his own use, whenever he passed along Watling Street.
The Royal Charter which records his gift of Headcorn still exists. It reads: “Gift to the hospital of St Mary, Ospring, and the brethren there in frank almoin, of all the land called La Denne in Hedecrune which the king had to assign to whom he would of the gift of Roger de Leyburne, with the advowson of the church of Hedecrune.” In the same charter he also gave the hospital lands in Twitham (near Canterbury), Edesham (unidentified), and Wingham (near Canterbury).
The charter went on to say: “All the foregoing to be held by the said hospital by rendering the service due to the lords of the fee. And the land in Hedcrune (it seems there was no set spelling) and the advowson of the church there to be held quit of all secular service.”
Later, in 1251, King Henry granted the Master of Ospringe the right to hold a weekly market in Headcorn on a Thursday and an annual fair on St Peter and St Paul’s Day, (June 29).
The parish church in Ospringe is also dedicated to SS Peter and Paul.
In 1472, the brethren at the Maison Dieu were struck down with the plague and the hospital never really recovered. A number of properties were sold off. At one stage, one the masters, Thomas Ashby, was declared an outlaw – though what his exact offence was isn’t known.
Finally in 1516, King Henry VIII reassigned the remaining lands and incomes from the Maison Dieu – its yearly revenues then amounting to £70 18s 4d – to support the foundation of the new St John’s College at Cambridge, thus fulfilling the dying wish of his sister, Margaret Tudor.
The full history of SS Peter and Paul Church will be on display during a three-day exhibition at the church in Church Walk, researched by the village history society, to celebrate the 800th anniversary.
Visit between 10am and 5pm on Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16, or between noon and 5pm on Sunday, July 17, when there will also be a chance to meet Henry of Ospringe, or at least his mannequin created by villager Naomi Dickens, and to view artwork created by the children of Headcorn Primary School.