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Winkburn
St John of Jerusalem

History

Domesday Book records that in 1086 the manor of Wicheburne formed part of the land of Gilbert Tyson and that there was a church here. The land before the Conquest was held by Swein who occurs in four other contexts, all in Nottinghamshire, holding land at nearby Averham, Staythorpe, Cromwell, and much further afield at Finningley. Averham had the highest value at £6, with Winkburn coming next at £5, thus indicating it was a fairly prosperous village.

The church is dedicated to St John of Jerusalem, a rare dedication, reflecting the fact that during the medieval period the manor of Winkburn was held by the Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. During the 12th century Adam Tyson granted the manor of Winkburn to the Order and Henry Hosatus gave them the churches of Winkburn and Averham. An early reference to the Hospitallers here is contained in the Pipe Rolls for 1184-5 which state that ‘Winkeburn’ Hospitaliorum’ owed ½ mark (6s. 8d.) tax for waste. Two years later however the Hospitallers were charged the sum of twenty shillings for violation of tax (or some other charge) ‘Winkeburn' Hospitaliorum debet .xx. s. pro transgressione assise.’

Several medieval priests of Winkburn are mentioned as witnesses in the charters of Rufford Abbey: Malger priest of Winkburn and Hubert clerk of Winkburn (1146-56), Robert clerk of Winkeburne (c1200-20) and Ralph Willion chaplain (capellanus) of Wynkburn (1466). A list of prisoners in Nottingham gaol in January–June 1330 includes Robert clerk of Wynkeburn.

In 1189/90 there is further mention of the ‘Wincheburn Hospitaliorum’ in the Pipe Rolls of Richard I. The men of Winkburn rendered account for half a mark (6s 8d) for waste (i.e. they paid a fine for wasting the Forest). For pardon for delivery of the king’s charter, the Hospital likewise paid half a mark.

On 6 October 1226 a long-running dispute between the hospital and Henry Hose was finally settled. Henry claimed that the prior had unjustly taken the manor of Winkburn contrary to terms of payment previously made in the court of King Henry II, in a legal agreement between Warner de Naples, then prior of the Hospital, and Henry Hose, the plaintiff's father. The outcome was that the Hospitallers got to hold the manor of Winkburn provided that they paid rent - a payment of 40 s. a  year to Henry, paid by the prior, or by some other person serving as bailiff at Winkburn, twice a year at Easter and Michaelmas. And it was agreed that Henry Hose owed nothing to the prior, and also got to hold the vill of Staythorpe which the prior no longer had any claim to.

In April 1234 the king issued an order to Hugh de Nevill’ that Brother Robert de Dive was to have 40 chevrons (i.e. long branches suitable to make chevrons for roofing) from the forest of Sherwood and 10 timbers/logs from the forest of Rockingham for his hospitals at Haderinton (Harrington, Northamptonshire) and Winkburn by gift of the king.

In September 1251 Henry III granted the prior and brethren of the hospital free warren in the demesne lands of their manor, provided that the lands were not within the bounds of the king’s forest.

A reminder that Winkburn and its hospital and church lay within the bounds of the king’s Forest appears in 1286/7 when one Walter de Winkburn is listed amongst the official foresters who were present at the court hearing that year to judge offences committed in the Forest.

The Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV in 1291 does not record an entry for Winkburn. It was probably of either too low a value or, more likely, exempt as belonging to the Order of the Knights Hospitaller.

A record of letters from King Henry VI are preserved in the White Book of Southwell, concerning a dispute between John Southwell, parson of Kneesall, and the Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem over the arrears of a rent of five marks owing from the tithes of the church of Maplebeck, which the Prior claimed as belonging to his church at Winkburn. It was settled in favour of John Southwell and the church at Kneesall in conformity with findings in an action by a previous parson, William de Thorntofte, dated Westminster, 13 November 1329, after a settlement first agreed on 28 October 1309 that had been observed until 12 May 1324, four years before William began his action.

A detailed account of the property held by the Order in England was compiled by Prior Philip de Thame in 1338. Winkburn appears under the heading 'Camera de Wynkebourne,' a camera being a subsidiary estate of a preceptory (an estate or manor of a subordinate community of the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem). The preceptory in this case was at Ossington, almost five miles (8 km) away to the north-east. Some details from the account relating to Winkburn are listed below:

Camera de Wynkeburne

In 1341 the Crown imposed a tax on the clergy that took from them a ninth of the corn, wool and lambs that came to them as tithes. The details have been published as the nonarum inquisitiones and the entry for Winkburn reads as follows:

‘Item, they say that the church of Winkburn with the chapel of Maplebeck is not taxed but the ninth of sheaves, lambs and their fleeces is worth 9 marks 3s 4d and no more and that tithe of hay with altar dues is worth 5 marks a year.’

In July 1359 one William ‘in the Lane’ of Winkburn was pardoned, at the request of the Prince of Wales, for several thefts, including two horses belonging to the Prior of St John of Jerusalem, worth 20 s.

By the 15th century Ossington and Winkburn had become part of the Commandery (or Preceptory) of Newland in Yorkshire.

The fabric rolls of York Minster record, in 1415, that one William [of] Winkburn was paid 45s 6d for providing 12 trees. The same William [of] Winkburn is listed again in 1419 under the title ‘daubers and carpenters’ in the York Memorandum Book when there was a serious dispute between craftspeople in the city leading to a riot.

In 1424 a memorandum of a commission was issued by the see of York and sent to the dean of Nottingham ‘to enquire into the life, morals and conversation of John Sherman of Wynturburne, clerk, convicted in the secular court at Nottingham … of having … at Cerberton (?Caunton or Carburton), stolen two yards of blue cloth and two yards of green cloth worth 4s., and 4 marks of silver in cash of the goods and chattels of William Howet of (?)Caunton [?Carburton], Nottinghamshire, husbandman.’ Sherman was afterwards removed into the custody of the archbishop and a commission was issued to the commissary of the official of the court of York to proclaim his purgation.

There is no record of Winkburn in the 1428 subsidy of Henry VI, and it was evidently not taxed as being a subsidiary chapel as part of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.

It was at this period that the only - so far recorded - Visitation by the archbishop occurred. In 1441 Archbishop Kempe included Winkburn church in his schedule for 18 May, and which must have entailed his crossing the river Trent twice as he commenced at Kelham, travelled up to Normanton and Marnham, then over to Clifton, Thorney, South Scarle, and Collingham, before returning to Newark via Winkburn.

In 1484 John Kendall is mentioned as being the preceptor of both Ossington and Winkburn amongst many other priories, and who was also in charge of the defence of the Order on the island of Rhodes where he was ‘orator and master’ to the pope of the hospital.

The Knights Hospitaller remained in possession of Winkburn until the dissolution of the Order in 1540. In 1538 Roger Rogerson is described as the ‘bailiff’ of both Ossington and Winkburn. King Henry VIII intended to confer the manor on Thomas Burnell in exchange for estates at Eastbeachworth in Surrey but died before it could be carried into effect. King Edward VI granted a charter to Thomas's son, William Burnell, who was auditor to King Henry VIII. The charter is dated the 19 July, 1549:

‘Grant to the said William Burnell and Constance his wife of the manor and rectory of Wynkeborne, Notts., late of the priory of St. John’s of Jerusalem and preceptory of Newlande, Yorks., the advowson of the vicarage of Wynkeborne, and all kinds of lands and liberties …  in Wynkeborne and Malebecke pertaining to the said manor and rectory…’

At the time of the Reformation, the Valor Ecclesiasticus has surprisingly little to say about the estate and church of Winkburn. It is listed, along with Ossington, under the holdings of the Preceptory of Newland and the entry simply gives the temporal annual valuation (receipt of rents) of the estate as £19.

The will of Henry Ainsworth, farmer of Winkburn, dated 2nd April 1556, required him to: ‘'be buryed in the parysh church of Wynkburne in the chauncell anends the place where I have used to knele.’ He went on to add: ‘I will that every preiste that shalbe at my buryall have iiij d. and their dynner, and to every poore man, woman and childe that be at the same, one halpenny or a halpenny white loif.’ Henry left to the church of Winkburn his best crimson velvet vestment and an alb, and amyse (a square of folded white linen worn by celebrant priests formerly on the head), a stole, and another vestment of white damask. He was extremely generous in that, in addition, to the churchwardens he left three cows and the cost of the stipend of the same cows to be bestowed in bread to twelve poor folks of the parish. Finally, he gave 16 d. to be used ‘to the most profit’ of the parish church. Unsurprisingly, though shortly after the Reformation, Henry still asked for the parish priest to say de profundis for his soul and for the souls of his departed wives Elisabeth and Anne, and for his parents, and also to say dirige and messes [sic].

In 1603 a series of questions was sent out to each parish on the orders of King James I with the purpose of providing statistics relating to the clergy and number of recusants and communicants. In summary, the questions were:

1. The name of the incumbent and his degree, if any.
2. Whether he held more than one benefice and the value of each benefice in the king’s book.
3. The distance between benefices where more than one was held.
4. The number of recusants (men and women) in each parish.
5. The number of communicants and non-communicants in each parish.

Robert Wighton, the curate of Winkburn, gave the following reply:

‘1, 2 and 3. he is not a preacher and serves the cure as a stipendary, having no benefice at all, this being an appropriation and parcel of the manor; 4. there is never a recusant in this parish; 5. there are 222 communicants and none that do not communicate, other than those who are not of sufficient years.’

The Chapter of Southwell Minster, on 12th October 1609, wrote to William Burnell of Winkburn (as proprietor of Winkburn church), claiming from him the sum of £168 6s. 8d. as arrears for the annual rent of £3 6s. 8d. they claimed was due in lieu of tithes in Mapelebeck. The argument was a complex one, resulting from the Chapter being the proprietors of Kneesall church and citing a legal case brought against the Prior of the Hospital at Winkburn that certain lands that Winbkurn had appropriated in fact belonged to Kneesall (see above for 1329). The outcome is unknown.

By 1632 the church was in a poor state (a crack in the steeple having been reported in September 1631) and at an archdeaconry visitation that year the churchwardens presented the following: ‘their steeple bells and church [are in disrepair]; the steeple has been taken down to the ground but is being rebuilt; part of the church wall is being repaired, together with the roof, and one of the bells is 'ruien' since the taking down of the steeple; they crave time to carry out the repairs.’

The churchwardens provided a progress report on the restoration in May 1633: ‘the steeple has been rebuilt and the church roof is almost complete, but they cannot put the bells back up until next spring since the steeple wall is not yet thoroughly dry and if they hung the bells straight away it would “endanger shaking the whole foundacion.”’

The archaeological evidence indicates only the upper portion of the tower was actually rebuilt. It was common in reporting from this period to exaggerate somewhat.

In 1635 the chancel roof was ‘quite down’ and was being repaired.

Archdeaconry records show that considerable sums of money were expended on the church fabric in the 1630s: £30 on the chancel and £20 on the church in 1635; £100 in 1636; £90 in 1637.

In 1676 the incumbent, Robert Parker, stated that there were 56 persons of age to receive the Communion in the parish of Winkburn. There were no ‘Popish Recusants’ or ‘other dissenters.’

During the 1680s a number of ‘clandestine marriages’ at Winkburn were reported to the Archdeaconry Court by churchwardens from other parishes. In May 1683 a cause (a case before an ecclesiastical court) was promoted by ‘Thomas Sanderson, notary public, against Robert Parker, clerk, curate of Winkburn and Maplebeck, for performing clandestine marriages.’ Following this Parker was ordered to appear in court at St Peter's Church, Nottingham on pain of excommunication. The following July Sanderson promoted another cause relating to Parker’s excommunication. However, despite all the activity in the archdeaconry court Parker remained curate of Winkburn until 1704.

Churchwardens' accounts for Winkburn covering the period 1702-1743 survive. Entries relating to the church itself include:

At the time of Archbishop Herring’s Visitation in 1743 the curate, John Brackon, reported that there were only 22 families in the parish, no ‘licens’d or other Meeting House,’ no almshouse or hospital and no lands or tenements for the repair of the church. There was no Parsonage House so he rented a house in the village. Brackon stated that Winkburn was a donative and he was paid £19 per year by the improprietor. Brackon was also curate of Maplebeck, and conducted one service ‘every Lord’s Day in the Morning or Afternoon, by Reason of doing Duty at my other Parish also.’ He administered Holy Communion four times a year.

Over the coming months Brackon became a problem for his parishioners and in 1744 they petitioned the Archdeaconry of Nottingham court regarding his conduct. In October 1746 John Beardoe, churchwarden of Winkburn, promoted a cause (a case before an ecclesiastical court) against Bracken for being ‘a haunter of alehouses and a common drunkard, so that he was unable to perform his duties.’ The following year Bracken was suspended and Winkburn church was sequestered.

The return for Winkburn at Archbishop Drummond’s Visitation in 1764 records that Samuel Absom was the curate, although curate John Holmes ‘Appeared and exhibited.’ The village had only 30 families, none of whom were dissenters. Absom was rector of Eakring and lived there as ‘there [was] no house for the minister’ in Winkburn. Holmes was one of the Vicars Choral at Southwell Minster and had served as curate at Winkburn for the last three years for which Absom paid him £15 per year. ‘Divine service with a sermon’ was performed in the church every Sunday ‘alternatively morning and afternoon.’ The sacraments were administered four times a year.

In January 1773 Mary Burnell, wife of the landowner D'Arcy Burnell, sent the Rev John Augustine Finch (rector of Hockerton and Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire) a strongly worded letter denouncing him for neglecting his duties at Winkburn:

'... every Duty both religious & civil is none so totally neglected by you. when you took ye Care of Winkburn you must knone there would be Duties attending it, & ye sallery is but small, you was not then so great a man as you are now, you did not chuse to refuse it, & could then do yr Duties of it, which you are now above. this two years we have never had ye sacrements at ye proper times, but so irregular yt ye parrish never knows when they are to be. we have had none yet this Christmas last Easter & Whitson tide it was ye same. Mr Swain [the curate] you know is not of age to administer them & therefore it was your Duty to do it for him & not oblige him to run around ye Country seeking for somebody to do your Duty nor is it fair to trouble ye Southwell Vicares to do it, who have each two churches of their own, to take care of when you have nothing to do, but run about & take your pleasure (tho they have been so obliging to do it hitherto in Civility to us) ye Duties of this church was never so neglected as since you took it, & when ever you chuse to quit it, dont doubt we shall be able to get it better performed by those who make a Contiance of doing their Duty in all respects.'

Finch replied that he was 'generally, if not constantly, at Aston upon Duty' and therefore could not be in two places at once. Moreover, he had 'taken ye best care in my power to have yr Church properly taken Care of on my absence' and offered to resign if Mrs Burnell wished to give the cure to someone else.

Her subsequent correspondence was even more coruscating and Finch threatened legal action if Mrs Burnell continued to accuse him of neglecting his responsibilities. There is no evidence that this threat was carried out. Finch died in 1780 and is buried at Hockerton church.

In 1777 Mary Burnell wrote to the Archbishop of York to refute his claim that Winkburn was a perpetual curacy. She insisted it was a donative.

W. Parsons Turton, the Officiating Minister at Winkburn, reported in the 1851 Religious Census that on average 60 parishioners attended the morning service on Sunday and 70 attended the afternoon one. He also remarked that ‘The Church of Winkbourn adjoins the hall and is entirely at the discretion of E. P. Burnell [the landowner]. There is only an officiating minister who is not licensed or inducted. It is now held with Maplebeck the adjoining Parish.’

White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, published in 1853, states that the 'church (3 bells) completely covered with ivy; it has just been new roofed and thoroughly cleaned and repaired at the sole expense of E V Pegge Burnell.'

Phillimore (1915) noted that ‘The Benefice of Winkburn was a Donative until such were abolished by the Act of 1898, but the stipend is not altogether an arbitrary one, being partly derived from a small endowment recorded at the end of the second volume of [Parish] Registers. Nor was it an exempt jurisdiction, a Visitation of the Bishop being recorded in 1764. We have not seen any Manor Rolls of Winkburn, but if such exist it is quite possible they contain Wills and Grants of Probate and Administration—jurisdiction in such matters being a usual privilege of manors belonging to the Hospitallers, a privilege which their subsequent lay owners frequently retained and exercised down to the final abolition of such Courts in 1858.’

In the early years of the 20th century J. C. Cox observed that the church was 'smothered in trees, and so hidden away behind the Hall that it is difficult to find ... Tower in bad condition and encumbered with ivy ... The squire of Winkburn [Col. E. S. Pegge Burnell] keeps the register in his own hands and refuses access to it.'

In 1912 it was reported that the net annual value of the benefice was £50, the church could accommodate 100 people, and there were 16 pupils on the church day school roll and 10 on the Sunday School roll. Two baptisms and one confirmation had taken place in the year ending 30 September 1912. The Southwell Diocesan Church Calendar described Winkburn as a donative until 1913 after which it is listed as a perpetual curacy.

The Winkburn estate was purchased by John Todd in 1933 and he donated the church itself and a small piece of land to the south-west of the church for a churchyard extension to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The extension was consecrated by the Bishop of Southwell on 13 June 1937.

In July 1936 the Newark Advertiser reported on the recent wedding at the church between Miss Enid Ida Gale (from Moor Farm) and Mr Arthur Maxwell Appleby and observed that such events were a rarity in Winkburn, with the last one being in 1927 and the one previous to that in 1917.

The Mansfield Reporter stated in December 1937 that the church was in urgent need of repair. An inspection had revealed that the tower was dilapidated and one bell had fallen and was resting in a dangerous position on the floor of the ringing chamber and the exterior of the building was badly overgrown with ivy that was damaging the walls and moving roof slates. By April 1938 the Church Restoration fund had realised £400 and work had started on repairing the tower. An 'Olde Garden Fayre' was held in the grounds of Winkburn Hall on 20 July 1939 to raise funds to 'wipe off the church expenses in connection with the recent extensive restorations, which have now been completed.'

According to the Southwell Diocesan Magazine further repairs to the church were made in 1941 and it noted that there was a notice in the church stating that the Incorporated Church Building Society had provided a grant for this work in 1940 on condition that 88 sittings remained free and that an annual collection be made to the society.

On 14 October 1945 the banner of the Order of St John of Jerusalem was carried into the church. The occasion was a pilgrimage by 47 Nottinghamshire members of the St John Ambulance Brigade, the modern successors to the Order.

In 1949 the interior of the church was decorated with distemper, the gutters and downpipe had been repaired but the plaster and stonework was still in need of attention.

Yet another programme of restoration was started in 1995. Stonework was repaired and water pipes replaced. The work cost around £35,000.

In February 1996 a Jacobean oak chest was stolen from the church.

In 2007 the Burnell monuments on the east wall of the chancel were restored.