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Summary

Site of the medieval Church of St Andrew, thought to date from at least the early 13th century. Stood until the 18th century, and survives as earthworks.

Full description

The small village of Apley once had a parish church. A priest was last instituted in 1427. {1}{2}

No church is mentioned in Domesday Book, but institutions are recorded from the earliest surviving Bishops' registers (c.1210-1215) onwards. In 1254 the church was bracketed for valuation with Stainfield. Beresford reports the last institution to the medieval church in 1427 as indicative of the settlement's decline, but the last institution of a priest recorded in the Bishops' registers was actually in 1431. In 1519 however the visitation recorded 'omnia bene', and presumably there was no actual break before institutions were again regularly recorded from the reformation onwards, with the important change that the living had become a curacy invariably held with Stainfield and presented by the Tyrwhitt family. The last separately recorded institution was in 1818, and the perpetual curacies of Stainfield and Apley were formally united in 1910. The church building, too, certainly survived the medieval period, being 'well repayred and left decently' in 1602, and evidently still fit for services at the start of the 18th century. By 1816 the old church had been down 'many years' though its foundations were still visible. The site of the medieval church is marked by an overgrown mound of irregular oval form, approximately 35m by 37m and up to 2m high, with many late 18th and 19th century gravestones in-situ. {3}{4}

Apley medieval settlement is scheduled in two separate areas, one of which covers the site of the former medieval church. {5}

Resistivity and topographic surveys were conducted in July 2012, to inform proposed management works on the site of the former medieval Church of St Andrew. Anomalies thought to represent former wall lines of the medieval church were recorded by the resistivity survey, on the north-eastern side of the wider earthwork mound in this area. Other discrete anomalies possibly marking the locations of early graveyard furniture were also recorded (see MLI126418). The topographic survey mapped the form of the mound in detail, and noted a slight bench in the mound's north-eastern side, matching the location of the geophysical anomalies and reinforcing the interpretation of this area as the location of the earlier church structure. {6}

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Card Index, TF 17 NW: 16 (Index). SLI2344.

<2> Lincolnshire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record Card Index, TF 17 NW: Y (Index). SLI2881.

<3> P.L. Everson, C.C. Taylor and C.J. Dunn, 1991, Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire, p.63, fig.47, archive notes (Bibliographic Reference). SLI1063.

<4> 1945-84, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION, AKN129 (1964) (Aerial Photograph). SLI173.

<5> English Heritage, 1999, Scheduling document 22764, MPP 22 (Scheduling Record). SLI5658.

<6> Archaeological Project Services, 2012, St Andrew's Church, Apley, APS site code: ASAC12 (Report). SLI13924.

Monument Types

• CHURCH (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1200 AD? to 1725 AD?)

Associated Events

• Resistivity Survey at St Andrew's Church, Apley
• Site visit to Apley medieval settlement
• Topographic Survey at St Andrew's Church, Apley

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

Related records

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