Ask Great Grimsby residents about their Parish church and they will mention Grimsby Minster, usually referring to it as the Church of St James. While St James church dates from at least the 1100's it wasn't the first Grimsby parish church, that honour belongs to the long gone church of St Mary. The two churches co-existed for centuries but only one survives.
Geography
St Mary's church was on the same road as St James, originally named "Bethlem Street", a reference to the Nativity. On the splendid 1840's map image I have highlighted the church location with a red cross. St James church can also be seen lower left. The street names have changed with time. North St Mary's Gate became Victoria Street. East and West St Mary's Gate retain their names today, though in the past they have carried others. Today Grimbarians usually refer to the road to the south as Bethlehem Street though part is still labelled as South St Mary's Gate,
Today, the churchyard of St Mary has been consumed by modern buildings, nothing but the street names remain. Looking back to the earliest known Grimsby town plan map (circa 1600) the church had already gone with the area labelled as "The Old Churchyard".
Situated centrally and closer to the old harbour (haven) than St James, the church of St Mary is said to have been in situ since before the time of the 1086 Domesday Book.
Why were St James and St Mary built in such close proximity? Early English churches were usually first built by local nobility, by landowners, in the hope of securing their future salvation. Adjacent manors would each have their own church. Religious houses, the abbots of Wellow in the case of St James, later taking over.
Written Record
There are few documentary records of St Mary's. The Calendar of Inquisitions mentions a dispute in 1359 involving the Abbot of Wellow and concerning land near the old harbour which mentions St Mary's as a familiar local name "la hevene de Seynt Mariebrigge in Grimesby" .
The church has been referred to as the "Mariners Church", one of few English Churches to have an associated Mariners Guild. In 1507 the churchwardens commissioned a 'ship' to be built and to stand in the church. The ship was used in the January 'Plough Monday' pageant in which the Guild of Seamen performed the Mystery Play "Noah’s Fludde" re-enacting the story of Noah’s Ark with the ship dragged around the streets as the play was performed. The Rev. George Oliver in his "Ye Byrde of Gryme" described the occasion as one of some merriment with Morris Men dancing and more. Plough Monday was celebrated at the start of the farming year throughout England but the use of a boat rather than plough is said to be peculiar to Grimsby and nearby Hull, Grimsby folk as 'farmers of the sea'.
In the mid 1600's, when all that was left was the enclosed churchyard, Gervase Holles gave a description of the church sourced from the memories of elder members of the community. He indicates that St Mary's was a fine Anglo Saxon church, a gothic structure of very large dimensions, ornamented with ” cathedral-like” decorations, and possessing a tower at the west end which was used by mariners as a beacon to direct them safely into the port. Other reports talk of a steeple rather than tower and there are also mention of there being three bells.
Holles and others (George Oliver being one) describe the demise of the church and its assimilation into the Parish of St James. The conclusion came after the dissolution of the monasteries. Grimsby haven was silting up, the town's population and wealth was in decline, two Parish churches had become a luxury and the old church was crumbling. In the mid 1500's proposals that St Mary and St James be combined were rejected but in 1586 Sir George Heneage, patron of St James, purchased the Advowson (see below) of the rectory of St. Mary’s from John English of Hull and then secured the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Parishes to be consolidated. It's of interest that the Archbishop of the day was John Whitgift who had been born in Grimsby and whose early education had been entrusted to his uncle Sir Robert who was Abbot of Grimsby's Wellow Abbey (the Abbey that had built St James).
Without its lead roof the crumbling structure was soon gone with stone taken for repairs to the church of St James and for use on other Grimsby properties. By the mid 1600's all that was left was the enclosed churchyard.
The clergy of St Mary
I've a tentative list of the appointments to the lost church and, pending further work on that list, have placed it on its own page ( HERE ).
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| St Mary's Churchyard Grimsby - Click for a better image |
Geography
St Mary's church was on the same road as St James, originally named "Bethlem Street", a reference to the Nativity. On the splendid 1840's map image I have highlighted the church location with a red cross. St James church can also be seen lower left. The street names have changed with time. North St Mary's Gate became Victoria Street. East and West St Mary's Gate retain their names today, though in the past they have carried others. Today Grimbarians usually refer to the road to the south as Bethlehem Street though part is still labelled as South St Mary's Gate,
Today, the churchyard of St Mary has been consumed by modern buildings, nothing but the street names remain. Looking back to the earliest known Grimsby town plan map (circa 1600) the church had already gone with the area labelled as "The Old Churchyard".
Situated centrally and closer to the old harbour (haven) than St James, the church of St Mary is said to have been in situ since before the time of the 1086 Domesday Book.
Why were St James and St Mary built in such close proximity? Early English churches were usually first built by local nobility, by landowners, in the hope of securing their future salvation. Adjacent manors would each have their own church. Religious houses, the abbots of Wellow in the case of St James, later taking over.
Written Record
There are few documentary records of St Mary's. The Calendar of Inquisitions mentions a dispute in 1359 involving the Abbot of Wellow and concerning land near the old harbour which mentions St Mary's as a familiar local name "la hevene de Seynt Mariebrigge in Grimesby" .
The church has been referred to as the "Mariners Church", one of few English Churches to have an associated Mariners Guild. In 1507 the churchwardens commissioned a 'ship' to be built and to stand in the church. The ship was used in the January 'Plough Monday' pageant in which the Guild of Seamen performed the Mystery Play "Noah’s Fludde" re-enacting the story of Noah’s Ark with the ship dragged around the streets as the play was performed. The Rev. George Oliver in his "Ye Byrde of Gryme" described the occasion as one of some merriment with Morris Men dancing and more. Plough Monday was celebrated at the start of the farming year throughout England but the use of a boat rather than plough is said to be peculiar to Grimsby and nearby Hull, Grimsby folk as 'farmers of the sea'.
In the mid 1600's, when all that was left was the enclosed churchyard, Gervase Holles gave a description of the church sourced from the memories of elder members of the community. He indicates that St Mary's was a fine Anglo Saxon church, a gothic structure of very large dimensions, ornamented with ” cathedral-like” decorations, and possessing a tower at the west end which was used by mariners as a beacon to direct them safely into the port. Other reports talk of a steeple rather than tower and there are also mention of there being three bells.
Holles and others (George Oliver being one) describe the demise of the church and its assimilation into the Parish of St James. The conclusion came after the dissolution of the monasteries. Grimsby haven was silting up, the town's population and wealth was in decline, two Parish churches had become a luxury and the old church was crumbling. In the mid 1500's proposals that St Mary and St James be combined were rejected but in 1586 Sir George Heneage, patron of St James, purchased the Advowson (see below) of the rectory of St. Mary’s from John English of Hull and then secured the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Parishes to be consolidated. It's of interest that the Archbishop of the day was John Whitgift who had been born in Grimsby and whose early education had been entrusted to his uncle Sir Robert who was Abbot of Grimsby's Wellow Abbey (the Abbey that had built St James).
Without its lead roof the crumbling structure was soon gone with stone taken for repairs to the church of St James and for use on other Grimsby properties. By the mid 1600's all that was left was the enclosed churchyard.
The clergy of St Mary
I've a tentative list of the appointments to the lost church and, pending further work on that list, have placed it on its own page ( HERE ).
What's an Advowson?
An Advowson was the right to nominate a person as parish priest. It was a right originally held by the lord of a manor who would give the church rights to nominated rent earning fields, houses and mills in return. Funding a church was thought to ensure a place in heaven, An Advowson could be a thing of some power, that of a wealthy church patron to exercise moral influence over the tenants of his land via his appointed cleric. Manorial estates were a business, farm incomes and churches were something to be profited from and an Advowson could be sold or bequeathed. When the Heneage family purchased the Advowson of St Mary's church in Grimsby they bought the opportunity to see it assimilated into their Parish of St James