The planned celebration in May is an excellent idea, recalling the church’s significant part in Minchinhampton’s long history. It would be a mistake to put too much emphasis on the year 1260 however, as the Rector himself acknowledged in his letter in the September 2009 edition of the magazine, for by that date Hampton (its earlier name) had been Christian for centuries. Domesday Book (1086) records a resident (but unnamed) priest, and some parts of the present church were built in the 12th century, almost certainly replacing a smaller Anglo-Saxon church. The significance of 1260 is that it marks the earliest record of a named rector of the parish. In that sense it does represent something of a milestone.

The manor of Hampton was held before the Norman Conquest by Godgifu, sister of Edward the Confessor, and in 1082 King William gave it to the nuns of the Caen Abbey in Normandy. As was normal at that time, the priest of the church was appointed by the manorial lord and his income came from the manor’s tithes. It is therefore probable that the Caen abbess appointed Hampton’s parson or rector (words derived from Norman French) from the 1080s until the 14th century, when the Abbey forfeited the manor to the Crown, because of the war with France.

In the year 1260 the parson or Rector of Minchinhampton, (as it was now called) was certainly Roger of Saling, whose name appears in the Papal Registers. His surname refers to a place a few miles north-west of Braintree in Essex, and close to Felstead, a manor also held by Caen Abbey. More interestingly, perhaps, a charter survives from around 1250 to 1270, by which Roger granted an acre of his glebe land in Minchinhampton to a Walter Fisher, who, in exchange, granted to Roger and all future Rectors some of his land, on which Roger would make a gate for the church’s use.

It may be worth adding that laymen owned our parish’s ‘advowson’ (the right to appoint incumbents) until 50 years ago, when it passed from the Ricardos to the Bishop of Gloucester. A parish has a Rector if the incumbent used to receive most of the tithes, whereas if these tithes belonged to a layman or Abbey, the parish priest is a Vicar. As agriculture improved in the 18th century, tithes became more valuable, and this had the unfortunate effect of making Rectorships more sought after for their income rather than their responsibilities. This, combined with their appointment by wealthy laymen, often relatives, seriously damaged the Church of England’s mission in many parishes, while Nonconformist chapels began to flourish. So we must remember with gratitude our Rectors in the last century or more, and men like Thomas Keble at Bisley, who brought about enormous changes, working with their parishioners to be part of the living church of Christ, His light in the world.

Martin Ecclestone