St Andrew's Church, Apley

Reference Name MLI51188

Name:
St Andrew's Church, Apley

Summary:
St Andrew's Church, Apley.

Location:
APLEY, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

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 is the area of the medieval church. {5}

A resistivity survey was undertaken at St Andrew's Church in July 2012. A linear anomaly possibly representing walls of the earlier church and discrete anomalies, which were possibly grayeyard furniture were recorded. {6}

Sources:
1 Index: Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey Card Index. TF 17 NW: 16, 1963, DA
2 Index: SMR. Sites and Monuments Record Card Index. TF 17 NW: Y
3 Bibliographic reference: Everson, P.L., Taylor, C.C. and Dunn, C.J.. 1991. Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire. p.63, fig.47, archive notes
4 Aerial Photograph: 1945-84. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION. AKN129,1964,
5 Scheduling record: English Heritage. 1999. Scheduling document 22764. MPP 22
6 Intervention Report: Archaeological Project Services. 2012. Geophysical and topographic survey at St Andrew's Church, Apley. -