Image ID: 15104

Littleborough Church

Littleborough
England

The parish church, dedicated, there is good reason to believe, to St. Nicholas, is claimed by some to be the smallest parish church now in use in England. There is a perfect Norman chancel arch which has remained untouched, except by the hand of time, and in the outer walls of the chancel and nave are fine specimens of the herring-bone style of masonry. As the church does not appear in Domesday Book, William the Conqueror has been thought by some to have been the founder, Littleborough being part of his great manor of Mansfield. It was at that time adequately endowed. The endowment in this parish was upset by King John when Earl Mortain. He being at Nottingham gave to the church of Wellebec and the monks there, whatever belonged to him of the church at Littleborough, with the appurtenances, viz., the advowson and presentation and the very church to be converted to their proper uses, as much as belonged to him or his heirs, and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Archbishop of York, appropriated it accordingly to that abbey. At the dissolution the greater part of the endowment of the parish passed away from the church altogether into lay hands, a very small pittance being left. it is the opinion of some, however, that part of the church was built early in the 4th century, and they point to the Roman bricks and Saxon masonry! Littleborough is the supposed scene of the memorable baptism, when a great number of people were baptized in the river by Paulinus, under the eyes of King Edwin himself. The latest edition of Bede's History confirms this opinion. There is a piscina, which has been defaced; an old 'tub font,' which, unfortunately, has been tampered with; and an ancient window on the south side of the chancel. There appears to have been a door in the south wall. There is a silver chalice with cover, dated 1571. The register of baptisms, marriages, and burials dates from 1539. The church was carefully restored in 1900 at a cost of

Date: 1972

Organisation Reference: NCCN001524

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