Minsden Chapel

Preston, Hertfordshire
in the Nineteenth Century

Minsden Chapel circa 1830

A detailed mention in the Doomsday Book (AD 1085) is testimony to Minsden’s antiquity. It notes that Minsden was a manor and that living there were eight villeins, two cottars, six serfs and (crucially) one priest. Later manorial documents for Missenden still exist (and a copy can be seen at Hertfordshire Archives), but it is the chapel of ease at Minsden which is the subject of this article.

Minsden chapel was named after St Nicholas – the protector of children and the poor. Its mother church was St Mary’s at Hitchin. The chapel of ease served the farming communities of Minsden, Langley, Preston and even farther afield – Robert of Walsworth rode to services in the middle of the fifteenth century. As the chapel stood near St Albans (High)Way, it was also a sanctuary for travellers and pilgrims en route to St Alban’s Abbey.

During the Reformation (from 1538) worship at Minsden chapel declined. The congregation was small and couldn’t afford a minister. As the local people were too independent to travel to St Mary’s, every few months a clergyman rode to Minsden to conduct baptism, marriage and burial services. The chapel continued to drift apart from its mother and became increasingly neglected.

In 1650, a report noted ‘that no dues had been paid to the Vicar of Hitchin for many years (by Minsden); that it had been destitute of a preaching minister for divers years past; that the chapel had fallen into great decay”. Then, incredibly, it added that “it was fit to be made a parish church’.

This recommendation gave villagers the opportunity to solidify their religious independence and they resolved to repair their chapel in the hope that it would be elevated to the position of a parish church.

However, their hopes were dashed. Although a considerable amount of money was raised for repairs – a new roof was built - the custodians of the fund died and the money was lost. No aid was forthcoming for these poor from St Nicholas! This reversal was quickly followed by a shattering decision: although the villagers had never paid a church rate to St Mary’s at Hitchin and their own chapel was in desperate need of refurbishment, it was decreed that they should pay a rate for repairs to the church at Hitchin. To enforce this order, in 1688, twenty –four actions were brought against the dwellers in Preston and Langley. The list of Preston’s inhabitants who were liable to pay the rate reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the village at the end of the seventeenth century and the rate levied allows a comparison of the extent of their property:

The two leaders of the villagers, John Holton and John Farr, were excommunicated and imprisoned because they refused to obey the decision. In the face of overwhelming power and influence the people of Preston and Langley bowed to the inevitable and paid their dues under protest. Two years later, in 1690, they sent a report to the archdeacon that their chapel ‘is now totally ruinated, stripped, uncovered, decayed and demolished’ – the underlying, accusing message was that this was the direct consequence of the Church’s actions.

Now Minsden chapel began to be plundered. Jeremiah Godfrey stole 400 pound of lead in 1690. Stone and oak fittings from the chapel were carted to cottages for their repair and decoration. In 1700 Joseph Arnold of Langley was sued by John Heath the chapel warden of Minsden for appropriating the font for a sink at his home. Painted glass from the chapel was found at The Sun inn at Hitchin and it was alleged that in 1840, when the church at Ippollitts was restored, the tracery work of the windows was stolen from Minsden. About this time, a Hitchin character known as ‘old Bowstock’ would load his donkey cart with ‘clunch’ at Minsden and travel to Hitchin market where it was sold in the shadow of St Mary’s.

Even the three bells of Minsden chapel were looted. In 1725, a probable witness to the removal of two of them, John Reason of St Pauls Walden, was returning home from Hitchin market and was near Hitch Wood when he was alarmed by the noise of men with horses and a fast-moving carriage. They were travelling towards Harpenden. Shortly afterwards, the bells were reported as missing. It was reported by Mr Cook of Little Almshoe that one of his barns was called ‘Bell Barn’ as the third stolen bell had been hidden there one night.

Much of this pillage occurred when the chapel was still being used as a place of worship. The chapel warden, John Heath, was admonished because of his leanings towards the Baptists and Independents. Heath allowed an Independent Christian, Daniel Skingle, to use the chapel to preach to his flock. The congregation quickly swelled to around 300 souls, but Skingle and Heath were rebuked by the Church and were forced to make an abject confession of offences against God and the Church.

Skingle’s sermons were the last to be preached at Minsden, but marriages continued to be performed there. Despite its being a ruined shell, there was a certain appeal in its rustic surroundings. It was hidden among trees and adorned with moss and ivy. Cooing doves witnessed the wedding ceremonies and the rural atmosphere was heightened by the view of elms through the holes in the roof. The chapel also had the allure of a hint of superstition. The further it fell into rack and ruin, the more couples wanted to marry there.

Instead of being entered in the chapel register at Minsden, these later marriages were recorded in the parish register of St Mary’s. On 11 July 1738/9, the baker, Enoch West married Mary Horn at the chapel. Beside their names, ‘at Minsden chapel’ was written for the last time. During the ceremony it was reported that a lump of masonry fell and dashed the service book from the curate’s hand. After this narrow escape, the Bishop of Lincoln would not allow any other marriages at Minsden – a wedding might become a wake.

And so the chapel quietly crumbled. It succumbed to undergrowth and was framed by uprooted elms. The Hitchin historian, Reginald Hine, leased it from the vicars of Hitchin in the 1920s and belatedly warned off trespassers and scavengers, threatening pursuit with ‘the utmost vigour of the law’. He wished to be buried there and promised that he would ‘endeavour in all ghostly ways to protect and haunt its hallowed walls’. The first part of his wish was granted, at least.

Conflict with St Mary, Hitchin

The rape of Minsden chapel

Later services and ceremonies

Reginald Hine and Minsden chapel

Jane Elizabeth Slater

Widow North

Thomas Hunsdon, gent

John Foster

for Mr Rayners land

John Godfrey

Jeremy Godfrey and his tenant

John Barfoote

for Mrs Bells land

Leonard King

John Heath

Richard Heath

Robert Cooper

Widow Riches

Mr Richard Rayner for the tythe

For land held by Audey

John Gotteridge

Minsden chapel visited August 2008

I left my car in the small car park at the junction of Hitchwood Lane and the B651, turned left onto the B651. . After about 200 metres there was a footpath sign on the left. The path can be clearly seen (below) meandering across the field and then skirting the copse in the distance to the right.

The copse is fenced to prevent trespassing, but the ruins of Minsden Chapel can be seen and there is a stile which allows easy and immediate access to the chapel.

I am grateful to Webmasters, ‘Werewolf’ and Pete Collins for their kind permission to use the photographs above. These are links to their sites which feature the haunting of Minsden Chapel and walks in the area :

Link: Haunted Minsden chapel

Google search Petes walks; click Long distance paths; click The Chiltern Way

Sources: Hitchin Parish Registers; Decree and order of HM Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes in a suit between certain inhabitants of Preston and Langley and the church wardens of Hitchin, 1688 - HALS Ref DP 53/5/1; ‘History of Hitchin’ Vol II - Reginald Hine.

Reginald Hine’s grave at Minsden

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Just under a mile south - east of Preston lies a ruined memorial

to the independent religious spirit of the local villagers.