"Who was John Pyel? And Where is his tower?"
Lecture delivered to John Pyel Lodge in March 1993 by W.Bro Roy York Pprsgd
Worship Master and brother Wardens, on many occasions when attending lodge I have been approached by visitors who have opened the conversation with, "I was told to come and ask you because you come from Irthlingborough and might know." They have then proceeded to ask me of the origin of the name of our lodge and also about the tower depicted on the banner.
I welcome the opportunity afforded me this evening to speak on those subjects and during the course of this lecture will address two questions, the answers to which I trust will be of interest not only to members but also to visitors.
The questions I propose to address are; "Who was John Pyel?" and "Where is his tower?" but at the outset it would be both helpful and appropriate to say a few words about the origins of this lodge.
The tower which is depicted on the banner of the John Pyel Lodge is clearly ecclesiastical, although during the course of this evening I intend to prove that originally its architect had several practical uses in mind. It is, of course, the tower of Irthlingborough Parish Church.
It would be just as well, at a very early stage to make the connection between Irthlingborough and this lodge. The John Pyel Lodge was the brainchild of a group of predominately Irthlingborough brethren, and it was in Irthlingborough that the lodge was consecrated in 1930 in what was then the Church Sunday Schools in the High Street. The Rector and both Church Wardens of Irthlingborough were founder members, and over the years a goodly number of prominent men from the town have sought membership, with a large number occupying the chair of King Solomon. And so, at the very beginning we can hit on the head the notion that John Pyel is one of the "Wellingborough Lodges", it is not, it is "an Irthlingborough lodge in exile". As a point of accuracy I should record that the second, and all subsequent meetings of the lodge have been held here at Mill Road!
Before I begin to discuss the questions I have posed, it would add to our understanding if I were to spend a few moments giving a rather broad background before dealing with either Pyel or his tower in detail.
That a place of worship of one kind or another has existed on the site of the present St. Peter’s Church in Irthlingborough for a thousand years is a fact that con not be denied although the majority of the present building is but a very small remnant of the Collegiate Church of the late C14th which formally occupied the site, and to which I shall refer shortly.
The sitting of the church at the point where Kings Meadow Lane. (now sadly lost due to sand and gravel extraction) the mediaeval road across the valley from Higham Ferrers, and indeed London, gains the safety of the high ground was vital in those days when a decision to cross the treacherous wastes of the Nene Valley in winter was not taken lately. As well as offering hospitality the church also provided an opportunity to pray for a safe crossing or to give thanks for a safe arrival. The difficulty of that short journey in those days cannot be over emphasised.
It would appear that the present church was built on the original foundations, probably in the late reign of Henry 3rd. And although subsequent alterations took place under the direction of John Pyel, the original ground plan had never been disturbed. The church was still, however, without a tower.
It is now possible to begin to answer the question "Who was John Pyel?"
John Pyel was born in Irthlingborough sometime before 1320 to parents who were servile tenants of the Abbey of Peterborough. By the mid 1340's he had established himself as a merchant in London and in 1348 had inherited a plot of land in Irthingborough from his father. Exactly how big the plot was, or where it was situated we do not know, but in comparison with his neighbours he must have been a person of some substance.
He had first come to prominence in 1936 when he was appointed as one of three commissioners to enter all the beneficiaries of non-resident clergy in the Diocese of London in order to bring them under royal control before either leasing, or selling them off. The profits from the disposal went to Pyel.
He was later sued for negligence in two cases concerning the "supposed" loss of goods at sea, and when a farming syndicate with which he was involved collapsed, he spent upwards of a six months in the Fleet Prison.
It is interesting to note that a particularly close friend of Pyel’s was Adam Fraunceys who supplied the court with wine. At the same time another merchant was making a killing supplying the court with luxury cloth. That merchant was Sir Richard or Dick Whittington. As close friend of Fraunceys, John Pyel would undoubtedly have known Dick Whittington.
The Black Death of 1348/0 was an economic disaster not just for the farmers, but for all the monasteries, nunneries and religious houses that employed large numbers of labourers to work on their extensive estates. They suddenly found they were being held to ransom by their labourers whose services were very much in demand as so many of their number had perished. In short, to use a local expression, one hell of a lot of people found themselves in "Queer Street". Inevitably the value of land plummeted. Pyel was not slow to use this to his advantage. He and Fraunceys were able to offer loans and mortgages and these were readily accepted by religious houses, fellow Londoners and members of the gentry who found themselves in straightened circumstances.
Sulby Abbey was no exception. On 3rd December 1353 an agreement was entered into whereby the two merchants gave the abbey a down payment of £200 in return for an annuity of £40. Within a couple of days the annuity had been altered to £20 for life. The annuity from the abbey lasted, as far as Fraunceys was concerned, for 20 years, and in the case of Pyel for nearly 30, virtually trebling his investment.
Bearing in mind that mortgaged property reverted to Pyel on the death of the mortgagee rather minimal rents were required during the lifetime of the borrower an annual rent for the term of their lives of one red rose.
Having purchased the Manor of Irthlingborough from Sir Simon de Drayton in 1353 for £200 and a tun of wine, Pyel’s influence and wealth grew. He became Mayor (not Lord Mayor) of London and had the ear of the king. It was with little difficulty that he was able to obtain royal permission to proceed with his plant to found a College in Irthlingborough. The College would really be a Chan try in which resident priests would daily recite masses for the safe repose of the souls of the Pyel family.
A Papal Bull and the blessing of the Abbot of Peterborough were easily secured but they had not reckoned on the opposition of the Bishop of Lincoln, in whose diocese Irthlingborough lay. This prelate was irritated by the fact that his name and title had been omitted from the faculty, and his fury knew no bounds when Pyel accused him of dilatory sloth. The wrangling continued for several years and when John died in c1378 the work of converting the tiny parish church into a fine medieval chantry college had still not begun.
During his long and successful business career in London, Pyel had acquired many friends and it was to one of these, the Archdeacon of London that Joan turned. As a result of his goodwill the former difficulties were overcome and Letters Patent were taken out. After the years of squabble and delay, Joan Pyel was anxious for the college to come into being at the earliest opportunity and on the 28th February, 1388 her dream was realised when the first Dean and brethren appointed by the Abbot of Peterborough to serve the college took residence, secure in the knowledge that their benefactor had made such provision that they might live comfortably and well. The Dean received 13/4d per annum for his clothing, the canons ten shillings and the clerks seven shillings. It had always been Pyel’s intention to be buried in the newly created chantry college and the plans drawn up specified that the porch at the western end of the Nave should be a rather splendid burial chamber. Unfortunately he died before the work was complete and his tomb is in the John Pyel Chapel.
A vital part of the works was the construction of the unique campanile, or tower. It was a vital and integral part of the whole structure and in addition to housing the bells, it also contained bedrooms, a secure store room, a look out window essential to the brother on duty keeping watch across the valley for travellers, larders, store rooms and the kitchen. It was one of the last parts of the college to be built and it might be best to look at it from the top down.
The building is a square tower surmounted by an octagonal lantern topped by a spirelet. In this instance, the word lantern refers to the design rather than the use, although some sort of warning, or guiding beacon must at one time have shone out from the place.
It has been argued that the tower was thus situated as an aid for craft sailing up the river Nene to Northampton, but this can be quickly dismissed as the river was not navigable to trading vessels from this point until the C18th. And the time previous to that when it was used for boats, was in pre-Norman times when the shallow draught Viking dragon ships passed this way. Even if the tower had been standing in the tenth century, it is doubtful whether any occupants would have drawn attention to their whereabouts, let alone aid the navigations of travellers such as they!
The lantern itself was divided into three rooms, two were used as bedrooms whilst the one in between was a secure room. Pyel, having bequeathed costly vestments, plate and books had no intention of having them stolen.
It would appear also, they had little chance of claiming to oversleep as evidence has been discovered of a system by which the porter rang a bell housed in the tower, which summoned every brother to his devotions. It is worth noting that although the bedrooms were furnished with fireplaces, the windows were not glazed!
We now come down to the square tower and it was to this part that many peripheral buildings were attached, and even today, much visual evidence of this remains, particularly in the form of doorways which connected with other buildings, broken horizontal strings, and chimneys.
Until the early C19th much of the base of the tower, as well as the north side of the church had soil high against its walls. It is generally supposed that the church was built into the side of a fairly steep sloping ground which was never properly levelled. This was possibly as a result of Joan Pyel’s wish to hurry the work along, and once work did begin several corners were cut.
This was the reason then, that until c1830 the ground level around part of the tower was some 15 feet higher than today, and the room at the bottom of the tower today was in fact originally the cellar. Under the tower remains a splendid undercroft with fan vaulting, carved stone bosses and decorated with the Pyel arms. This served as a kitchen, and thankfully, the original stone bread oven remains, together with the carefully carved date ...1499.
Once our Victorian forebears had been at work levelling the soil in the church yard it became rather inconvenient to have to climb a ladder in order to get through the door, now some 15 feet up the wall, in order to enter the tower, and so, with little regard to architectural necessity, they cut a square doorway through at the new ground level. Inevitably this wakened the structure, the balance of which was already on a knife edge, because if you think about the eight sided lantern sitting upon a four sided tower, then four of the lantern’s sides sat obliquely across the corners, and the tower began to lean.
A massive buttress was quickly erected but not properly bonded, so instead of halting the lean, it accelerated it. The tale of what happened next, interesting and informative as it is, is a separate story and documented in The Leaning Tower (published by Irthlingborough Historical Society but sadly out of print). Suffice it to say, the decision was made to demolish the tower and rebuild it, using as much of the original stone as possible.
I must draw attention to the fact that threw Rector and Churchwardens wanted the work postponed indefinitely as they were busily engaged at the time in raising money for the church’s first organ. A somewhat doubtful priority when the tower was in such a dangerous state that it could have fallen any moment, demolishing in its fall not only the organ but the majority of the nave as well.
Thankfully the task was undertaken and completed, but once the tower was down it was discovered that the foundations provided for such a massive structure were totally inadequate.
The condition of the tower, and indeed the whole of St Peter’s Church, is carefully monitored and ongoing restoration will avoid the necessity for massive projects such as this ever to be repeated.
Many thanks to Roy York & Irthlingborough Historical Society - who owns the copyright - November 2002