Shrove Tuesday, the chancel becomes a cockpit, the rector holds the stakes and the church rings with shouts and jeers. In the morning all that remains are feathers, copper, white and black, caught by a chill Lenten draught and sent skitting across the floor.
The church of St Margaret of Antioch in Knotting sits in a peaceful spot in a small village near the Northamptonshire border. Inside all is calm, it is an intimate space suffused with a peachy glow. The last service was held in 2007 and it’s now managed by the Churches Conservation Trust who undertook a major conservation project between 2009-2011.
It’s hard to imagine the church at the centre of controversy and yet that’s what happened in the 1630s. The imposing black spiked gates that close off the chancel were installed in 1637 and kept locked except during times of Divine Service to prevent cock fighting taking place. The seventeenth century rector Arthur Alvey had held the stakes in the betting and was later ejected from his post. Cock fighting was reported at Knotting Church on Shrove Tuesdays in 1634, 1635 and 1636, taking place in and around the Communion Table. Cockerels were brought in and fights held. Rev Alvey is recorded as being present “and laughed and sported thereat and most profanely abused the said consecrated place”.
The backdrop to this story is the rise in Puritanism in the period before the English Civil War. Puritans sought to reform the church system and were critical of bishops and the concept of episcopacy. Their meetings were selective, rather than being open to the whole parish, and Bible reading was given more prominence. Bedford’s most famous son, John Bunyan, was less dogmatic and advocated for the right to worship and preach according to conscience.
Despite this atmosphere of seriousness towards religion, the Archdeacon’s court cases from the time show that not everyone had spiritual concerns on their minds. In Sandy two men were found drunk at the time of the service and in Bedford butchers were killing cattle on the Sabbath. Young men playing football at the time of Sunday service were reported in villages including Great Barford, Roxton, Wilden, Pavenham and Stevington. Cock fighting wasn’t the only animal based sport taking place in churches and churchyards, both bear and bull baiting were reported in church yards including St Paul’s in Bedford.
Shelly Dennison 