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The Church of St Paul in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, was one of the town's fourteen Medieval parish churches until its deconsecration and extensive demolition during the Reformation when the remaining part became used as the schoolroom of Stamford School. It was then restored and extended in 1929-30 for use as the school chapel in commemoration of those old boys and staff who had died in the First World War. The medieval remains were the eastern part of the south aisle and adjacent fragments of the nave of the church. ==History as a church== The parish church dedicated to St Paul lay just within the town walls in the north-eastern corner of the Medieval town and contains some of the earliest fabric of all Stamford churches having been built no later than 1152. It was in the patronage of the Priory of Saint-Fromond in Normandy in the mid eleventh century but had come into the hands of lay patrons by 1413.〔John S Hartley and Alan Rogers, ''The Religious Foundations of Medieval Stamford''. Stamford Survey Group Report 2. University of Nottingham, 1974.〕 Of what remains, the two east bays of the south wall are first half of the twelfth century and although the proportions suggest the church was large, with a nave of four or five bays,〔B.L. Deed, ''The History of Stamford School'', Cambridge University Press, 1954; 1982.〕 the plan of the church at that time is unknown; it may have been rectangular without a chancel.〔Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. ''The Town of Stamford''. London, 1977.〕 "Externally the arched corbel table, the flat east buttress, and the freize at sill level of the windows show this south wall at once to be Norman."〔 The walls are of Barnack stone, coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and incorporate miniature arches and rounded corbels, supporting a later battlemented parapet. Reset between the bays is a (sealed) fifteenth-century doorway. The two east-most windows in the south wall are early fourteenth century and those in the east wall, which is c. 1200, are late fifteenth century. The north aisle, comprising two medieval (the east-most) and two modern arches, has stiff-leaf decoration on the capitals of the former.〔 St Paul's had a tower and belfry and there was a room over the church door. Inside, there is a fourteenth-century doorway to a former rood loft stair.〔 In the south east corner where the altar stood (and stands) are three piscina recesses presumably credences with carved chamfered ogee heads of the fourteenth century. The remains (the lower halves) of two “good fourteenth century figures”〔Pevsner, Nikolaus; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England, Lincolnshire''. Penguin, 1964〕 thought to be of St John and the Virgin Mary found during excavations in the early twentieth century were placed high up on the south wall. There are two tomb recesses in the south wall, one finely-moulded, probably of c.1300. In one is a large, stone coffin lid with carved inscription in medieval French which commemorates Henry de Elyngton, Rector of St Paul's between 1384 and 1400,〔 (although this stone has suffered from some physical deterioration in recent years), and in the other a miniature, thirteenth-century coffin lid, presumably that of a child. Over the interior of the west door is an arched inscription commemorating Eustace Malherbe (Eustachius Malerbe), Member of Parliament for Stamford in 1322, and also a male, bearded, stone head, believed to be of Christ. Attached to the church was originally the cell of an anchorite, mentioned in 1382, 1435 and 1521, wherein a female hermit was walled up effectively for the duration of her life.〔 The main part of the present building was originally a chapel dedicated to St Katherine and the religious guild of St Katherine (refounded in 1480 by Alderman William Browne, founder of Browne's Hospital) met for its services in the chapel. The guild was a wealthy one and its members included Lady Margaret Beaufort, Princess Cecily of York and David Cecil, grandfather of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Alderman William Radcliffe, founder of Stamford School. After the Reformation parts of its property came into the hands of the Cecil family in 1549.〔 St Paul's was one of the more modest livings in Stamford which may have contributed to the decision to close it.〔 It may also have suffered at the hands of Lancastrian army which sacked Stamford in 1461. Following an Act of Parliament of 1548 permitting amalgamation of Stamford's parishes, St Paul's was amalgamated with St George's and the church, now redundant, was largely demolished, its fixtures and fittings seized and sold. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Paul's Church, Stamford」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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