Fotheringhay
Reproduced by kind permission of Peter Hammond
Fotheringhay
is a small village in Northamptonshire, close to Peterborough. The principal
Ricardian sites are the castle, the church and the New Inn.
There is virtually nothing
left of the castle since it was slighted and dismantled in the seventeenth
century on the orders of King James I. The parish church has been altered
over the years, and is rather shorter now than it was in the medieval
period. However, it is still a wonderful place to visit and is the venue
for the Society's annual carol service each December.
The New Inn was the
medieval hostel provided as an overspill for visitors to the castle. It
is found at the bend in the road close to the bridge over the River Nene
and though it is a private dwelling, it can be distinguished by a green
plaque erected by the Society to commemorate the birth of Margaret of
York, Duchess of Burgundy, in the nearby castle.
Richard III was born
in the castle and legend has it that he was baptised in the church, though
this event may have taken place in the castle chapel.
Little remains of the
castle. There is still the mound where the keep, in the shape of a fetterlock,
a Yorkist symbol, stood. Because it was here that Mary, Queen of Scots,
was beheaded in February 1587, it has been suggested that her son, James
VI, slighted the castle when he became king of England and the building
fell into disrepair. All that remains of the ancient stronghold today
is a chunk of the outer stone wall, which is surrounded by a railing bearing
two plaques with details about the royal connections.
Of the church, much
more is left, though it is no longer as large as it would have been when
Richard III was last known to have visited. In 1476, as Duke of Gloucester,
he led the cortege that brought the bodies of his father, Richard, Duke
of York, and elder brother, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, for reburial in the
family mausoleum. At that time, the church extended further east and there
was a college and cloister attached on the south, between it and the River
Nene. The college was an institution for priests and choristers who daily
prayed for the souls of the House of York, past and present.
With the Dissolution,
the property was sold and the roof of the choir and the cloister was stripped
of its lead, allowing the rain to get in and resulting in rot and collapse.
Eventually, only the nave and tower were left. As the nave was the parish
church, the roof had been left alone. In 1566, when Elizabeth I saw what
had happened to the tombs of her ancestors -her paternal grandmother was
Elizabeth of York -she gave money for them to be reinterred in the sanctuary
on either side of the altar, where they lie to this day.
The church is large,
too large for the size of its present parish, and filled with light. The
windows are huge and the medieval coloured glass almost completely gone.
There is a modern window, the gift of the Richard III Society, which now
provides a focal point for the 'Chapel of All Souls and the memory of
the royal House of York', another gift of the Society. The window displays
the heraldry of the first four Dukes of York, their wives and Richard
III and his queen, Anne Neville.
The pulpit was restored
in 1966 and it now glows with colour. It was the gift of Edward
IV and bears the Plantagenet royal arms, flanked by a white lion, a black
bull and a white boar, symbols of the Yorkist sons. Hexagonal in shape,
the pulpit stands in a narrow plinth.
The most recent addition
to the furnishing of this wonderful old church is the pipe organ, built
by Vincent Woodstock and installed in 2000. It fills the church
with the most glorious sounds, and at the inaugural concert, those huge
windows fairly rattled!
Other gifts of the Society
to the church include kneelers throughout the high fronted box pews and
a cope for the incumbent. This is richly decorated with the heraldic history
of the church. Financial support has also been given to the restoration
of the bells, the building of the organ and the cleaning of the Decalogue
behind the altar.