The Oldest Grammar School Building in Lincolnshire

The Collegiate Church of The Holy Trinity was built on the site of a previous church, dedicated to SS Peter and Paul.  It is impossible to tell when the original church was built, but it was probably soon after the Conquest, and came to be used as the family Church of the Barony of Tattershall.  The base and stem of the font, and a brass in the Chancel to Hugh de Goudeby, 1411, survive from the original church, and an altar in the present church dedicated to SS Peter and Paul remain to remind us of the first Parish Church.

 

This licence empowered them to convert the Parish Church into a Collegiate Church or College in “Honour of the Holy Trinity, The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Peter The Apostle, St. John The Baptist, and St. John The Evangelist,” and was granted “for the good state of King Henry VI, and the said Sir Ralph Cromwell during life, and afterwards for the health of their souls, of their parents, friends and benefactors, but chiefly for the soul of Lady Maud Cromwell, sometime Lady of Tateshale, his grandmother.”

Ten acres of land were authorised on which to build mansion-houses and buildings for the Master and Chaplains, the clerks, choristers, and the servants, with orchards and gardens, and to rebuild the Almshouses.  The Collegiate body was to be a corporation with the power to acquire lands, tenements and other revenues, ecclesiastical or secular to the value of £200 per year, over and above the Church Benefice and the yearly value of the Church, without payment of fee or fine to the Crown or the Lord of the Manor.  

The Establishment was to consist of seven priests or chaplains, one of whom was elected to be the Master, or Warden; six secular clerks; six choristers; and thirteen poor people occupying the Almshouse.  The Warden, who was to be a graduate was elected by the chaplains, and received the sum of £20 per annum, and resided at Tateshale except for one month of the year.  The chaplains had £10 per year each, and the Clerks received 10 marks.  Most of the clerks, however, received extra payment for performing such duties as that of Precentor, Sacrist, and Steward of the household.  Robert Lound served for a long time as “lmpositor or Provost of the Choir,” and in 1503 was so old that he was allowed to dwell outside the College bounds.  He evidently possessed both musical and artistic talents, for in 1495 he received 5s. 8d. for the notation of chants, and 2s. 10d. for writing, noting and illuminating a “Historia Transfiguracionis Jhesu Christi.”

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