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Such a staff of priests is normally associated only with Cathedrals – but sometimes a church was considered sufficiently important to be accorded the same status. This was the case with ‘The Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Peter The Apostle, St. John the Evangelist’ at Tattershall. Nowadays, it is more usually known simply as ‘Holy Trinity’. The Charter that Henry VIth granted to Tattershall was endorsed by the following worthy and notable individuals of that time:
This Charter allowed the then Church of St. Peter and St Paul to be demolished and this Collegiate Church to be built. Ten acres of land, with orchards and gardens, were given on which to build mansion-houses and buildings for the Master, the six Chaplains, the clerks, choristers, and the servants. The only items remaining from the original church are the base of the font and a brass to Hugh de Goudeby, 1411, which is in the chancel. Hugh de Goudeby was Steward to an earlier baron Cromwell.. Ralph, the 3rd Baron Cromwell, who also commissioned the building of the unique brick castle next door, was Chancellor to Henry VI, so was a very rich and powerful person. He endowed the church with two estates, the revenue from which was to pay for the upkeep of the buildings and for its staff. In the event, building was not begun until around 1472, seventeen years after Baron Cromwell’s death in 1455. The work was overseen by William of Wainfleet, Cardinal of All England and Bishop of Winchester, who was Chief Executor to Cromwell’s Will. He ensured that the original design, approved by Ralph Cromwell, was adhered to by the Master Mason and builders. When the church was completed around 1500, it must have been a magnificent sight. It remains into the modern day as an unparalleled gem of the 15th Century – a piece of English architectural splendour and a glorious monument to the vision and skill of its benefactors, designers and builders. Inside, it once had some of the finest stained and painted glass in England. Every pane of glass in the building was stained or painted and was made, predominantly by six English workshops. Unfortunately, all that is left is that which can be seen in the Great East Window. The rest of the glass was removed in 1754. It had taken 19 years to get the glass removed after a vicar, Samuel Kirkshawe, in 1735 had asked “can this dark stuff not be removed and replaced with clear?”. One of the main instigators of the glass removal was a Mr. Banks of Revesby. The medieval coloured glass was sold to the Earl of Exeter, who agreed to pay a sum in order to replace the Chancel and other windows with clear glass. It would seem, however, that even in those days, not every one could be trusted as the Bank Draft for £50, the price settled on between parties, went missing! In fact the cost of replacing the glass in the Chancel could have been achieved for as little as £40, but the Steward of the then Lord of the Manor of Tattershall, Lord Fortesque, reneged on the promise explaining, “it would only please the people who have no concern in the matter, as the Chancel belongs entirely to my Lord”. As a result the Chancel was left open to the ravages of “the weather and wildfowl” and all the Return Stalls and medieval furniture rotted. The glass in the windows of the North, West and East walls of the Nave was replaced, while the North and South Transept windows were bricked up until around 1900. The majority of the ‘lost’ medieval glass that can be traced is to be found in St. Martin’s Church, Stamford; there is some also in Burghley House, Stamford and a few panes in Warwick Castle. The rest is in places unknown.
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