'More ghosts than ratepayers ...'
St. Guthlac's Church of Passenham, Northamptonshire
St. Guthlac’s of Passenham is a gem of a church hidden away in the trees and
mist of a tiny hamlet best known for its ghosts. If you are brave - or foolish - enough to wander late at night on the country lanes thereabouts, you might just hear the urgent clatter of hooves coming up the road and turn to see a spectral steed galloping past, dragging the ghost of Bobby Banestre after it.
Sir Robert Banestre, once lord of Passenham Manor, was dragged to his death by his startled horse after he fell while hunting and his foot caught in the stirrup. He is remembered as a man who cried out, at a pivotal moment in his own funeral, ‘steady, steady, I am not ready!’ The coffin was dropped, hurriedly opened and found to contain nothing more than Sir Robert’s corpse. The coffin was closed again and buried as quickly as ceremony would allow, but his spirit remains as restless today as ever.
Despite significant aid to local churches and a bequest to the poor in his will, the memory of Robert Banestre, even if not his actual ghost, haunts this area. It is said that to this day, parents use his name to frighten their offspring into good behavior. And his is not the only restless spirit in the area.
The author T. H. White (yes, that T.H. White), declares in his lovely short story, Soft Voices in Passenham, that the village has ‘more ghosts than ratepayers.’ One of these is the still present ghost of the unfortunate Nancy Lee, an unwed mother who drowned herself in the millpond to avoid the shame of her situation, and whose body was caught and broken on the mill’s waterwheel.Â
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it is absolutely true that Passenham is awash in skeletons. Seven skeletons were uncovered under the floor of the rectory during repairs to that building. Two skeletons were found entangled in the roots of a great tree blown over by a storm. And, most inexplicable of all, a skeleton was found in the roof beams of the village’s great tithe barn.
The source of most of those skeletons is known. In 921 A.D. Passenham was the site of a pivotal battle in which an Anglo Saxon army led by
King Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, defeated a group of marauding Danes (i.e. Vikings).
But, we’re meant to be looking at churches, not old battlegrounds. Sir Robert Banestre served as comptroller to James l and became Clerk Victualler to Charles l. He was a member of the Court of the Green Cloth and responsible for the collection of the highly unpopular ship tax in the county. He was also known for buying up local debts and then foreclosing on the properties just before harvest, that is, the moment when the owner was least likely to be able to repay the debt. By 1640 he was wealthy enough to pay for the new chancel roof of Towcester church.Â
 He had St. Guthlac redecorated in an ornate style more usual to an earlier period; even more unusual, these decorations - wall paintings, misericords and a wonderfully carved arch over the entranceway - survived the English Reformation and its objections to ‘idolatrous’ images in churches.
Which means that today you can still enjoy the wonderful wall paintings, the elegant misericords in the choir stalls and the wonderful carved frieze that you will see over the doorway to the church as you leave.Â
To arrange a visit to the church, check the church website for the phone number and email of the current church warden who will unlock the door for you and perhaps point out some of the more interesting carvings.
You can drive to St. Guthlac’s by following your sat nav to Milton Keynes post code MK19 6DH, but in my opinion the best way to get there, to truly understand the mystery of the place, is to walk over the sheep pastures from Stony Stratford, crossing the Great River Ouse on the way.
