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St John the Baptist, Whaplode Drove

Andrew Bowell photos of St John the Baptist, Whaplode Drove
A rather crude Romano-British altar shaped like a huge dog’s bone was found in the churchyard in 1938 and is now in the church porch. It is made of Northamptonshire stone and was probably used in the worship of pagan gods
There is an early reference to a Parochial Chapel for the ‘easement of those who guard the rivers and ring the bells as a warning’, but the first dated mention of a church here is from March 1322. At that time Croyland Abbey established a chantry (an endowment for a priest to say Mass) ‘in our chapel in le Broddedrove near Aswyk’. ‘Broddedrove’ can only be Whaplode Drove. The church was build of wood with a thatched nave and tiled chancel.
The present church was built in 1821, is Grade 2 listed and dedicated to St John the Baptist, although the chancel was enlarged and a porch added in 1907-8 when the Rev Reginald Page was Vicar. He had also overseen the building of the Church Room in 1903.
It was designed by Jeptha Pacey and Swanborough, and is built of red brick with a slate roof. The bell cote is copper covered.
The Church has the following monuments:
A monument in grey and white marble to John Kelk, who died in 1795.
A black and white marble monument with urn, to John Dinham, who died in1811.
A White marble monument with urn and draperies, to William Moore, who died in 1838.
Whaplode Drove became it’s own ecclesiastical parish on 15th August 1902. The Church seats 150.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Vistor comments

2 Responses

  1. My Grandpa and Nana are buried here, a lot of both their families too. He told me a story about a few local lads including the village blacksmith who were in an outside room of the church telling ghost stories. One of them said ” bang seven horseshoe nails into that piece of wood and the devil will appear”. So the Blacksmith did. He got started on the last one and didn’t notice he’d snagged his apron on the nail. At that point they all got scared and as the Blacksmith turned to leave, and not noticing the snagged apron, he mustve thought that the devil was tugging at his apron because Grandpa told me he died of fright on the spot. Spooky eh?

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