A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE fordshire, of which no record — not even the name — remains. Some are only mentioned once, and nothing further is known of their history. Of those which are known to have existed the chief were : — The chapel of Astwick, 1 appendant to Studham church. „ „ Cainhoe 2 „ Clophill „ „ „ Silsoe 3 „ Flitton „ „ „ Pavenham] 4 „ . , „ Radwell / » Felmersham „ „ „ Knotting 5 „ Melchbourne,, „ „ Roxhill 6 ,, Marston „ „ „ Clapham 7 „ Oakley „ „ „ Barwythe 8 ,, Studham „ „ „ Tebworth 9 „ Chalgrave ,, Whipsnade 10 and Woburn are never described as dependant on any church, and may have been free chapels. Of these, Knotting, Astwick, 11 and Whipsnade had become parish churches before the Taxatio of 1291. Pavenham and Silsoe were not independent parishes until the nineteenth century. Woburn and Clap- ham were still chapels in the reign of Henry VIII. The others have disappeared. The occasion of a suit in which the abbot of Woburn was in- volved, with reference to the chapel of Hunderigg in Buckingham- shire, serves to explain very clearly the purpose for which these chapels were intended, and their relation to the parish church ; it is interest- ing also as showing what was then considered a proper provision of services for a small hamlet in the country. The monks undertook to send a clerk three days in the week" — Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, and in Advent and Lent Saturday also ; he was to sing mass (probably mattins also) on these days ; he was to say the office of ' Tenebras ' on the three last days of Holy Week, and at Christmas to sing the midnight mass, and mattins, and the second mass at dawn. 13 If a feast day were to fall in September, there was not to be an extra mass, but one of the ferial 1 Earliest mention in the foundation charter of Chicksand.
- Only in the foundation charter of Beaulieu ; this priory also served the chapel of St. Machutus
in the parish of Haynes (Cott. MS. Nero, D vii. f. 92; Claudius, D i. f. 135b), said to have been given by Robert d'Albini with the cell of Beaulieu. 3 Earliest mention in the Liber Antiquus ; noticed afterwards frequently in the Lincoln Registers. 4 Earliest mention in 1205 {Cat. of Pap. Letters, i. 18) ; Radwell for the last time in 1363 in the Register of Bp. Gynwell. 5 Earliest mention in 1 1 76 (Gorham, Hist, of St. Neot's, II. cxiii.). 8 Earliest mention in 1280 (Line. Epis. Reg.). 7 Earliest mention in a charter of St. Hugh, quoted in the Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 100. 8 Harl. MS. 1885, ff. 51, 57. 8 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 277 ; already of long standing. 10 Harl. MS. 1885, f. 52b. It has a rector, not a chaplain only. 11 Astwick was still a chapel in 1242 (Cur. Reg. R. 1 2 5, n. 22). The chapels of Sharpenhoe and Humbershoe {Ann. Mon. [Rolls Series], iii. 141, 257) were probably also parochial. The chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr near Chicksand Priory belongs to the thirteenth century (Ca/. of Pap. Letters, i. 534) and had disappeared before the sixteenth. 12 Three days was the usual allowance at these chapels. 15 In order that the parishioners might fulfil their obligation of hearing three masses on Christmas Day. 318
