Blyborough Church

The Parish of St Alkmund, Blyborough.

Information about St Almund and the parish church.

St Almund's day: 19 March
St Alkmund was a British prince; son of the Northumbrian king Alcred. King of Northumbria after the murders of his father and brother Osred. Known for his charity to the poor and orphaned. Murdered by agents of the usurping king Eardwulf of Northumbria. There are six churches in England dedicated to him.
Born 774 in northern England, martyred in c.800 in Mercia; buried at Northworthy (modern Derby), England; relics later translated to Shrewsbury abbey by Ethelfleda, the Lady of the Mercians; relics returned to the White Church in Derby in 1140; during which move his tomb was reported to exude a perfume

(If anyone has more information, including legends, about St Alkmund or about the church building, please send it to the webmaster. If approved by the rector it may be included on this site.)

BLYBOROUGH. ST. ALKMUND

Directions: The hamlet of Blyborough is best reached via the B1398 "Cliff Road", which turns northwards from the A631 Gainsborough - Caenby Corner road (at Hemswell) towards Kirton Lindsey: it is also signposted from the A15. Half concealed by trees, the church is in the northern part of the hamlet, on the road which turns right at the end of the "village street".

Unusually dedicated to a Saxon saint from Northumbria, St. Alkmund’s serves a lonely hamlet: it is set in a delightful churchyard full of wild flowers, sloping down to the ornamental lake of neighbouring Blyborough Hall. It is at its most picturesque at daffodil time. Its miniature tower (like the one of nearby Pilham) is Georgian, though adorned with re-used mediaeval gargoyles. One of them, an eagle with a woman’s face, glares straight at visitors coming up the churchyard path. The remainder of the church looks ‘Victorian gothic" from the outside, and it was indeed extensively restored in 1877-8.

From the inside, however, it is plain that the Victorian work is only the outer shell of a basically thirteenth century building, which retains its original mediaeval arches and (in the north aisle) thirteenth century leaf-carved pillars. St. Alkmund’s also boasts two fonts, a Victorian example near the entrance door and a fifteenth century original (with foliage carved round its base) in the north chapel.

On a beam across the chancel arch rests a wooden crucifix, said to have been carved in sixteenth century Flanders. It was restored and placed here in 1913, a year before the war which claimed no less than four members of the Luard family of Blyborough Hall, commemorated on an adjacent wall plaque. The youngest of them died in an obscure theatre of war, leading a charge against the Bulgarians.

Earlier Luards (and their Dalbiac relations) are remembered in the north chapel - where also hangs a "hatchment" painted with the Luard arms, carried at family funerals. This chapel, however, was probably added to the church by the mediaeval rector of Blyborough whose splendid tomb can still be seen there: originally, perhaps, his monument stood beneath the arched and sculptured recess (now filled in) between the chapel and the chancel. As the Latin inscription on it records, his name was Master Robert Conying, and he died in 1434. Lying with his head on a cushion supported by (damaged) angels and his feet on a (decapitated) greyhound, he wears his Mass vestments, the cross on his chest being decorated with little "water-bougets" - stylised skin-bags for carrying water, slung round the carrier’s neck on a yoke. These devices appear again in the Conying family arms carved on the end of the tomb, which also bears the mediaeval royal arms of England - lions and fleurs-de-lis - perhaps indicating that Master Robert had links with the royal court. His monument, at any rate, is one of the finest in north Lincolnshire, and in itself make Blyborough’s church -currently, alas, rather dilapidated - worth a visit.

Text about the church building is written by Charles Kightly and copyright is held by West Lindsey District Council Tourism Development Office. Reproduced on this page with their kind permission. Please visit their website for more information.WLDC Tourism Office