Trustees’ Meeting Update – March 2026

The trustees of the Friends of St Nicholas Churchyard met on Thursday, 5 March 2026, to review recent work, plan for the coming months, and look ahead to new projects that will help care for and interpret this historic place at the heart of Sutton. 

This short update is for our members and supporters so that you can see how the work of the Friends is progressing and how you can get involved in the months ahead.

Remembering a Friend

The meeting began by noting the sad news of the death of Jean Chappell, one of our members. Trustees expressed their appreciation for her long-standing interest in the work of the Friends and her enthusiasm for the churchyard and its history. 

The Friends exist because of people like Jean who care deeply about preserving this place of remembrance and heritage.

Finances and Support

The Friends remains a small but active charity, supported by donations and volunteer effort.

At present, the group holds £763.42 in the bank, with expected costs including insurance and the website that hosts our blog and heritage material.

We were also grateful to receive an anonymous donation of £130, which will support our work this year. 

Our annual accounts for 2025 were approved by the trustees and will be presented to members at the Annual General Meeting in April.

Improving Interpretation and Signage

One of the practical priorities for the Friends is helping visitors understand the history and nature of the churchyard.

A new A-frame information board has now been purchased. This will allow us to display notices about events, heritage activities and conservation work.

Trustees also discussed longer-term interpretation panels explaining how the churchyard is managed. These will likely be produced as flexible vinyl banners so that they can easily be attached to future boundary fencing once improvement works are complete.

New Church Banners

Exciting news came from Team Imagineers, who have secured £500 from Tesco to support the creation of banners for the churchy.

The trustees agreed that the Friends will match this funding with £500, and we will also ask the PCC to contribute.

The Old Rectory Eagles

The display of the Old Rectory Eagles inside St Nicholas Church has proved extremely popular with visitors. Insurance for the display is currently secured until May 2026.

Discussions are also underway with Sutton Council about a possible exhibition explaining the historical figures behind the names of the new Beech Tree Place buildings. This would help connect new residents with the deep history of the area.

Major Boundary Improvements

One of the most significant developments concerns the boundaries of the churchyard.

Following a public consultation, the council has secured £27,000 from the Neighbourhood Fund to carry out repairs and improvements.

Three related faculty applications are currently progressing through the Church of England approval process. If approved, the works will create a more consistent and historically appropriate boundary for the churchyard while respecting the importance of the Grade II listed church and the listed monuments within the site.

This work will greatly improve the appearance and protection of the churchyard.

Caring for the Churchyard

Much of the care for the churchyard depends on volunteers and partnerships with local schools and organisations.

The trustees recorded their thanks to:

• Greenholm School students and staff

• Orchard Hill College students

• Members of St Nicholas Church

for their help with keeping the churchyard tidy and welcoming.

Later in March, Beavers and Cubs will also take part in litter picking as part of the Great British Spring Clean.

The Adopt-a-Grave Scheme

Last autumn, students from Greenholm School cleared and planted four graves with spring bulbs, bringing colour back to parts of the churchyard. 

The Friends hopes to expand this Adopt-a-Grave scheme, encouraging more planting of suitable small perennials that will enhance the churchyard without becoming difficult to manage.

Members of the congregation and the local community will be invited to donate appropriate plants.

There is also interest in inviting residents of the nearby Beech Tree Place development to take part.

Events in the Year Ahead

The trustees reviewed a number of upcoming activities that will bring people into the churchyard and celebrate its heritage.

Key dates include:

• 28 March – Support for Church Cleaning and Maintenance Day

• 4 April – Easter Egg Hunt and Heritage Open Day

• 4 July – Family Fun Day in the Churchyard

• August – Gibson Tomb inspection

• September – Heritage Open Days

• 5 December (proposed) – Blessing of the Pumps

These events combine heritage, community activity and practical care for the site.

Thank You

The churchyard of St Nicholas is one of Sutton's oldest and most significant historic places. The work of the Friends helps ensure that it remains a place of remembrance, heritage, wildlife and community life.

Thank you to everyone who volunteers, donates, or simply takes time to enjoy the churchyard.

We look forward to seeing many of you this spring and summer as the flowers begin to appear and the churchyard comes alive again.

Welcoming a New Chapter at St Nicholas

The Friends of St Nicholas Churchyard are delighted to share the news that the Reverend Allen Bower, presently Vicar of St Saviour’s Sunbury in the Diocese of London, has been appointed Priest in Charge, Rector Designate, of St Nicholas Sutton, subject to the completion of the necessary procedures.

This appointment has been made by the Bishop of Southwark in partnership with the Hertford College Advowson Trustees. We offer Reverend Bower a warm welcome and assure him of our support as he prepares to begin his ministry in Sutton.

As a heritage group rooted in the long story of this place, it seems fitting to reflect on what this announcement means and how the structures behind it connect us to more than a thousand years of history.

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What Is a Parish?

A parish is the most local unit of the Church of England. It is both:

• A geographical area
• A worshipping community centred on a parish church

Every inch of England belongs to a parish. Historically, the parish was not only the centre of spiritual life, but also of civic life. Before modern local government, the parish administered poor relief, maintained roads, and supported community welfare.  

St Nicholas Sutton has been the parish church serving this area since at least the Saxon period. Sutton itself appears in the historical record in 675 AD, when the estate was granted to Chertsey Abbey. That ancient gift laid the foundations of parish life here for well over a millennium.

Today, the parish remains the basic building block of the Church’s mission, rooted in a defined community and called to serve all who live within it.

What Is a Benefice?

A benefice is a grouping of one or more parishes under the care of a single priest.

In the coming months, it is intended that the parishes of St Nicholas Sutton and St Barnabas will be united in one benefice. Each parish will continue to exist with its own identity, PCC and history, but they will share the priests who are licensed to the benefice.

This arrangement is increasingly common. It allows churches to collaborate in mission, stewardship and ministry, while respecting their individual character and heritage.

The term benefice comes from the medieval idea of a “benefit” or living provided to a priest, including the right to receive income from parish lands or tithes. While those financial structures have long changed, the term remains.

The Role of the Bishop

The Bishop of Southwark is the chief pastor of the Diocese. It is the Bishop who formally appoints clergy to parishes, licenses them to minister, and has responsibility for the spiritual oversight of churches across south London and east Surrey.

The Bishop does not act alone. In this case, the appointment has been made in collaboration with the Hertford College Advowson Trustees. That brings us to one of the more fascinating pieces of church history.

What Is an Advowson?

An advowson is the legal right to present a priest to a parish when a vacancy arises. The word comes from the Latin advocatio, meaning the right of patronage.

In medieval England, landowners or institutions that founded or endowed a church often retained the right to appoint the rector. That right could be inherited, sold, or transferred. It became a recognised piece of property in English law.

For many centuries, the manor of Sutton was owned by Chertsey Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. After the Abbey’s lands were seized in 1537, the manor and associated rights passed into private hands. Over time, the advowson followed its own legal journey.

How Did Hertford College Acquire the Advowson?

Hertford College, Oxford, is today the patron of St Nicholas Sutton through its Advowson Trustees.

Oxford colleges historically acquired advowsons as part of their endowments. They were seen as a way of ensuring that parishes received well-educated clergy formed in the life of the Church and the academy. In many cases, benefactors left patronage rights to colleges in their wills, trusting them to safeguard both doctrinal integrity and pastoral quality.  

In the 19th century, the advowson of St Nicholas was purchased by Hertford College. While the manor itself passed through various families over the centuries, the patronage became attached to the College.

Today, the Hertford College Advowson Trustees exercise that historic right in partnership with the Diocese. It is a remarkable continuity: from Saxon estate, to medieval abbey, to Tudor upheaval, to Oxford college patronage, and now to a 21st-century parish preparing to welcome a new priest.

Looking Ahead

As Friends of St Nicholas Churchyard, we exist to promote public appreciation and conservation of this sacred and historic place. We do not appoint clergy, but we care deeply about the life of the parish that gives meaning to the stones, the monuments and the stories we preserve.

We look forward to welcoming Reverend Allen Bower and to working alongside him as we start another chapter in a long and living history.

When Proximity to the Throne Is Not Protection

As Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has just discovered, closeness to the Crown does not guarantee immunity from consequence. The public fall from favour of the former Prince Andrew has shown that even a royal prince can lose position, public role and honour when reputation is damaged, and trust eroded.

Yesterday's news of Andrew's arrest invites us to look back more than five centuries to a far more dramatic royal downfall — that of George, Duke of Clarence — and to ask an intriguing local question:

What did such high political drama mean for Sutton and its clergy?

A Prince Who Fell

Clarence was the brother of Edward IV and later Richard III. During the turbulent Wars of the Roses, he shifted loyalties, rebelled, reconciled, and ultimately fell fatally out of favour.

In 1478, he was arrested, attainted by Parliament and privately executed in the Tower of London.

In 15th-century England:

• Politics and family were inseparable.

• Royal authority was personal.

• Rebellion by a prince was existential.

• Consequence could mean death.

Clarence's downfall was not merely a scandal. It was the elimination of a dynastic threat.

Sutton's Rector Was No Minor Figure

At first glance, such drama seems far removed from the quiet churchyard of St Nicholas, Sutton.

Yet our Rector in that period, William Morland, was not simply a country priest quietly tending a Surrey parish.

He was a serious political and legal figure.

Morland had served as a Clerk in Chancery and, at the Readeption of Henry VI in 1470–71, he rose to become Master of the Rolls — one of the most important judicial officers in England.

The Master of the Rolls was:

• A senior judge in Chancery.

• Keeper of the legal archives of the realm.

• Responsible for the enrolment and custody of royal records.

This was not a ceremonial post. It was central to the legal machinery of the kingdom.

Morland was, quite clearly, a player.

A Dangerous Elevation

The timing matters.

The Readeption of Henry VI in 1470 was engineered by the Neville affinity — the powerful political network that included Clarence. When the tables turned again in 1471, and Edward IV regained the throne, Neville's influence collapsed.

For those who had risen under the Readeption, the danger was acute.

Morland's elevation to Master of the Rolls placed him directly within the political upheaval of the time. He was not a distant observer. He stood within the administrative heart of regime change.

And yet, when Edward IV returned and the Nevilles fell, Morland survived.

Leverage, Clerical Protection and Survival

How?

Several factors likely worked in his favour:

1. Clerical Status
As an ordained priest, Morland enjoyed a degree of ecclesiastical protection. Clergy were not immune from punishment, but their treatment differed from that of lay political rebels.

2. Administrative Utility
He possessed deep knowledge of legal process and the custody of royal records. Such expertise was valuable to any regime.

3. Political Prudence
There is no evidence that Morland became entangled in open rebellion or conspiracy. He appears to have navigated the transition with care.

4. Institutional Position
Even if he lost certain offices after Edward IV's restoration, he retained the rectory of Sutton. A benefice could provide stability when court favour fluctuated.

Morland may have fallen from some of his highest offices, but he did not fall from everything.

He remained Rector of Sutton until 1488, when he resigned in favour of his kinsman William Kellet. That long tenure suggests not disgrace, but resilience.

Then and Now: Power and Consequence

The recent fall from public life of Prince Andrew is not comparable in scale to Clarence's execution. Modern Britain is governed by constitutional law, not dynastic survival. Disgrace today leads to 11 hours in a police cell, not the Tower of London.

Yet one broad principle holds across five centuries:

Proximity to the throne does not guarantee protection.

In 1478, consequence could mean death and attainder.
In the 21st century, consequence means loss of role and honour.

The nature of the state has changed. The vulnerability of those near power has not.

Why This Matters in Sutton

For the Friends of St Nicholas Churchyard, this history reminds us that our parish church has never stood apart from national life.

William Morland was not merely a parish incumbent. He was:

• A royal lawyer.

• A senior judge.

• Custodian of the realm's legal records.

• A man who rose during one regime and survived its collapse.

The quiet stones of St Nicholas Churchyard belong to a church that once had at its head a figure operating at the very centre of English political drama.

History teaches us that power is rarely secure, that alliances shift, and that survival sometimes depends not on immunity, but on judgment, leverage and careful positioning.

Even in Sutton, the echoes of the Wars of the Roses can still be heard if we listen closely.

Stones and Stained Glass: Uncovering St Nicholas Church's Story

 

Discover the Beauty of St Nicholas Church: An Exhibition of Architecture, Windows, and Traditions

Join us for a captivating journey through the history and heritage of St Nicholas Church, exploring its stunning architecture, breathtaking stained glass windows, and timeless traditions.

Exhibition Highlights:

• The Church's History: Uncover the story of St Nicholas Church.
• Stained Glass Windows: Marvel at the intricate designs and symbolism behind the church's beautiful stained glass windows.
• Monuments and Memorials: Pay tribute to notable local figures and explore their significance.
• Traditions and Community: Learn about the church's role in the local community and its enduring traditions.
• Guided Tours and Events:
• Guided Walks: Join expert guides for a deeper understanding of the church's architecture, history, and significance.
• Talks and Lectures: Engage with historians and experts as they share insights into the church's stained glass windows, monuments, and traditions.

Come and experience the beauty and heritage of St Nicholas Church. We look forward to welcoming you!

Notice of AGM

Notice of our AGM

You are cordially invited to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Friends of St Nicholas Churchyard, to be held on:

Date: Thursday, 1st May 2025
Time: 7:45 pm
Venue: The Hope Pub, 48 West Street, Carshalton, SM5 2PR

Agenda:

1. Committee & Members Present
2. Apologies for Absence
3. Minutes of the last AGM (copies circulated beforehand)
4. Matters Arising
5. Chair's Report
6. Finance: Presentation and approval of the annual accounts
7. Election of Trustees: Nominations sought 
8. Appointment of Officers: Confirmation of existing roles or election of new officers
9. Any Other Business: Opportunity to raise any relevant matters not covered on the agenda
10. Date of Next Meeting

We encourage all members to attend this important meeting, as it provides an opportunity to review the past year's activities, discuss plans for the churchyard, and contribute to the overall direction of the Friends.