St Martin's Church

About the Village of Glandford

Bayfield Hall and its Estate, which encompasses much of the land in and around the village of Glandford, was inherited in 1882 by the late Sir Alfred Jodrell, Baronet. Sir Alfred was a gentleman of great generosity who set about rebuilding the village. Although there was a village here at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086), in which it is called "Glanforda", with the exception of one farmhouse and a cottage, the present village of Glandford is entirely modern.

The Church

The rebuilding of Glandford church began on 17 October 1899 and was completed on 30 August 1906. The reconstruction was a careful restoration of the earlier building, which was mainly thirteenth century with a fifteenth-century arcade and north aisle. Apart from the arcade and some of the masonry in the walls of the nave, chancel and tower, the whole church is entirely new work.

The church contains an variety of elaborate woodcarving, including a pew which was occupied by Sir Alfred Jodrell himself - at the end of the pew is a representation of a dog laying his sorrowful head on his master's coffin, a design copied from Landseer's famous picture, "The Shepherd's Chief Mourner".

One of the most beautiful features of the church is the stained glass which originated from the workshops of Kempe and Bryans, the best known stained glass studios in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In the tower is a carillon of twelve bells on which the clock strikes and on which hymn tunes are played at 6am, 9am, 12 noon, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm. A different tune is played each day.

Though the whole church was rebuilt and furnished at the sole expense of Sir Alfred Jodrell, by his especial request no monument was erected to his memory except his memorial card which hangs in a frame at the west end of the nave. He died on 15 March 1929, and lies buried at Letheringsett. At Sir Alfred's request a monument was erected just inside the vestry door commemorating all those who were actively engaged on the rebuilding of the church.