Vestments in St Mary's Church at Upper Froyle
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The Last Lord of the Manor of Froyle, Sir Hubert Miller, who died in 1940, travelled extensively in Europe including visiting Venice many times. He collected, over the years, Vestments from Spain, France and Italy dating from the 16th Century. Sir Hubert wished to enhance the celebration of services in the church in Froyle, not only musically, which he did by the provision of instruments for the church, but also visually. In 1934 he considered there was enough work involved in laying out and maintaining the vestments to justify employing a full time Sacristan in the church. Today, we have a band of dedicated ladies (including Alton Society NADFAS Heritage Volunteers) to do the job. During his travels in Italy, Sir Hubert also collected statues of saints. These are placed in gardens around the village and hence the name, The Village of the Saints, arose. The Vestments, consisting of chasubles (over mantle), stoles, dalmatics, veils, copes, and altar frontals , are worked on silk, beautifully embroidered in rich colours, using gold and silver threads and semi precious stones. The task of conserving these items has begun, with the help of professional conservators. Under their guidance, and with the backing of the Church, a group of ladies have catalogued 193 different items and packed them all away in “state of the art” cabinets. Padded hangers and covers for the copes have been made and sets of vestments placed in the drawers of the cabinets to protect and preserve them. Each drawer has a photograph of the contents in colour. The Alter frontals have had special padded rollers made to store them. The impact of seeing these vestments is stunning and words can not really convey their beauty. The colours are so rich and the embroideries absolutely exquisite. The Vestments are used regularly for the services and once a year they are on show at an Open Day (next year on 31st May and 1st June 2008). On that weekend gardens in the village are also open and a plan of the gardens with the positions of the Statues of Saints is available in the Church. It is possible to visit privately, by arrangement with the Church, through Mrs. Linda Bulpitt, on 01420 22725. |
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