This website created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K. 

St. John the Baptist Church, Findon. March 1999.

A MAN, A WOMAN AND A PRIEST

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

First published in Along The Furlong in June, 1999.

Very few of us will be remembered in seven hundred years' time. I think that amazingly, the name of Agnes de Cole has come down through the ages because she was party to a recorded sanctuary case. Agnes lived during the reign of King Edward I in a community we would barely recognise.

This particular story of consuming passions took centre stage in Findon over seven centuries ago. The fair and comely Agnes can only be imagined, as can her dwelling. If she had been taught to write, which is doubtful, she would have perhaps used a goose-feather quill pen on parchment. Her village clustered around the church. However, this was a simple structure and not the one known today — portrayed in the photograph.

I think there would have been perhaps twenty small dwellings close to the church, ramshackle affairs, comprising of one small room in which the family ate and slept.

The billowing smoke from the central fire, which burnt in the middle of the floor of each hut, would have been seen to rise from a hole in the thatch of the roof. The walls would have been constructed of crudely interlaced branches, plastered with dried mud. Each property of the village may have been between 10ft. and 20 ft. in length and breadth and provided accommodation not only for the immediate family but also for the animals they owned.

Wattle and daub fencing would have perhaps encircled some of the Findon homesteads. Without a doubt there was an alehouse and a smithy. The meadows around the old village would have had no hedges. The land would have been divided into strips separated by low banks of earth. Findon would have survived on the food it grew in these pastures, so some form of co-operation amongst the villagers would have been essential. There would have been little contact with the outside world and any strangers venturing near would have been treated with caution and suspicion.

The original site of the village of Findon was in the left hand corner of the ploughed field below Church Hill. Viewed from the Racing Gallops in May 1999.

The tale unfolds in 1288 and involves an eternal triangle in which the dramatis personae were a man, a woman and a priest. It is the old story of affaire d’amour and two’s company but three’s a crowd.

Agnes de Cole of Findon seems to have been as faithless as she was doubtless amiable and beauteous. This femme fatale had for some time been juggling between her husband and her lover and had grown blasé about the whole affair. Perhaps it was not a brilliant marriage. The new relationship developed and the marriage dwindled. Rumours of concern circulated. She had fallen in love with a priest. The man of the cloth who had attracted her attentions was Reverend Richard de Chancelour. She brazenly admitted him to her dwelling in broad daylight and the romancing of the guilty pair eventually led to their conniving in the brutal murder of her husband, Robert de Cole, the good man of the house.

Perhaps there was a thud of boots and crack as a belted jerkin split as the deed was done. Unfortunately, another villager, William de Wyndon, appeared on the scene and because the couple feared he would attempt to prevent their escape, they silenced him also.

Following this double murder, Agnes was no doubt consumed with guilt. She panicked and took refuge in the Findon Parish Church. The church most likely had the appearance of an ancient white-washed barn with a timber oak roof and would have been modest but fine and solid with great tie beams above in the ceiling. A refuge full of silent religious beauty and charm as that seen in the surviving hewn out font. Inside the refuge Agnes was offered dignity and peace.

In turn, the Reverend Richard de Chancelour hastened for sanctuary to the Church of Shoreham. Here, he admitted to the Coroner of being guilty of killing Robert de Cole and William de Wyndon, both of Findon. The position of a Coroner had come into being some 94 years earlier, in September 1194. Prior to this, Richard de Chancelour would have been left to the county justiciar, sargeants and bailiffs.

The fair Agnes also confessed to her share in the crime of passion, and the lovers eventually abjured the realm. This strange undertaking meant that they renounced on oath to depart from the country. By taking refuge in a church, followed by a pledge to leave and never to return, was in those days a method of avoiding legal penalties and the pursuit of justice. This bygone loop-hole in the law, meant that the guilty Findon couple were able to escape from the pursuit of justice seven centuries ago and commence a new life together. An Act of Parliament of 1623 finally put an end to this peculiar privilege.

Shoreham Harbour in 2003

In all probability, Richard and Agnes bade farewell to Findon and embarked on a vessel anchored in the river estuary at Shoreham. The Shoreham haven in those days would have extended over many square acres of the now dry land. It is assumed they waved goodbye to the slopes of the Downs running down to the great Wealden Forest of Anderida, and sailed together to the land of their chosen exile.

Continue to read about Crimes Connected with with Findon in the 1500s.

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THIS IS FINDON — was launched in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com