Did the Baron Damage the Church of St Womar?
By Mary John
In 1861 Baron de Rutzen of Slebech found himself in trouble with the Bishop of St Davids.
It was claimed that in 1844 he was responsible for the unauthorised destruction of the church of St Womar in Minwear, an ancient building which stood on his land opposite Slebech House, across the Eastern Cleddau.
O.S. Map rev. 1964
He was required to answer for this outrage at the Court of Arches, held at the diocese headquarters in Carmarthen. This ecclesiastical court which took its name from the court dating back to the thirteenth century at Mary le Bow in London, was held in July 1861 and the judge was the Dean of St Davids, Dr. Lushington.
What part the Baron took in the proceedings is not clear. Doctors Twiss and Spinks acted as council for the Bishop and Doctors Phillamore and Swabey for the Baron. There were certainly a number of witnesses called and details of their statements were vividly reported in the local press.
The Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph was evidently determined to show the Baron in a bad light and a true record of events does not seem possible.
The three churches of Slebech, Newton and Minwear, were under the patronage of Baroness de Rutzen, daughter and heiress of Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech. In 1822 Mary Dorothea Phillips had married Baron Charles Frederick de Rutzen, a nobleman born in Germany. Mary had in fact died in 1860, only months before this court case. Within a few years the Baron went abroad and died in Dresden in 1874.
It was claimed that the churches were all in some state of disrepair in the 1840s. However, we are told that divine service was still held in Minwear in 1843.
Witnesses at the Court of Arches included church wardens and previous employees on the Slebech Estate, among them John Lewis, agent and gardener, John Lewis, mason, and John Lewis, carpenter. All three having the same name rather stretches one’s credulity.
Opinions were to differ as to the state of Minwear church. John Lewis, the estate carpenter, claimed the roof was nearly tumbling down and it was dangerous to hold a service there. Richard Jones who in 1843 occupied a farm in Minwere parish, and was church warden, claimed that at a vestry meeting he noticed a small hole over the pulpit but otherwise the ‘church looked all very nicely besides.’ He claimed that some parishioners were of the opinion that £90 would put the church in good repair.
John Lewis, for 17 years agent and gardener, but now living in Swansea, admitted that he left the Baron’s employment under a cloud following a question of debt and interference in his family life. He was to swear that in 1844 the Baron gave him specific directions for dismantling the church and disposing of its materials.
‘In the course of that year I gave orders to pull it down – to take the roof off, tear the pews up and take the window frames out.’
He was apparently told to go early to the church, before people were about and to give the materials to various local farmers to repair their farms. The mason, carpenter and labourers from the estate reportedly dug out the window frames and dismantled the rafters of the roof. The pews were turned out, the communion rails and table, in perfect condition at the time, removed to Minwear Lodge Farm. The font, it was claimed, ended up as a pig’s trough in the farm.
The floor was dug up and taken to Slebech Hall to be used to pave the hot house and mend the flues. Window glass, still in good state, was taken to the Slebech granary. The church bell was taken to Slebech to be re-timbered for use in a new Slebech church.
And it was this new church of St John the Baptist, on the A40, at Slebech, strangely oriented to the north-east, consecrated in 1848 and today abandoned, which was to create more trouble for the Baron. Claiming to have the assent of the parishioners of Minwear, in 1843 he borrowed from the Church Loan Commissioners £600 for the purpose of building a new church at Minwear. On receiving the money he used it not for Minwear but towards building his new church at Slebech.
He was to claim that the folk of Minwear, on the opposite side of the Eastern Cleddau, were happy to attend divine service at Slebech, something that the incumbent, Rev. Landon, denied. The Baron claimed in court that it was agreed, subsequent to an order in council, that the three churches, Slebech, Newton and Minwear should be united into one benefice. In fact a draft copy of a letter to the bishop proposing this is to be found among the Slebech documents in Haverfordwest Record Office.
The Baron also claimed that 46 members from Minwear parish had given tacit assent that Slebech should be the only church for the united parishes. It was explained in court that the distance by road from Minwear to the new Slebech church was about 4 miles, via Canaston, the bridge at Blackpool being private for the estate. To cross the Eastern Cleddau by boat the journey would be a mile and a half. However, there was no ferry, only a private boat belonging to de Rutzen.
The Baron assured the court that he had not ordered Minwear church to be ‘pulled to pieces or dismantled’. It was noted in the press that Rev. Landon of Crisborough was not heard to make any complaint about what was happening. The judge in the Court of Arches, Dr Lushington, was to censure the Archdeacon of St Davids for not making a visit to the parish and also the incumbent for long maintaining silence and not reporting the state of the parish to the bishop.
The judge was to state that an ecclesiastical offence had occurred, He ordered the Baron to see to the restoration and reinstatement of the parish church of Minwear with its fittings and ornaments within 6 months and pay the whole costs of the suit which amounted to £328: 13:4. ‘With regard to the appropriation of the materials, it is simply an aggravation of the same offence.’
The local press commenting after the case was to remind its readers that as a much younger man de Rutzen had been described as a ‘Russian Bear’ and had acknowledged that since he had ownership 30 cottages, 2 farms and 2 mills on Slebech land had been pulled down. The Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph was clearly determined to blame the Baron for the considerable decrease in population in Minwear, Newton and Slebech when in fact this was typical of the county population in general.
Clearly things settled down and peace was restored between the Baron and the Bishop. The Bishop was staying at Slebech Hall for the consecration of the new Church in 1848.
In the summer of 1872 the bishop consecrated the new burial ground for Minwear church, an edifice which had lately been restored.
In the autumn of that year there was much rejoicing at Minwear to celebrate the marriage of Mr. A. de Rutzen who was held in much respect and esteem. Four hundred tenants from Minwear and Newton attended a bonfire party at Folly Farm.