Bintree - Bintry - Ralph Outlaw

Bintree - Bintry

Bintree village, Norfolk

Sometimes spelt Bintry, you will find this village 8 miles north east of Dereham and 9 miles south east of Fakenham.
It has a pretty church, St Swithin, with a 14th century tower and beautiful stained glass windows.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50801#s1

Bintry - Bintree (St. Swithin)

BINTREE (St. Swithin), a parish, in the union of Mitford and Launditch, hundred of Eynsford, E. division of Norfolk, 2 miles (S. E. by S.) from Guist; containing 409 inhabitants. This parish, which is bounded on the west by the river Wensum, and situated on the road from Norwich to Fakenham, comprises 1443a. 3r. 11p., of which 1117 acres are arable, 247 pasture, and 26 plantation: some of it is good wheat land, and other parts good turnip and barley soil. The living is a rectory, with that of Themelthorpe annexed, valued in the king's books at £10; net income, £462; patron, Lord Hastings. The church is a handsome structure in the early and later English styles, with a square embattled tower, and a south transept, and contains a richly carved screen, and some other interesting details. The poor have twenty-five acres allotted on the inclosure of the parish in 1796, and now producing £50 per annum; and the half of £30, rent of land bequeathed by an unknown benefactor.From: 'Bintree - Birkenhead', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 248-255. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50801

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bintree

Revd Richard Enraght's gravestone at St Swithun Church, Bintree

Bintree is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England, about nine miles south-east of Fakenham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 300.

http://www.archive.org/stream/churchheraldryn03farrgoog/churchheraldryn03farrgoog_djvu.txt

The church heraldry of Norfolk by Rev. Edmund Farrer Published in 1887, A.H. Goose and co. (Norwich)
...
Slab at the West End - Bintry - St. Swithun Church:

On a saltire, between four wolves' heads couped, a crescent {Outlaw of Little Witchingham, co. Norfolk, granted 1613, Argent, a saltire gules between four wolves' heads, couped proper.) Crest: A demi-wolf, pierced through the side with an arrow, feathered and headed, the arrow lying sinister bend ways (Outlaw, A demi-wolf proper, pierced through the side with an arrow or, feathered and headed argent, the arrow lying sinister bendways.)

"Here under resteth ye body of Ralph Outlaw, Rector of Bintry, who was son of Ralph Outlaw, of Little Wichingham, in the county of Norfolk. He departed this life ye first day of February, 1688, aged 68 yeres. " Reader, pray stay, death's trophies view and see In them what thou thyself, ere long, must be. "

http://www.britannia.com/bios/swithun.html

St. Swithun (died AD 862)

Born: circa 800
Bishop of Winchester
Died: 2nd July 862 at Winchetser (Hampshire)

St. Swithun had been Prior of the monastery attached to the cathedral, before he was made Bishop of Winchester in AD 852. He was, say the chroniclers, a diligent builder of churches in places where there were none before and a repairer of those that had been destroyed or ruined. He also built a bridge on the east side of the city and, during the work he made a practice of sitting there to watch the workmen, that his presence might stimulate their industry. One of his most edifying miracles is said to have been performed at this bridge where he restored an old woman's basket of eggs, which the workmen had maliciously broken.

It is more certain that Swithun was one of the most learned men of his time and the tutor, successively, of King Aethelwulf of Wessex and of his son, the illustrious Alfred. He died on 2nd July AD 862 and was buried, according to his own desire, in the churchyard of the Old Minster (Cathedral) at Winchester, where "passers by might tread on his grave and where the rain from the eaves might fall on it." His reputation as a weather saint is said to have arisen from the translation of his body from this lowly grave to its golden shrine within the Cathedral, having been delayed by incessant rain. Hence the weather on the festival of his translation (15th July) indicated, according to the old rhyme, what it would be for the next forty days:

"St. Swithun's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain na mair."
June and July, however, have their weather saints in the calendars of France and of Belgium, as well as in those of other parts of Europe:
"Quand il pleut a la Saint Gervais (19th July)
Il pleut quarante jours apres."
Is the old French proverb, while Wedermaend, the 'month of storms' wa sthe old Flemish name for July.

Central Norfolk's churches were awash in a sea of cow parsley. The image at the top of the page is typical of May 2006, but in fact this is an unusual view, taken from the far corner of the graveyard in a place nowhere ever goes - or, at least, no one had been for a while. There wasn't even a churchcrawler trail to follow, and so I had to battle my way through the undergrowth.

The result is a fairly typical Norfolk church with a 14th century tower and some late Perpendicular windows, but in fact this does not show St Swithin in its true light at all.