THE
P RTAL
June 2017
Page 12
East Hendred
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane visit St Mary’s, East Hendred
M gr Andrew
Burnham is Parish Priest of St Mary’s, East Hendred, a beautiful village with three
pubs, two churches and a shop. With so many villages now little more than dormitories, in this respect
East Hendred is unusual.
This part of Oxfordshire was once the centre of
recusancy, with large houses here and at Stoner and
Mapledurham being relatively safe for Catholics.
Hendred House, like Mapledurham, has a Priest Hide
as well as a thirteenth century chapel. This boasts that
no protestant service has ever been read in it!
T he P ortal has drawn attention to the links between
the recusants and the Ordinariate in previous issues,
so we were pleased to accept the invitation to visit Mgr
Andrew Burnham who is now the Parish Priest at East
Hendred.
Hendred House is a beautiful building and has been
in the possession of the Eyston family since the 1440s.
They still live here. At the south-east corner of the
house is the chapel, dedicated to Ss John the Baptist
and Amand. We were shown round by the Sacristan
Mary Harrison.
Above the altar are two lancet windows depicting the
two patron saints. The windows, like the chapel, date
form the thirteenth century. The chapel is stunningly
beautiful and has some medieval
graffiti and a vestment press dating
from 1643. There is a dear little font
and some letters from Pope Leo XIII.
What horrors and suffering were
endured by those brave Catholic
souls who refused to bow the knee
to the “new religion” during the
Reformation. That this gem survived
is a testimony to their bravery and
tenacity, and a minor miracle. At one
point, the chapel had to be disguised
as a wood shed to thwart the
Persuviants, and on more than one
occasion the family had to flee into
hiding, but they and the chapel have survived. Mass
is usually said here at 0830 on Fridays, with adoration
at 1500. The house is never open to the public, but you
may attend mass in the chapel on Fridays at 0830.
St Mary’s East Hendred
not large enough to accommodate
them all. Permission was sought, and
granted, to build a church. This was
consecrated in 1865 and dedicated
to the Mother of God under the title
Saint Mary. It stands at the hub of the
village and has, for a village, a large
congregation of over one hundred.
East Hendred also has a Catholic
Primary School. As well as from the
village, children come from Wantage
and Didcot, although with the Local
Authority no longer paying for buses
to bring the children to school, the Polish children
from Didcot find travelling difficult. Fr Andrew, as
Chaplain and School Governor, has set himself the
task of solving this problem.
Our day in East Hendred began with coffee in Fr
When the penal times abated, there were quite a few
Catholics in the area, and it was felt that the chapel was Andrew’s house. He arrived in 2012, and last year