Records of the Churchwardens of Mildenhall - Collections (1446-1454) and Accounts (1503-1553)

The documents in this volume bring to life the day-to-day business and upkeep of the large church of Mildenhall, belonging to a parish whose manor was the richest in the possession of Bury St Edmund's Abbey. The Collections record the weekly offerings gathered in aid of church building and maintenance. The churchwardens' accounts provide evidence for such matters as repairs to vestments and books, the cost of candles, and payments to the various tradesmen employed. The later accounts also show the impact of the Reformation on the church, with the pulling down of the rood, destruction of the stone altar, and erasure of Thomas Becket's name from service books, and so forth. Many of the people in the accounts are also known from their wills, reproduced as an appendix. The documents are set into context with an introduction, which covers the history of the church during the period, and notes. The late Judith Middleton-Stewart gained her doctorate from the University of East Anglia; her book on death and remembrance in the Suffolk deanery of Dunwich, Inward Purity and Outward Splendour, is also published by Boydell.