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NEWTON CHURCH

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ORIENTATION AND DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH.

A parish was always associated with the name of a Saint, who was invoked as an advocate for its welfare in the Court of Heaven. The memory of the Saint was celebrated yearly on the anniversary of his martyrdom, and a church built to his memory was designed with its axis directed to the rising sun on the day of the celebration or Feast. A pole was fixed perpendicularly in the earth, and, on the morning of the Feast Day, watch was kept to mark its shadow at the rising of the sun, the direction of this shadow being accepted as the centre line of the chancel and nave.

Connected with this fact is a matter of absorbing interest. The Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist was held on the 29th of August, and the Church at Newton had its axis fixed on this date. But it was ascertained on the Sunrise of this date in the year 1936 that the sun did not rise in line with the axis. Moreover the Mabsants or Feast Days since 1752 were held on the 10th of September. It may be desirable to elucidate the meaning of the disparity in the dates.

The earth's revolution around the sun in eleven minutes less than 365 days 6 hours involves a difference of one day in 128 years. A calendar introduced by Julius Caesar-the Julian Calendar - did not allow for the eleven minutes, and, to compensate for this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decreed that ten days should be dropped from the calendar; and to rectify the inaccuracy in the course of time, three Leap Year days were to be passed over every four centuries, the first year of every century whose first two numbers could not be divided by four were, and still are, not reckoned as Leap Years But the pronouncement was not universally effective, as by this time, the Papacy had been robbed of its domination over the Church in Bntain, and any suggestion from the Pope would not be acceptable. The Gregorian Calendar, at its inception refuted, was finally introduced into Britain in the year 1752, by which time the error had amounted to about eleven days, which had therefore to be elided : August 29th was thus called September 10th. The people of Newton held their Mabsants on the old day with the new date, and continued to celebrate the event in various forms till the 10th of September, 1896.

A person standing on the centre line of the nave and chancel of Newton Church on the day of its dedication-the 29th of August at the close of the 12th century-would view the sun rising in line with the centre of the east window, looking in a direction of about 17 degrees to the north of east; one, standing in the same position in 1938, would see the sun in the same point, not on August 29th, but on the 2nd of September - a difference of four days, which is the allowance of eleven minutes approximately for each year of the period between the building of the Church and 1752, during which time the Julian Calendar was in use.

The Church of Newton is orientated about 17 degrees north of east, and was dedicated to the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; this is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church on the 29th of August, but does not receive particular recognition in the Anglican Church Calendar at Newton. In fact, confusion seems to have arisen as to the actual dedication of Newton Church during post-Reformation days. An attempt might have been made to transfer the Mabsant to the other and greater Feast of St. John the Baptist, namely, that of his Nativity, which was held on June 24th. A reference will be made later to the Feast held by the women of the Parish on Whit-Tuesday, which celebration might represent the Mabsant of the Nativity; maybe the Feast of the Beheading was disapproved by the Tudor Sovereigns, since it would remind them of the sinister use of the axe in the matrimonial affairs of Henry VIII. Certainly however, the sculptured head of St. John the Baptist on the west face of the tower is visible evidence of the dedication to the Beheading of the Saint.

 

 

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[Last Updated : 11 Nov 2002 by Gareth Hicks]