These and plenty of different gifts had been given here and in Swaffham to the monastery of Castleacre, and it is possible that, on account of a few of these, the prior and convent had been obliged in these instances to discover a priest to officiate on sure days within the chapel of St. Guthlack, for in the 39th year of King Edward III. John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond, on Friday after the feast of St. Martin the Bishop, to indicate trigger why he ought to not discover a chantry priest to officiate here in the said chapel of Stow, for 2 days in each week, as he had been introduced for not doing it; however he confirmed that he was beneath no obligation so to do. Here in my Grave the chiefest Rest I have, No larger Rest, can Christian Creature crave. They know that the folks at giant are like kids whose despair, sorrow, and tears can be become joy with a bit of toy.
On the higher finish of this isle lies a big gray marble stone, with the portraiture of a person in full armour, on his surcoat are the arms of Touchet and Audley, quarterly, viz. At the higher finish of the nave (before the old rood-loft) lie a number of previous marble gravestones. On the pavement on the west end of the south isle lies a marble stone in reminiscence of Thomas Bodham, Gent. Cardinal Woolsey, towards endowing his schools at Oxford and Ipswich, and the Abbot of St. Mary at York launched to Thomas Capon, Dean of the Cardinal’s college at Ipswich, all his right within the monastery of Rumburgh, and within the possessions thereof mendacity in lots of towns in Suffolk and Norfolk. Alexander de Bassingbourne, by deed sans date, released to them all of the land that was William de Meldeburne, in the village of GuthlakesStow, &c. In no time in any respect, John had managed to land himself with the same dubious repute that he had earned at Quarry Bank. Gilbert de Gaunt, by deed confirmed to the mentioned monks, forty acres of land at Gudlacistovia, which Earl Alan his uncle had granted to them; this Gilbert de Gaunt was Earl of Lincoln, in the time of Henry II.
Lord Mayor of London, and dying in 1503, was buried by his father in Heydon chapel aforesaid; by his lady he had three sons, Sir John Heydon, and Henry Heydon, Esq.; in 1543, the moiety of Hide manor in Pangborn, Berkshire, the moiety of the manor and advowson of Nutfield in Surrey, the moiety of Shipton Solers manor and advowson in Gloucestershire were settled by John Armstrong, on the said Henry Heydon and Ann his wife, as her inheritance. The lete of this city is in the lord of the manor. Lord Audley wore at the battle of Poitiers in France; this stone had additionally the portraiture of his lady, and several other shields in brass, &c. Adjoining to this lies one other stone, with the portraiture of an armed man in brass, with a canine couchant at his toes, but that of his wife, &c. On one is the portraiture of a man in full armour, that of his spouse, with the shields, &c. At the entrance on the west side of the tower is a neat massive folding door of oak, these days erected; over this, on the tower, are several niches for photographs, two of a really nice length, one on each facet of the good west window; from the west door to the entrance into the chancel is about forty one yards, which is equal to the size of the nave of the cathedral of St. David’s, and the breadth of the nave, together with the 2 side isles inside the walls, is about 17 yards.
At each nook of the battlements, stands a pinnacle of carved stone, and on the summit of the tower a curious turret of wooden coated with lead, wherein hangs the Saint’s bell; spherical this, raised within the form of a lantern, stand several tall shafts coated with lead, and bearing on their heads a weathercock; in this tower, which by its top is seen a number of miles round, cling eight massive musical bells; and there’s a clock with a dial-plate on the west side: this tower was begun in 1507 and finished in 1510, Sir Robert Lovell, Knt. Concerning the middle of this isle is a bit chapel thirteen toes in length, and about 8 in breadth, with a large window to the south. In a window over the higher arch on the south side, in a pannel is a broken shield, quarterly, first and fourth lost, in 2d and 3d Fitzwalter, impaling social gathering per fess gules and or, a pale counterchanged, two lions rampant in chief, and one in base of the 2d. In a window over the 2d arch is Beding feld and Tudenham quarterly, impaling Scot.