A Brief History of St Thomas the Martyr
Services
Sundays
8am Holy Communion
10am Parish Communion
11.30am Holy Communion (1st and 3rd Sundays only)
4th Sunday in month - Family Communion with 10.30am start
Tuesdays
6pm Office Hour (for baptisms and weddings)
7.15pm Holy Communion
Thursdays
10am Holy Communion
Up Holland Parish Church was originally a Priory, founded in 1307 as a college for a Dean and twelve secular priests, by Sir Robert de Holland (b.1270, Up Holland, d.1328, Borehamwood, Herts), secretary to Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster. Sir Robert was married to Maud, daughter and heiress of Alan, Lord Zouche of Ashby. It was dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr. Charges of misbehaviour led Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield to convert it to a Priory with twelve monks in 1319 - the last foundation of its kind in pre-Reformation England.
In 1323, King Edward II stayed at the Priory for a fortnight during his Royal Progess in the north country.
By the Dissolution in 1536 there were only five monks and twenty-six servants with an income of around £78, so the Priory was closed, even before Henry VIII began to close the smaller monasteries. Little can be said of the remains of the monastic buildings - they were to the south of the church but did not join it except in the western range of claustral buildings. Part of the western wall is standing; it was of two storeys with a row of windows on the west. In 1546 a chamber was mentioned at the west end of the chancel, which may be that on the south face of the tower, the roof corbels of which still remain.
The Priory became influential over a large area. It would seem that the priory church at Childwall owed allegiance to that at Up Holland, and monks visited Childwall once a year to collect tithes owing. In the lists of 'Lands of the Dissolved Religious Houses' (1536-7) the following entry appears under the priory of (Up) Holland:
Chyldewall rectory:Farm of Grastan Hall in Garston and a pature called Pryors Heys in Hale, parcels of the Glebe lands of Chyldewall. Farms of the tithebarns of Garston and Agburgh, Lee Barne, Wotton Barne, Lytlr Barne of the Grene, Hale Barne, Bake Barn alias Hale Bank Barne and Wavertre Barne with the Tithes of corn belonging to them and tithes of corn in Speke, corn and hay in Thyngwall, hay in Garstan Hall and hay in Chyldewall not before mentioned.
New Life Magazine
The churches of St Thomas The Martyr, Up Holland and Christ The Servant, Digmoor publish a monthly magazine that gives you lots of info about what’s on, Sunday readings and what’s happened around the parishes. It only costs 50p, is published at the start of each month.and is available from both churches.
A photograph taken for use as a postcard in the early 1900's, showing the east side of the church and the graveyard.