Lady Isabel of Tong, a lady with vision

This week we popped to a local church to look for a plaque for a neighbour whose family worshipped there. The village has a long history dating back to the nearby Roman camp & an entry in the Doomsday book of 1086

St Bartholomews church in Tong was once part of a castle complex that was very influential. I visit it several times a year & often take visitors there.

The church has some magnificent monuments to past influential incumbents. 

The tomb of Lady Isobel 1409-1446  (foundress of Tong college and church) & her third husband Sir Fulke de Pembrugge lies close to the central aisle. What makes her effigy different is that she is adorned with a garland of roses on her marble head & in her hands on Midsummers day each year. 

Why is this? The background info provided by “Women of Tong” church book 

She was born Isabel Lingen & outlived 3  dry rich & influential husbands: Sir Thomas Peytevin, Sir John de Ludlow (1366-1398) of Stokesay Castle & Sir Fulke de Pembrugge (-1409) who shares the same memorial. 

She took it upon herself to set up a college & rebuild the Tong church & even though she was widowed, she forged ahead with these plans. She applied to both The Pope & King Henry IV for the special licences needed for these. It cost her £40 to buy the advowson from the Abbot of Shrewsbury. 

The small church was rebuilt to the large one we visit today. It was here that mass would be said daily for those commemorated in the memorials, also for the victims of the Black Death plague. 

Lady Isobel championed education at her college for teaching ‘reading, singing & grammar’ to the clerks, servants of the college & children of Tong & the surrounding villages. Clearly a lady of great vision to improve lives in her immediate space through education by using her own wealth & influence. 

The College was dissolved under King Henry VIII but the church survived.

She survived her last husband, Sir Fulke, by 37 years, dying aged 76 in 1446. That was a great age in those times. Her husbands magnificent tomb in the church was enlarged so she could be interred beside him in her simple widows robe. 

Her lifetime spanned several English Kings - Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, V, & VI and Edward IV.

One can sit in the choir stalls & look on to the many tombs. 

The 15th century oak choir stalls have interesting pre Reformation misericords carved in to them. 

In times past long sermons required much standing & the seats could be raised & one could rest on the carved front, to take the weight off the legs. 

These ancient oak ones are particularly interesting & original.

The benefactors board in the church shows that Isabel was not the only one who took education seriously & the notes show bequests to be used for education by others too. 

I am always fascinated by local history & how some people used their wealth & influence to improve the lives of ordinary people. 

I hope you have found this short account of the life of Isabel interesting too. Thank  you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee