in the form of “Green Men” Green men were pagan fertility symbols which found their way into many churches.
The sedilia covered up a priest door which was never replaced until the 19th century, though it is still visible from the outside on the Nattes drawing of 1794. The new door became known as the rector’s door.
REFORMATION
Richard Wright became Vicar in 1532 after Henry declared himself head of the Church. St Andrew’s was still owned by the Augustinians at Norton and Richard Wright was their appointee. He no doubt dutifully preached anti papist sermons though obviously still a monk at heart – he was given permission to wear his Augustinian habit under his vestments. In 1553 Protestant-burning Mary Tudor became queen. It seems that Rev Richard Wright was a man of conscience, he refused to acknowledge Papal supremacy and was deprived of his living here the following year. His successor Rev Miles Widder seemed to have no problem with swapping loyalties, for he remained in office long after Elizabeth I restored Protestantism.
After the Dissolution of the monasteries St Andrew’s passed from Norton Priory to St Peter’s Westminster. At about this time the Vicar of Burton was paid a salary of £9.00 per annum, his two curates £4.00 and twenty shillings respectively.
THE SHEFFIELD FAMILY
The Sheffield family have had great influence in the church (as well as the locality) since Edmund Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Duke of Buckingham & Marquis of Normanby - who distinguished himself by captaining the White Bear against the Spansh Armada - bought the patronage in 1589. The Sheffield lineage became extinct when John Sheffield’s son died 1735 without issue. But the Normanby estate and church patronage passed to John’s illegitimate son Charles Herbert who later took the name Charles Herbert Sheffield. Charles was later awarded the newly created hereditary title of Baronet. Sir Reginald Sheffield today is the eighth baronet and patron of St Andrew’s. Two of the Sheffields, one of them a Baronet, became vicars of Burton.
The Sheffields were responsible for many of the alterations and restorations in the church over the last two centuries. There are numerous monuments and plaques dedicated to the family the most impressive being the monument to the first baronet and his family in the chancel by Fisher.
The oldest monument to the Sheffields is an effigy of a knight in the Easter Sepulchre on the North wall of the Chancel. This was transported from West Butterwick, the ancestral home of the Sheffields but somewhere in the move the knight lost both of his legs from the knees down.
The Sheffield family adopted the boar as its motif. See the coat of arms in the chancel.
