The church in the late Georgian period
The following is taken from a contemporary written description of church life by a Barkway resident.
As in everything else, the gentry made themselves as comfortable as possible in Church, while the poor were left to hard benches and draughts right at the back.
Newsells had long before appropriated what was intended to be a Lady Chapel, and had turned it into a charming little sitting room, with armchairs and tables, and a roaring fire in the winter – the footmen used to poke it up and put coals on every now and then.
Cockenhatch, not to be outdone, had taken possession of the fine old rood screen, which they had widened at the top into a nice little gallery, and had fitted up comfortably. A red curtain was hung across on the congregation side, through which Lady Louise Clinton could peep and have a fine view of the congregation – much to her satisfaction.
There was another gallery at the west end of the Church, where the village band performed the music; there were four fiddles, a bassoon, and a horn.
There was a huge erection in the middle of the Church – pulpit, reading desk, and clerk's seat in one – and around this were nice square pews for all the gentry and well-to-do farmers, the most important folks having the biggest and most desirable sites. The Red House pew, where our mother sat as a tiny child, was immediately under the pulpit on the south side. It had fat red cushions which covered the seats, making a perfect square, for even the door had a seat on it.
But it must have been most trying for a number of merry young people to sit there face to face for a couple of hours, especially as the congregation seemed to have taken little part in the Service. Most of the time they were listening to a duet between the Parson and the Clerk, the latter reading – all alone – the responses and the alternative verses of the Psalms.
Later on in the 1800s, the owner of Newsells, the Hon. Caroline Vernon-Harcourt, made some substantial changes to the fabric of the church. She had the elaborate Cokenach pew removed. She also organised the complete rebuild of the tower.