Tinwell church's First World War crucifix, rescued from Somme battlefield, to be returned to France
A crucifix brought to England from an infamous First World War battlefield is to be returned to its original home in France more than a century later.
Parishioners from All Saints Church, in Tinwell, will carry the artefact on a special pilgrimage to the village of Doingt-Flamicourt, in northern France, in June.
Doingt and its church were almost completely destroyed during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 which claimed more than 300,000 lives and wiped many settlements off the map.
The village and its church were rebuilt following the armistice and the crucifix is seen as a precious link between its devastation and restoration.
"The story of the Tinwell Crucifix is an amazing one," said Rev Olwen Woolcock, priest-in-charge of Ketton and Tinwell.
"I think it’s a symbol of hope, and the promise of new life – which is exactly what Jesus is.
"A village once destroyed is rebuilt; where there was trauma and death in 1917, today there is life and community.
"The crucifix is like the last piece of the jigsaw in that restoration."
The trip to northern France has taken four years to arrange and required special dispensation from the Chancellor of the Peterborough diocese to remove the figure of Christ on the cross from the church.
In its place, George Earl, from Stamford, carved a new figure of Christ for the replacement crucifix which was blessed earlier this month.
A plaque will also be put up about their 'loaned' crucifix.
After spending much of the last 80 years on the altar at Tinwell, villager Katharine McDevitt hatched the idea of its return in 2018 as the church marked the centenary of the end of the Great War.
Former churchwarden June Dodkin set the ball rolling in March 2019.
"We were open mouthed - no-one had ever thought of doing that," she said.
"We thought the village was devastated during the war and gone.
"I wrote a letter to the mayor of Doingt-Flamincourt and asked Katharine to translate it into French.
"After several months we sent another letter and this time got a response from the deputy mayor who put me in touch with a member of their historical society.
"They said they would very much like their crucifix back so we started to organise the trip."
Initial plans for visits in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled because of covid restrictions, while another mooted trip last October was put on hold while the parish was consulted.
With a date now firmly fixed between the two communities, a group of around 10 will leave on June 25 for an eight-day trip.
It will include June, the Rev Woolcock, and Katharine and her family.
They will be given a guided tour of the nearby city of Amiens before a reception at Doingt-Flaimincourt town hall, a handover ceremony and a church service.
They will also lay a wreath to the fallen at the village's British cemetery which contains the graves of 419 Commonwealth soldiers.
It will be a poignant trip for June whose grandfather was wounded by shrapnel on the Somme while serving with the Coldstream Guards.
"The only story he would tell about it was how he was having his shoulder dressed in a field hospital there when it was bombed," she recalled.
"They had to run two miles to the next field hospital."
A note in the All Saints Church inventory says the crucifix was picked up from the Somme battlefield in 1917 and was used to replace the small altar cross in 1936.
The crucifix, with gilded metal figure, is French in style with a short top to the cross.
However, how it came to be here remains an unsolved mystery.
Former teacher June, who served as churchwarden at Tinwell for 11 years, has researched its origins but found no written proof of who brought it back.
She first believed it was found by the Rev Gerald Goodwin who became rector at Tinwell in 1918.
The Rev Goodwin, who was also chaplain to the Marquis of Exeter at Burghley House from 1907 to 1916, and rector at Stamford in 1907, volunteered in army hospitals during the war and the link was made.
However, it is now believed to have been salvaged by the Rev Percy Hooson, a story backed up by Tinwell church patron Sir Giles Floyd who was told about it by the parson himself.
The Rev Hooson, described by his surviving family as a 'great forager', served in the Church Army during the war before returning to Easton-on-the-Hill.
He was rector there until he took up the post at Tinwell 15 years later.
"Parson Hooson told how he had picked up the crucifix from the mud on the Somme," said June.
"I looked into him, but his dates didn't fit with our dates at all because he didn't come here until 1933.
"He must have kept it at Easton-on-the-Hill and brought it with him."
June has co-ordinated much of the visit with Hubert Boizard, a member of local history group, Mémoire de Doingt-Flamicourt.
"When we received the email, I was very surprised and moved," said Hubert.
"I look forward to meeting our English friends to remember the past when their country defended France and freedom.
"This resonates all the more strongly as the war in Ukraine reminds us that freedom is a value that must always be defended."
As part of his research, Hubert also found a description of the devastated church as it was found by its priest, Father Carton.
"The church of Doingt is down, except for the two side walls, the apse, the main altar," his diary read.
"To get to the altar, I had to climb up a pile of rubble, made of whole beams, pieces of ceiling or vault, debris from the pulpit, bricks, slates."
After receiving the offer of the crucifix's return, Father Jean-Louis Brunel gave Tinwell the choice of keeping it, to recognise the sacrifice made by British troops.
It is a debt of gratitude still widely felt in the region.
"This crucifix has a very strong symbolic value as a token of peace and hope," Hubert added.
"The region is sensitive to the fate of all the young British soldiers who died on our soil.
"The return of the crucifix symbolises the friendship between our two nations who fought together for freedom."
