In 1517 the fifth Duke of Medina Sidonia, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, nicknamed “the insane”, allowed a colony of English sherry merchants to build a church next to their shipyards, and dedicate it to their patron saint.
More than five centuries later the church of St George, in the southern port town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, is the oldest surviving British institution in Spain. It is now appealing for help from Britain to conserve it.
The church once served as a refuge for English Catholic priests returning secretly to post-Reformation Tudor England, where they faced persecution. A sculpture of England’s patron saint lancing a dragon and a familiar red-on-white cross surmounts its magnificent altarpiece, in front of which lies the tombstone of an English noble.
A sculpture of St George lancing a dragon features on the altarpiece
St George’s last English priest had died by 1876 and his compatriots have now largely forgotten the church’s existence, however. The guardians of St George, a Spanish religious brotherhood, have called on Britain and the English Catholic Church, its owner, to reestablish links and help fund critical restorations.
“The roof is in urgent need of repair as water is damaging the frescoes above the altar,” said Loli Ramos, the head of the town’s Brotherhood of the Virgin of El Rocío, which leased the property for 99 years from the English Catholic Church about two decades ago.
The frescoes above the altar, which depict St Ursula, an ancient Romano-British martyr, are part of the church’s British iconography, which also includes a painting of St George and a mural of the royal coat of arms above the entrance. They survived a century of neglect until 1985 when local anger over the sight of the derelict church in the centre of Sanlúcar led to the brotherhood first using and taking care of it.
Monsignor Nicholas Rothon, who drew up the lease agreement on behalf of the Catholic bishops in England in 2005, praised the brotherhood for “the very high standard restoration” it carried out and for making the church a lively centre for community activities.
Loli Ramos, the head of the Spanish brotherhood looking after the church, said water leaks were damaging frescoes
ISAMBARD WILKINSON FOR THE TIMES
Ramos, however, requested that the English Church now step in to help. “They are not answering us. They are not helping us,” she said. “We would like somebody, the British ambassador for example, to get in touch.”
She has also sought help from St Alban’s College, an English Catholic seminary in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid. Its rector, Father John Flynn, however, said: “There is no official link with the college — never has been.”
The two English institutions do share a history. Since the Middle Ages British sherry merchants had a presence in Sanlúcar, which led to the 16th-century duke’s gift of rights and the donation of a piece of land on which to build the church, as well as a hospital for the poor and a school.
During the reign of Henry VIII that the expatriate church was granted privileges and their chaplains were appointed by the bishops of London, Winchester and Exeter, the places from where most of the merchants came. After the Reformation the church became an assembly point for priests from English Catholic seminaries in Spain, such as St Alban’s, which was founded in 1589.
“In Sanlúcar there is a house where English clerics can be gathered, which they secretly use for the conversion of those of that kingdom,” the seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia, who a year earlier had commanded the doomed Spanish Armada, wrote.
Rothon said: “The priests went to England in secret and many of them were put to death. Travel across the English Channel directly to England was difficult and so some came to Sanlúcar and travelled back to England or to Ireland in disguise as wine merchants.”
The British community at Sanlúcar waxed and waned until the mid-19th century. John Cuthbert, who was the church’s superior from 1824, set up a school on the property, which was attended by fifty sons of English, Irish and Spanish locals who wore the cross of St George on their uniform.
Ramos said that when the brotherhood took up residence in the church in 1985, many of its paintings and other treasures had been looted but that local antiques dealers returned them, often without charge. A recent Spanish study stated that the present church dates mostly from the early 18th century, when Pedro Rellins, a Flemish sculptor, created its polychrome altarpiece.
Tim Holt, a British wine merchant who has lived in Sanlúcar for 34 years, said: “It would be wonderful if the church received British help. It’s an important and forgotten piece of heritage linking Spain and England across the centuries, back to the earliest days of the sherry trade.”
Ramos lamented that “English people who visit Sanlúcar don’t know the church exists until they stumble upon it and then they are amazed”. She added: “They understand it’s English heritage and that it’s part of their history but there is a lack of communication about it. We have an agreement for one hundred years but it’s not ours. It’s theirs.”