A History of St Crispins Church

St Crispins Church 2005

St Crispin’s Church was started when, in 1948, a long, low wooden hut was purchased from an American base and erected on some land given by what is now Jelson’s building company. The motto over the door to the hut was “we few, we happy few”, taken from the famous speech in Henry V, where the name of St Crispin’s appears no less than six times. St Crispin’s Church has been a place of worship in Braunstone Town since then, and eventually had a modern permanent building erected in 1989. A dominant feature of the new building is the striking 200 square foot stained glass window depicting the Creation, with the Creator’s hands reaching down to Adam and Eve, who are surrounded by atoms, stars, creatures and chromosomes. Bold and colourful, it is not to everyone’s taste, but it certainly is a talking point.

St Crispin's Church is now the Parish Church of Braunstone Town.

Crispin and St Crispinian were martyrs who died for their faith in the 285th Century. It is thought that they were Roman in origin. One writing of poor quality claims that they died at Siossons in France, and some believed they were from those parts. French writers made them noble Romans and brothers who preached in Gaul and exercised their trade in shoe-making so as to avoid living from the alms of the faithful. They are the patron saints of cobblers, shoe-makers and leather workers – hence the Leicester connection. Their feast day is 25th October.

An unlikely English tradition claimed that they fled to Faversham during the persecutions and plied their trade at a house on the site of the Swan Inn in Preston Street, visited by English and foreign pilgrims as late as the 17th Century. An altar in their honour is in Favarsham parish church.

They are maybe best known because of their sixfold mention by Shakespeare in Henry V’s famous speech on the eve of the battle of Agincourt, which was fought on their feast day (Henry V, act 4, scene 3).