Little Gidding

T.S. Eliot in his poem "Little Gidding" stresses the importance of journeying to a place, being prayerful in silence, listening to the voice of God, experiencing a deepening and finding God anew!

If you came by this way,
Taking route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you
would have to put off
Sense and motion. You are not to
verify, instruct yourself, or
inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to
kneel where prayer has been valid.
And prayer is more than an order
of words, the conscious occupation
of the praying mind, or the sound
of the voice praying . .
Of timeless moments, So, where the
light fails on a winters afternoon,
in a secluded chapel . . .
With the drawing of this Love and
the choice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Nicholas Ferrar (1592 – 1637) was an English scholar, courtier, businessman and man of religion. Ordained deacon in the Church of England, he retreated with his extended family to the manor of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, where he lived the rest of his life.

The parish of Little Gidding is small, consisting of only 724 acres. At the time of the Domesday Book the only entry was merely Geddinge, indicating that the parishes of Great Gidding and Steeple Gidding were probably only separated later. Gidding, then owned by William Engaine, passed to his grandson, who gave Little Gidding to his younger son, Warner Engaine, in around 1166. At that time the manor was known as Gidding Warner, later becoming Gidding Engaine and by the 13th century Gydding Parva or Little Gidding.

In 1620 the then owner the Earl of March sold the manor to Thomas Sheppard, who in turn sold it to Nicholas Ferrar and Arthur Woodnoth in 1625 as trustees for Ferrar's mother, Mary Ferrar. Mary Ferrar repaired the manor house and church and on her death in 1634 left the manor to her son Nicholas. The present church of St John the Evangelist was built in 1714 to replace a much earlier church on the site.


The name Gidding means "settlement of the family or followers of a man called Gydda"

In 1626 Nicholas Ferrar and his extended family left London and moved to the deserted village of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. The household was centred on the Ferrar family: Nicholas's mother, his brother John Ferrar (with his wife Bathsheba and their children), and his sister Susanna (and her husband John Collett and their children). They bought the manor of Little Gidding and restored the abandoned little church for their use. The household always had someone at prayer and had a strict routine. They tended to the health and education of local children, and Nicholas and his family produced harmonies of the gospels that survive today as some of the finest in Britain.

The life of the Ferrar household was much criticised by Puritans, and they were denounced as Arminians, and their life attacked as a 'Protestant Nunnery'. However, the Ferrars never lived a formal religious life: there was no Rule, vows were not taken, and there was no enclosure. In this sense there was no 'community' at Little Gidding, but rather a family living a Christian life in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer according to High Church principles.
The fame of the Ferrar household was widespread, and they attracted many visitors. Among them was King Charles I, who visited Little Gidding three times, on the last of which he briefly took refuge after the Battle of Naseby (1645).

The church at Little Gidding has attracted pilgrims - ordinary folk and royalty - for many years but in this century, it is perhaps the work of the poet T.S. Eliot which has drawn people to visit the church deep in the Huntingdonshire countryside.