Abstract
The first year of Mary’s reign saw the re-erection of high altars by most parishes with accounts. Some preceded the order of December 1553; others followed it. Woodbury’s provided three days’ work for a mason and appentice. On the other hand, high altars were still absent or defective in 36 of the 226 Bath and Wells churches in 1554, and in 47 of the 243 Kent churches in 1557. Goudhurst, for example, was ordered to ‘enquire where the high altar stone was bestowed’. Many parishes, including Woodbury, restored secondary altars in 1553–4. Elsewhere, however, the process was delayed or never happened. Secondary altars had not been adequately restored in several Devon churches by 1555, or in 90 of the 243 Kent churches by 1557. At Goudhurst an altar stone still lay abandoned in the church. Of 134 parishes with Marian accounts, only four appear to have rebuilt more than two such structures.1
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