Mystery · Great Hampden · Legendary
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A lord dug up a hero to prove how he died.
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St Mary Magdalene stands in fields beside Hampden House and holds a service every Sunday at 11.15am; at other times contact the church, so check before you go. Hampden's grave is unmarked.
In this little church in 1828, a lord dug up the floor to find out how England's great patriot really died. What he found raised more questions.
John Hampden, the Parliamentarian who defied Charles I over Ship Money, died of wounds after the battle of Chalgrove in 1643 and was buried quietly at Great Hampden. A damaging story, put about in the 1720s, claimed his own pistol had burst and shattered his hand. In 1828 Lord Nugent, writing Hampden's life, brought gravediggers, gentlemen and reporters to the church to settle it. They opened a lead coffin near the altar and found a well-preserved body, with the bones of the right hand reportedly in a bag. Nugent's account was widely published, but local historians now think the body was Hampden's father.