THE BLACK MEN OF BIDDLE
The St Chad�s legend tells that the church was built by mysterious craftsmen from the East. These were supposed to be Moorish stonemasons, brought back from the crusades by Orm of Biddulph. The descendants of these people are said to still live on Biddulph Moor, and were known, because of the exotic dark features as "The Black Men ofBiddle" (as Biddulph was pronounced).
The full story, mentioning Orm, St Chad�s and the Saracen masons, was first published in W Beresford�s "Memorials of Old Staffordshire" in 1909. There are good reasons to suppose that Orm of Biddulph was the founder of the church, but is there any truth in the story beyond that?
Beresford tells of seven Saracens brought back from the crusades. Their descendants became the Bailey family. Beresford says "Amongst the children are seen the most lovely shades of red gold hair."
Beresford claims that Orm was married to the daughter of Nicholas de Toeni of Stafford Castle, though this is disputed.
Following the theory that St Chad�s carvings were influenced by the east Beresford suggests that the strange font at St. Mary�s was originally at St. Chad�s. (The Norman style font in St. Chad�s is a 19th century imitation.) This has often been claimed. The font at St. Mary�s has often been claimed by St. Chad�s and seems to be older than St. Mary�s itself. It has been thought by some to be from Palestine.
D A Johnson, editor of the Victoria County History has claimed that this story is pure fantasy. He claims the idea of eastern carvers started when the vicar of Biddulph, Jonathan Wilson, claimed in 1791 that his church showed eastern influence in its apparently obscene carvings.
In fact Wilson did not claim any eastern influence, simply that though it was odd having a "priapic" figure as a waterspout on a Christian church, it was common in the east to have obscene sexual figures representing divinity. It is hard to see any connection between this and the story of the Black Men of Biddle.
The story of the Saracens themselves is not Beresford�s invention from 1909, and there are members of the Bailey family today who would still support it. The first appearance in print of the Saracens is in Sleigh�s "A history of the ancient parish of Leek" of 1862.
"One of the lords of Biddulph, a knight crusader, is reputed to have brought over in his train from the Holy Land a Paynim whom he made bailiff of his estate, and from whose marriage with an English woman the present race of "Biddle-moor men" is traditionally said to have sprung. Probably this infusion of Saracenic blood may account for their nomadic and somewhat bellicose propensities."
St. Lawrence's, Biddulph
There is no doubt of the existence of the Biddle-moor people. In 1909 S A H Burne discussed them in the transactions of the North Staffs Field Club. She visited them in 1893. They had "oval faces, brown, ruddy complexions, and hair in shades of auburn." Burne�s variation on the story is that they are said to have been descended from 12 Saracen captives brought back by the Lord of Knypersley (the same person as Orm) from the 3rd crusade. Burne suggests they may have been gypsy, which seems the most logical explanation.
The Biddulph Moor people did, and do, exist. They could be gypsies, but there was a legend that they came from the east at the time of the crusades current in the 19th century.
Beresford, in 1909, suggested that Orm of Biddulph founded St. Chad�s, and he may have invented the idea that the Biddle folk were stone masons. His main evidence for this was the font in St. Mary�s, which he suggested started life in St Chad�s.
There are good reasons to suppose he was right about Orm, but he may have been wrong about the font. It is certainly exotic, showing curious lions and naked women. It has apartly damaged Latin inscription:
Discretus non es si non fugis ecce leones
(You are not wise if you do not flee the lions)
Tu de Jerusalem ror....alem me faciens talem tam pulchrum tam specialem
(Thou bearest from Jerusalem (the water of life) endowing me with beauty and grace)
In spite of the inscription there is no real evidence to suggest an eastern origin for the font. It may be Italian. Lionel Lambert, in his guide to St. Mary�s published in the 1930s claimed the font dated from 1148, which would agree with the theory that it came from St. Chad�s, as this is very much the date the church might have been built.
The idea of Moorish influence on the carving is not impossible in itself. Moorish craftsmen did work on Christian buildings in Spain, and there are signs of Moorish influence in the churches of Southern France which are contemporary with, and related instyle to, St. Chad�s.
However though there is a possible link between St Chad�s and Biddulph, through Orm,and though the "Black Men of Biddle" were genuine, there is no real evidence that they were Saracens, and we only have Beresford�s story that they were stonemason�s.
This doesn�t mean it can�t be true, of course!