Biville-la-Martel

The June 1863 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine includes a "Lament for a ruined church", an outline of an article by M. l'Abbé Cochet published originally in the Revue de la Normandie under the title 'Comment meurent les Eglises'. In it Cochet tells the unfortunate end of the church of Biville la Martel, a little village in the Pays de Caux: first it became a chapel of ease, then abandoned to destruction. "The nave" -informs Cochet's description- "was coeval with the invasion of England by William of Normandy, the baptistery was of the time of St. Louis [...]" [NB: although a baptismal font would probably have existed before, the reference to the baptistery would place it in the time of Loius IX, king of France, 1214-1270]