Padley Chapel - Grindleford at Padley, Grindleford, Derbyshire S30 1BB UK - The Padley Martyrs

Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlam were arrested at Padley Manor House, the home of John Fitzherbert, on 12th July 1588. They were taken to Derby Gaol where they were charged together as having come into England as Catholic Priests. We are told that Garlick spoke for Ludlam as well as for himself "being very bold, his answers did serve them both." They were convicted of treason on 23rd July 1588. We are told that the night before their execution they shared a cell with a fellow priest, Richard Simpson, and a woman convicted of murder. In the course of the night they were able to reconcile the woman to God, and on the scaffold the next day she openly professed her faith. They were executed on St Mary's Bridge at Derby on 24th July 1588. There is a tradition that the two priests, Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlam, passed through the village of Eyam on their way to Derby. The following note occurs in the History of Antiquities of Eyam by William Wood: "The Catholic priests, Robert Ludlam of Whirlow and Nicholas Garlick of Glossop, taken prisoners at Padley Hall in the reign of Elizabeth, were, it is said, much reviled on passing through Eyam to Derby, when one or both made some remark which bigotry has construed into a prediction of the Plague." The title Venerable was bestowed on the two martyrs when the process of their beatification commenced (exact date unknown) and they were beatified and the title Blessed conferred upon them on 22nd November 1987. It may be many years before they are declared to "have already entered into heavenly glory" and ordained as 'Saints'. Nicholas Garlick Born at Dinting near Glossop in North Derbyshire about 1555. It is known that he went to Oxford as a student of Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College) at the age of 20 in 1575. He spent no more that six months at the university, perhaps due to the fact that from 1559 all those taking a university degree were required to swear an oath of acknowledgement of the supremacy of the Queen (Elizabeth I) in religious matters. As a Catholic, Nicholas would have felt unable to take the oath. After leaving university he went to Tideswell in Derbyshire and there kept a free school. A pupil of Nicholas, Robert Bagshawe (who later became a monk and ended his life as president of the English Benedictines), said: "Nicholas Garlick discharged his duties so well that by the good and most charitable care [.....] as if they were his own children." It was in the English College at Rheims that Nicholas began his studies for the priesthood on 22nd July 1581. He was ordained Priest at Chalons-sur-Marne at the end of March the following year (1582). He celebrated his First Mass on 7th April 1582 and less than a year later, January 1583, he left Rheims for England. Nicholas Garlick's movements in England in 1584 were followed by Thomas Dodwell, a former student at Rheims who had turned spy. Nicholas stayed during this time at the house of a Mr Waterton at Burford Bridge in Staffordshire but, upon hearing of the appearance of Thomas Dodwell in the area, Mr Waterton's family insisted that Nicholas leave. He was eventually arrested in London, imprisoned and then banished from the realm. He arrived back in Rheims on 17th October 1585 but, having spent only two days there, he returned to England. Very little is known of Nicholas Garlick's activities during the second period of his missionary work. He was in London in April 1586 and in September that same year "He was labouring with diligence in Hampshire and Dorsetshire." The spy who reported these activities expressed the hope that Nicholas would soon be caught. This hope was not to come to fruition for nearly two years. In March 1588 he was known to be working in Derbyshire and in July that year he was arrested, almost by accident, at Padley along with Robert Ludlam. Their execution took place 12 days later at Derby. Dr Charles Cox, 19th century author of The Churches of Derbyshire, recorded "that tradition says Nicholas Garlick's head has been buried in the Churchyard at Tideswell." Robert Ludlam Born in the mid 16th century, according to one source at Whirlow, Sheffield, but according to another at Radbourne near Derby. He entered St John's College, Oxford in 1572. In November 1580 he entered the English College at Rheims and was ordained priest at Soissons on 21st September 1581. On 30th April 1582 he set out for England. Fr Robert Bagshawe states that Robert Ludlam "for his majesty and good life and zeal to win souls to God, was beloved of all that love the Catholic Church." Another contemporary source tells that "he was a mild man, did much good in the country, for that he did much travel and was well beloved." Thanks to Barbara M Smith of Bamford on whose booklet 'The Padley Martyrs' this article has been based.

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