Tucked away in a quiet corner of a church lies a mysterious statue which was once the key figure in a Good Friday tradition.

Known locally as Molly Grimes, the 14th Century effigy depicts a woman laid in an eternal sleep and has been kept for hundreds of years under the organ loft at St Peter's Church in Glentham, Lincolnshire.

Questions surround who the woman was, but records show that, until 1832, seven devoted maids were given a shilling to fetch water from a well and traipse over a mile to the church to wash the statue every Good Friday.

Adrian Gray, who grew up in Dunholme and is the author of People and Places of West Lindsey, said he hoped the long-forgotten tradition would be revived.

Records kept by Glentham Parish Council show that the statue could depict Anne Tourney, a member of the Tourney family of Caenby, as the vestry room of the church was used as their mortuary chapel.

The name Molly Grimes is said to be a play on malgraen, a word from an ancient local dialect meaning "holy image washing".

A nursery rhyme is related to the tradition and indicates it may have been quite widely known, according to The Northern Antiquarian website, which collects folk traditions.

The rhyme begins: 'Seven old maids, once upon a time, came of Good Friday, to wash Molly Grime."

The tradition ceased after the landowner at the time sold the land and the payment to the maids was not passed on, the records show.

Mr Gray said "hardly anyone knew about the tradition" when he grew up in West Lindsey in the 1960s.

While no-one knows exactly when the tradition started, Mr Gray said local papers reported its demise in 1832.

"It wasn't really of great interest to anyone until something went wrong," he said.

"What's distinctive in this one [tradition] is the maids had to carry the water quite a long way to the church to wash a figure.

"Maybe the figure in the church was the person who left the money for this to happen.

"We don't really know in any detail."

The parish clerk said she would take a suggestion for a potential revival of the tradition to a future parish council meeting.

Mr Gray added: "I think it would be great if this sort of thing could be maintained.

"This is the sort of thing that could perhaps be revived by a local school – but perhaps don't make them carry the water all that way."

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