Mucking

Ruinous in 1852 an extensive restoration was undertaken, which was completed in 1872, rendering St John the Baptist virtually Victorian built. Made redundant and de-consecrated in 1982 it has been converted for domestic use.

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1849-52 except for chancel (Perp three-light E window) with a blocked C13 arcade to a former N chapel, whose lancet windows, when it was pulled down, were re-used. The S chapel is C19, but its arch is C15. The S aisle has a C13 arcade of two bays with treble-chamfered arches. The pier is circular and has a big stiff-leaf capital, with two faces between the leaves. One is a so-called Green Man, that is a face with leaves sprouting out of his mouth. The W tower is mostly C19, but the S doorway which serves as a porch has recognizable C15 pans. Plain Sedilia in the chancel. - PLATE. C17 Cup. - MONUMENT. Graceful little alabaster monument of Elizabeth Downes d. 1607, with kneeling figure between ornamented pilasters.

MUCKING. It deserves a prettier name, this Anglo-Saxon meadow in the marshes by the Thames, as its name implied in olden days. It has quaint old farms and cottages round about, and a wall of grey stones surrounds the churchyard, probably quarried from a vanished nunnery which stood on the site of the hall. Passing under an avenue of chestnuts we enter the church through a door in a fine new tower. Much of the building is of our own time, but the restorers have left some lovely features of the old one, especially the great round pier supporting the arch between the nave and aisle. The foliage round its capital, from which peep out two wise-looking heads, was carved about the time of Magna Carta. A charming little lady kneels in alabaster on the wall of the chapel; she was Elizabeth Downes, who lived in “matrimonye with four several husbands”; their four coats-of-arms are on her monument.

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